The Sound of Music Companion: The official companion to the world's most beloved musical

by Laurence Maslon

  The Bil Baird puppeteers are actually pulling the strings in this shot.

  THE LONELY GOATHERD

  During Maria’s first night at the villa, each of the children sneaks into her room for comfort during a thunderstorm. In order to cheer them up, she sings “The Lonely Goatherd.”

  Movie-goers may be slightly confused at this description. In the movie, Maria sings “My Favorite Things.” However, as one can clearly see in Oscar Hammerstein’s original draft of the lyrics for that scene, the song that was supposed to be used was “The Lonely Goatherd” (which began life as the “Yodel Song”—a musical set in the Austrian Alps had to have some yodelling). The song was closely integrated into the action of the scene and his dramatic instincts were on obvious display in the way he crafted the assignment of the singing parts in the original number.

  Though Hammerstein usually eschewed all the fancy or clever lyrics mastered by such peers as Cole Porter or Rodgers’ first partner, Lorenz Hart, here he really pushes the envelope when rhyming “goatherd”:

  – Men on a road with a load to tote, heard

  – Men in the midst of a table d’hôte, heard

  – Men drinking beer with the foam afloat, heard

  When the filmmakers reconceived (and reset) the song, they were inspired by the famous Salzburg Marionettes to turn the number into a puppet show. The actual marionette troupe refused the offer to participate, so Robert Wise turned to Bil Baird’s Marionettes, an American puppetry ensemble. Bil (and his wife, Cora) had been enchanting stage, movie, and TV audiences with their puppetry for decades when Wise contracted them for their most famous assignment.

  How the film’s impresario, Max Detweiler, gets inspired by a puppet show to produce a vocal concert at the Salzburg Festival is another story (and leap of faith) entirely.

  Hammerstein’s notations to the song lyrics provide a full scenario—he always thought as a dramatist first.

  Choreographer Dee Dee Wood’s notes for the sequence.

  Is our lonely goatherd pitching Robert Wise a new version of Pinocchio?

  CHAPTER SIX

  SALZBURG AND ONWARDS

  The children and Julie Andrews rehearse “Do Re Mi” on the Winkler Terrace, overlooking the Salzach River.

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was Salzburg’s number one pop star for 200 years, until the city’s favorite son was knocked off the charts by two native-born New Yorkers, Rodgers and Hammerstein.

  Mozart is Salzburg’s most celebrated progeny and prodigy. Born in 1756, on the Getreidegasse, in the middle of the city, Mozart considered Salzburg his home city during his tragically brief life. His father was the city’s leading musician and concert master, but once he saw his son’s precocious musical gifts, he took young Wolfgang on a tour to perform before the crowned heads of Europe. Mozart settled back in Salzburg briefly in 1774 before seeking his fame and fortune in Italy, Prague, and Vienna, but he wrote nearly 350 works in his birthplace and premiered several important pieces there. Salzburg has rewarded Mozart with memorials, statues, and museums; his childhood home is a major tourist attraction, his name adorns everything from chocolates to cafés to bridges. And, of course, with the convocation of the Salzburg Festival in 1920, the entire city was alive with the sound of his music.

  Salzburg had always been one of Europe’s most magical cities. Founded 1,300 years ago, it has retained its magisterial appearance with its medieval fortresses, church spires, and baroque palaces perched on two hills separated by the Salzach River. For centuries, it was an autonomous church state, ruled by powerful and imperious archbishops and, not coincidentally, an independent spirit is an integral part of the Salzburg character. The musical genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart put a human face on Salzburg’s exalted majesty and the tradition of his music is one that native Salzburgers hold close to their hearts. Had those good citizens known the different kind of fame about to descend on them when Robert Wise and company set up camp with a small army of cast and crew in April 1964, would they have reacted with something other than a mild indifference?

  Andrews was not a natural guitar player; associate producer Saul Chaplin badgered her into practicing and practicing between takes. Fortunately—or unfortunately—the Salzburg weather gave her plenty of time between takes.

  How often is a mother given away by her daughter? Well, stepdaughter, at any rate. Liesl (Charmian Carr) gives Maria her bridal bouquet in front of the nuns, who finally agree that Maria has solved her own problem.

  It was always Wise’s intention—and the intention of the studio heads at Fox—to spend no more than six weeks on the Salzburg locations. Location shooting is always expensive, but in the case of The Sound of Music, every major cast member who appeared in the Los Angeles interiors also needed to be filmed at the Salzburg exteriors, so the cost of travel, lodging, and catering would be enormous. In addition, Salzburg was not exactly the movie capital of the world, so a supplementary crew with additional equipment had to be brought in from Munich and small studios had to be set up for cover photography in the case of inclement weather.

  In the dictionary, under the phrase “inclement weather,” there should be a photograph of Salzburg. It has the world’s seventh highest annual rainfall, perhaps a trivial detail, but one that had escaped Robert Wise’s usually precise attention. Rain was by far the most problematic obstacle faced by the film crew; the company’s six-week sojourn was stretched to eleven frustrating weeks because of the weather, and what few interior scenes could be covered in local studios were used up quickly. There was a lot of waiting around.

  The company seemed to take it all in its stride. Peggy Wood and Anna Lee filmed a good number of their scenes early on, and enjoyed the sightseeing during their days off. They were lodged, along with Christopher Plummer, at the Hotel Bristol, a British-owned hotel that was once the Gestapo headquarters during World War II, and Plummer could be found exercising his musical gifts at the Bristol’s piano bar until the wee hours. The Bristol also became the center for hair and makeup every morning. The von Trapp children (and their real mothers and tutors) were in another hotel and Julie Andrews and Robert Wise lodged at a more luxurious hotel (now the elegant Hotel Sacher)—although Andrews, exhausted between each day’s shoot and the next day’s preparation, barely had any time to enjoy its amenities or Salzburg’s charms.

  Actual location filming for the wedding scene began at Mondsee Cathedral, a beautiful baroque church rebuilt on a religious site that stretched back to the eighth century, located about a half-hour northwest of Salzburg’s city center. Wise had hired about 600 extras, and Dorothy Jeakins outdid herself with Andrews’ tulle wedding dress and Plummer’s regimental naval uniform. Wise and Ted McCord tracked their camera, perpendicular to the procession, up the nave to the altar with a breathtaking fluidity, as the soundtrack boomed a counterpoint version of “Maria” on a grand cathedral organ. The complicated filming took all of one day. So far, so good.

  A beautiful shot of a beautiful shot: Robert Wise’s composition for the wedding in Mondsee Cathedral.

  During Maria von Trapp’s visit to the set, our nonfictional heroine (right) chats with our fictional one (Julie Andrews, left) and Mrs. Robert (Pat) Wise in the Residenzplatz.

  A week was spent at the next location, the Rock Riding School. Set in the center of Salzburg, it had for centuries been a marble quarry but, in 1693, a local archbishop decided to create a riding academy out of its excavations. Its natural arena made it a perfect venue for the Salzburg Festival two hundred years later, and many concerts and events have been performed there. Although it is unclear if the real von Trapps performed at the Rock Riding School, the cinematic family sang there for the climactic musical sequence in the movie. The sequences went late into the night, with hundreds of extras freezing beneath their summertime costumes; they were certainly not warmed by the sight of uniformed Nazi soldiers patrolling the upper galleries of the arena.

  Nonnberg Abbey, such an important part of the actual and fictional stor
y of Maria von Trapp, was essentially off-limits to the filmmakers, but the Mother Superior allowed the crew to shoot some important exteriors. In one sequence, which Ernest Lehman created expressly for the movie, the von Trapp children journey to the Abbey to find out what has happened to Maria. Although there was no actual exterior bell pull outside the gate, the production designer installed one for the shot—the Mother Superior liked the look of it so much, she kept it up there after the shoot, even though it was practically useless.

  By the middle of May, three weeks into their shooting schedule, the crew began filming at some of the signature landmarks in the heart of the city— Mirabell Gardens, the Kapitelplatz, the Residenzplatz and the Domplatz. These would be used for a variety of scenes, mostly the promenades during “Do Re Mi” and Maria’s jaunty procession during “I Have Confidence.” But, on May 14, Wise and his crew had to face an unexpected challenge: how do you solve a problem like Maria?

  The real Maria von Trapp was not lucky enough to have the same relationship with the movie producers that she had with the original Broadway producers. Although Fox was not contractually obligated to pay the von Trapp family any additional money, the studio certainly did not reach out to Maria, either. In her memoirs, she wrote about how difficult it was to get a “producer” on the phone (Wise, one assumes) but, when she finally did, she began telling him how much she wanted the movie’s producers to give greater dimension to the character of her husband, Captain von Trapp. When she launched into her plea, there was a click at the other end of the phone. She had better luck with Ernest Lehman, meeting with him for lunch at New York’s St. Regis Hotel in early 1962. Lehman took copious notes and some details, such as Maria’s behaviour at the Abbey, made it into the movie. (She continued her arguments on behalf of the Captain, which must have influenced Lehman during his discussions with Plummer.) But Robert Wise’s position was that the movie was fiction; certainly not a documentary, and not even really a conventional biography. Wise knew from earlier reports—or simply by reading the screenplay—that Maria von Trapp was a force to be reckoned with and he would be pleased to keep his distance from the “bossy” (his words) Maria von Trapp.

  Robert Wise (center) is the patient soul of tact, as he waits for the publicity shots to be taken with Maria von Trapp and Christopher Plummer so he can get back to work.

  But Maria beat him at his own game. While visiting Italy with her daughter Rosmarie and granddaughter Barbara, Maria heard about the location filming in Salzburg and dropped by unannounced. From a pure publicity point of view, it would have been foolish to turn her away, and Wise was, despite his reservations, a gentleman. He introduced Maria to the cast and crew and gamely offered her a cameo in the background of a location shot in the Residenzplatz as Andrews marches towards the camera during “I Have Confidence.” Although even the most eagle-eyed moviegoers would need a telescope to catch a fleeting glimpse of the real Maria, she is there, in her native Austrian dress, crossing the town square. Apparently, she was unaware that movie crews normally shoot several takes of the same scene and she got quickly bored, even with her two seconds of fame: “That’s one ambition I’m giving up,” she announced to the press. Wise went quickly—and happily—back to work, while Maria became great chums with Christopher Plummer. She felt that Plummer’s dashing incarnation of her husband worked wonders for Georg’s reputation. “You are even more handsome than my husband,” she cooed to him.

  ABOVE AND PREVIOUS: The sites of Salzburg

  1 Mondsee Cathedral, where the interiors for the wedding were shot.

  2 The Mirabell Gardens are part of a stunning Baroque palace and the scene of the “Do Re Mi” climax.

  3 The Mozart Footbridge crossing the Salzach River, used in the pre-“Do Re Mi” sequence.

  4 The Residenzplatz, a major landmark of the city and site of several key moments.

  5 The Horse Pond used in “I Have Confidence.”

  6 The Rock Riding School, the scene of the movie’s final concert and still a musical venue to this day.

  The glamorous Eleanor Parker, as Baroness Schraeder, joins Christopher Plummer on the terrace of Frohnburg Castle.

  The lakeside view of the von Trapp villa was Leopoldskron Castle, miles away. This is after Maria and the children capsize in front of their father, who is not amused.

  By the end of May, it was time to turn to the extensive number of shots required around the von Trapp villa. The original villa in Aigen had been discounted by location scouts months before, so not one but two separate locations were required to construct the appearance of a grand, elegant lakeside estate. For the façade exteriors, a seventeenthcentury castle called Frohnburg was chosen. The front of Frohnburg was used for the scene where the Captain tears down the Nazi flag, and its courtyard and gates were used for Maria’s first appearance at the villa. The rear façade of Frohnburg, with its steps and French windows, was used for several of the scenes among the Captain, Maria, the children, and the Baroness. There was one problem— Frohnburg was not a lakeside estate. Leopoldskron Castle, a five-minute drive away, with its beautiful terrace, handsome stallion-framed balustrade, and lakeside location fit the bill admirably. All of the lakeside scenes shot from the point of view of the villa itself, such as the tumble off the rowing boat into the lake, were filmed at Leopoldskron.

  It took nearly a month to capture all the scenes required at the two locations. The Leopoldskron scenes were shot first because rain became a constant nuisance. Several scenes—Maria’s arrival at the villa, a conversation among the Captain, Elsa, and Max—were filmed in the rain, under tarpaulins, with McCord’s clever cinematography concealing the precipitation. With the exception of an accident when the boat flipped over and poor Kym Karath (Gretl) nearly drowned, the rain was the only thing that complicated the shooting on Wise’s two outdoor sets.

  Even the most ardent cineaste must marvel at how well the two locations are cut together within the same sequence. For example, the major confrontation between the Captain and Maria was shot miles and days apart. When the scene begins, Andrews’ close-ups are shot at Leopoldskron and Plummer’s at Frohnburg:

  CAPTAIN: I don’t care to hear from you about my children.

  MARIA: Well, you must hear from someone. You’re not home long enough to know them.

  CAPTAIN: I said I don’t want to hear—

  MARIA: I know you don’t—but you’ve got to. Take Liesl—Liesl isn’t a child any more. And if you keep treating her as one, Captain, you’re going to have a mutiny on your hands. And Friedrich—Friedrich’s afraid to be himself—he’s shy—he’s aloof, Friedrich needs you—he needs your confidence—

  CAPTAIN: Don’t tell me about my son . . .

  And then later in the scene, after the Captain moves back to the house:

  CAPTAIN: Stop! Stop it! You will pack your things and return to the Abbey as soon as you can.

  MARIA: I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things—not in the way I said them.

  The close-ups are reversed: Plummer in front of Frohnburg’s rear façade, and Andrews in front of the lake at Leopoldskron. (Astute moviegoers will notice this dialogue is not from Lehman’s screenplay, but is taken from Lindsay and Crouse’s original libretto. It was a good opportunity to give them credit for writing such an effective scene, though kudos should be given to Lehman for keeping it mostly intact.)

  By the end of June, Wise and his crew had finished all the Trapp villa sequences, but they were several weeks behind schedule. It was now time to go up into the mountains to capture the initial “Do Re Mi” picnic sequences, as well as the “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” finale and the opening shots of “The Sound of Music.” If the rain was inconvenient at Frohnburg and Leopoldskron, it was downright perverse in the mountains near Werfen, about thirty miles south of Salzburg. Dreary, bone-chilling rain delayed the shots day after day. The children and Andrews spent most of the time huddled under tarpaulins or in cabins, wrapped in wool blankets to keep warm. According to Andrews�
� audio commentary for the fortieth anniversary DVD, “Poor Ted McCord, our director of photography, would be out there looking through his little viewfinder at the clouds and giving us a five-minute or three-minute or ten-second warning, and we’d throw off all our warm blankets and get ready for the shot and grab it as quickly as we could.”

  Once the children’s sequences were finished they were sent home (with the exception of Charmian Carr, who stayed on) and the opening shot was tackled. With studio chief Richard Zanuck barking at Wise to shut down location filming and return home immediately, the director knew he had to get Andrews’ establishing shot, no matter what. He pleaded with Zanuck to give him one more day, and if he did not get the shot in Austria he would somehow get it in Los Angeles. It was a delirious gamble (where on earth would Wise have gotten that shot in California?), but on that last Thursday, July 2, to paraphrase Ira Gershwin, the clouds broke, and, oh, what a break for the patient Robert Wise.

  Wise, Andrews, and the crew packed up their gear and, wanting nothing more than a drop of golden sun, returned to America the next day. The problems with location shooting had added an extra 10 percent to the budget, with a final cost of $9 million. Carr stayed on for a few days to shoot a mini-documentary, Salzburg: Sights and Sounds, in which she toured key sites in the city and met up with the Salzburg Marionettes, whose artistry inspired “The Lonely Goatherd.” This half-hour movie would be shown for tourism purposes and 20th Century Fox thought it might be useful as a short teaser in movie theaters. Maybe The Sound of Music could use the publicity.