‘The Sound Of Music’ — Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

Breathtaking camera work, catchy songs by legends Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein and Julie Andrews’ sweet performance as beloved nanny Maria von Trapp made “The Sound of Music” a classic — and The National ENQUIRER uncovered some stunning secrets about the film's making.

The real Maria von Trapp told her family’s tale in the book “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” and Hollywood was eager to snatch up the rights — but only wanted the title! Maria stood her ground, insisting her family’s entire adventure — a free-spirited nanny, seven children, a widower father, music, love and a daring escape from Nazi-occupied Austria — to be told.

In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights to the book, with the intention of casting Audrey Hepburn as Maria. But the studio eventually dropped its option, clearing the way for the stage version of “The Sound of Music” (right), starring Mary Martin. The musical won six Tony Awards in 1960, including Best Musical, and later that year 20th Century Fox bought the film adaptation rights to the stage show for $1.25 million.

Richard Rodgers (left) added two new songs to the movie, “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good,” for which he wrote the lyrics as well as the music because Hammerstein (right) had died in 1960 — never to see the film’s blockbuster success. Julie Andrews was the one and only choice for Maria for screenplay author Ernest Lehman.

Director Robert Wise had Andrews on the top of his list, but was also considering Grace Kelly and Shirley Jones. But when Wise saw Andrews in an advance prerelease screening of Disney’s “Mary Poppins,” he told Lehman: “Let’s go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!”

Casting for the von Trapp children began in 1963, and some of the kid performers who were interviewed or tested — but not hired — included Mia Farrow, Kurt Russell and Patty Duke (left to right), as well as Lesley Ann Warren, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Fabares, Teri Garr, and The Osmonds!

The movie’s opening scene of Julie Andrews joyfully twirling on a mountaintop looks effortless, but it was a production nightmare. Not only was it rainy throughout production, the helicopter carrying a daredevil cameraman strapped to the side kept knocking Andrews over!  “This was a jet helicopter,” she recalls. “The downdraft from the engines just flung me into the grass, and so we did this about six or seven times and I was spitting dirt!”

Christopher Plummer, who starred opposite Andrews as Captain von Trapp, hated the movie so much he’s referred to it as “The Sound of Mucus.” “It was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” says Plummer. “You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it.” During a DVD commentary for the film, Plummer admits he was drunk during the filming of the music festival scene (left).

Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, was hurt while filming the performance of “Sixteen Going On Seventeen.” The 21-year-old fell through glass in the gazebo. Nicholas Hammond, who portrayed Friedrich, grew from 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-9 during the six months of shooting. Near the end of his scenes, he didn’t wear shoes and Carr had to stand on a box to avoid continuity problems.

Following the financial failure of the Elizabeth Taylor bomb “Cleopatra,” 20th Century Fox was close to bankruptcy — but “The Sound of Music,” which became the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, saved the studio!