Episode #234: The Sound of Music – Comfort Rewatch

Today we are rewatching the 1965 movie, The Sound of Music directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

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Show Notes:

Favorite scene:

Elsie – Puppet show

Emma – When Maria makes play clothes out of the curtains

Decor inspiration (really break this down) Anything you would use in your own home? Loved, hated, strong reactions etc…

Reverend Mother’s office – dark and moody lighting and fancy wallpaper

Captain’s house – Mansion, gold leaf everything, and puppet theater

Other cozy inspiration (fashion, food, drink or anything?):

Love all of Julia Andrew’s outfits

Boat scene and all the kid activities

Rate this movie from 0 to 5 do-re-mi:

Elsie – 10

Emma – 5

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Episode 234 Transcript:

Emma: You’re listening to the Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen, and today we are re-watching the 1965 movie the Sound of Music, directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews. 

Elsie: This is, yeah, one of my top two, Julie Andrews. 

Emma: Also Christopher Plummer

Elsie: Yeah, Christopher Plummer is everything in this movie. We’ll talk about him a lot in this episode, probably too much. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, just Google pictures of the Sound of Music Christopher Plummer and you’ll see. He’s just like beautiful, gorgeous, beautiful, gorgeous, like we’re in love with him. He really is. And he sings softly, like you know. Yeah, so I love the Sound of Music. It is one of my childhood memories because our mom for her these two Julie Andrews movies, Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music, were a big part of her childhood. So she made them a big part of our childhood and now I’m making them a big part of my children’s childhood. And so, yeah, if I’m passing down anything, it’s Julie Andrews. I think she’s everything. And the movie I just watched it last weekend with my kids and it definitely stands the test of time. 

Emma: Oh, yeah, I mean, if you were like doing some kind of word association game and you were like the first word that comes to mind when I say Julie Andrews, I’d be like my mom, yeah, just a strong association right there and it’s yeah. Those two movies, Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, yes, yes, okay, so describe the movie for those who haven’t watched it, because, honestly, for such a happy musical, family-friendly, sing-songy musical, this movie takes some turns. So, yeah, just describe the movie. I feel like everyone’s probably seen it, but just give them a lowdown. 

Elsie: So it’s a World War II movie. I feel like everyone’s probably seen it, but just give them a lowdown. So it’s a World War II era movie. So it has a lot of Nazi stuff in it. But, it’s also like a happy family movie, so it’s about people living in. Is it Austria? 

Emma: Yeah, I think they’re in Austria. 

Elsie: During the time of the occupation, and so it has a lot of political things. I think it was made in the 60s and that was in the 40s, so it’s like it was, you know, commentating on a very important time in history. And also it’s a musical. It has like a ton of songs. I think that it’s an iconic musical with like I don’t know a dozen songs and you probably know most of them songs and you probably know every song. 

Emma: You probably know, yeah, they’re very famous, yeah. 

Elsie: So it is a movie with a lot of emotional ups and downs. It also has like the, the other woman, the other girlfriend. Um, I like that. It has kids who range from like a little kid to a teenager. My daughter, who’s eight, just loves the kids and the kids singing. Anytime the kids are in it, she’s very engaged, which is most of the whole movie, pretty much everything but the nuns is very exciting for my kids to watch, already at ages six and eight. So, yeah, did I synopsize it well? Yeah, would you add anything to that? 

Emma: I think the only other thing I’d mention is that it is a somewhat true story. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, as a kid I didn’t know that at all. You know, they take some liberties I mean, it’s a musical, so it’s not 100%, but it is a somewhat true story, which I think is pretty interesting, like there’s a real Maria Wow. This is kind of her story. So it’s a wild, wild story. So then when you know it’s somewhat real, I’m like that is really wild so there you have it. So anyway, do you have any memories of when you first watched this movie? I feel like we were little, so I’m trying to even remember. It feels like just a movie that was always in the ether yes for children, okay. 

Elsie: So for me, brutal honesty when I was a child I thought Mary Poppins was awesome and the sound of music was boring and I I get it. I get how I felt that way. So I think more as an adult I think I started re-watching it a lot like five years ago or so. It’s become a lot more engaging for me now. I think as a child it does have a lot of long dialogue scenes between adults and things like that and like just things that I didn’t understand. You know a little bit more of a mature movie. 

Emma: It’s pretty political too. Like we said, there’s World War II, and until I really learned about that in school as an older kid I don’t think I totally was like why are there military people? I don’t know what this means. You know like you don’t really. It goes over your head when you’re little. 

Elsie: Yeah, no, in brutal honesty, I think most of it went over my head until like last year. So it, I mean I’m just telling the truth, but it is a beautiful movie, my favorite part, I think, for as a child I remember like her sitting like on the hills with the children where she has the guitar and they’re singing their first swiss alps yes I remember that really well, but as an adult my favorite part of the movie is the puppet show.  I love that puppet show. It is so like high intensity, 10 out of 10. Puppet show, puppets are just great puppets are just amazing. I love puppets are just amazing. 

Emma: I love puppets so much. Yes, as a kid I think my favorite part was the curtains when she turns the curtains into the play clothes. She’s like they need play clothes and then she sews all these clothes out of the curtains and I think I loved it, in part because our mom sews and would periodically make us stuff when we were kids and we also neither of our grandmothers sew, but our grandmother Karina had some friends Mary Robinson, yes who would sew us stuff as kids, and so there was something to me about homemade clothes as a kid that I thought was really like special, Not in the way that I view it now. Like now I’m like, wow, that’s really special. They took the time to sew. Yes, you know, like. To me it means a lot as an adult, but as a kid I did love the feeling of like I could see it on a pattern, like those paper patterns that you would get it like Joanne or Michaels or wherever, and then they would make it for you out of something you would pick out. And it was just really so in the movie when she takes the curtains down and makes the play clothes and all the kids kind of have these matching clothes all of a sudden out of the curtains. I loved that part and it just felt semi-relatable but in a weird way, it’s extremely iconic. They even have little bandanas and like matching accessories. One has a lederhosen type, you know. Yeah, overall sort of vibe, it’s really cute. 

Elsie: Yes, it has everything. It has music, it has puppets, it has sewing and Julie Andrews Nones. Yeah, Julie Andrews singing, it’s amazing. 

Emma: Well, let’s talk about some decor inspiration. There’s a lot of inspiration in this movie for a bunch of different things, but let’s just talk about decor for a second, and a couple of the spaces we could talk about is Reverend Mother’s office and also the captain’s house. Thoughts and feelings. 

Elsie: So the captain’s house is like straight mansion and it’s very like gold leaf everything Double staircase Not double staircase, but like you, know the staircase that goes two directions yeah, yeah, yeah the top, which is like to me, that’s like mansion mansion, it’s like there’s levels of mansions right and like-. 

Emma: No, that’s like a hotel that I’m not sure I would stomach the price to stay at Right. You know what? 

Elsie: I mean right, it’s like whoa, exactly. So I don’t know if it’s like cozy inspiration as much as like some of the Nancy Myers vibe. It’s different inspiration, it’s different, but it is extremely beautiful. And I would say the thing I’m most inspired by visually about this movie, besides the songs but is the outfits. I love all of julie andrews, like cute little it’s like. She’s kind of like homeschool, kind of like homeschool-y kind of wholesome. 

Emma: It’s almost like an apron, but it’s like a dress that’s made to look like an apron, but she also looks really hot all the time. She does. 

Elsie: Yeah, so it’s very suspicious and I absolutely love it. So, yeah, and the puppets Did I mention? That’s probably the puppet theater is as tall as a room. It’s probably like 12 feet tall and you have to like use a ladder to stand at the top of it, and I was just sitting there dreaming about how I could make one and it’s like you could definitely make one. 

Emma: It won’t be that grand, it won’t, it won’t. 

Elsie: It could be pretty cool, it could be pretty cool, yeah, anyway, I think that’s my inspiration. I don’t remember the nun office. Do you remember that? 

Emma: It’s like they kind of light it sort of dark and moody. I feel like it’s a scene where you really can tell this is a play. You know how sometimes they translate a play to a movie and you’re like, oh, so they just shot the play. Okay, you know like but I feel like the nunnery, her office, it kind of vibes that way where you’re like, okay, there’s just a lot of lighting going on here, Okay. But I think she does have this kind of Damask wallpaper where you’re like that’s a little fancy for a nun, that’s cool, but it mostly just feels kind of chill, but kind of like dark and moody yeah. 

Elsie: I think everything in Europe feels fancy to an American because that’s just because it’s so old. Yeah, we don’t have that. Everything’s just old and beautiful and if we see an old building we’re like wow, it’s very different here. 

Emma: Yeah, If it’s like 100 years old, we’re like that’s super historic. And then you go to Europe and be like wait, how old is it? It’s true, yeah, it’s true, okay, any other cozy inspiration? I like the scene where they’re hiking.

Elsie: I mean, I guess they go hiking. 

Emma: You know that’s a big part of the movie too is they’re fleeing. But yeah, there’s a lot of like outdoor outfits and activities that feel really fun and, as we’re approaching summer right now, I guess that’s something that was kind of like sticking out to me of like, oh yeah, maybe this would be a good one to like hype up your kids to like go do outdoor stuff If they like musicals. Well, yeah, maybe this would be a good one to hype up your kids to like go do outdoor stuff, mm-hmm, if they like musicals. 

Elsie: That’s true. Yeah, it does have kind of a nice picnic-y vibe. Like her parenting style is outdoors. 

Emma: Let’s go outside, which is a good one. Let’s run around, which is a good parenting style, I think, All right. Well, what would you rate this movie? Zero out of five Do Re Mi’s.

Elsie: I’m going to give it a 10 out of five. I think just Christopher Plummer singing Edelweiss alone is like for me everything. And the puppet show Did I mention? And, yeah, the sewing, and I don don’t know. There’s just so many sweet parts of it like she’s, she’s the perfect nanny. If I I never had a nanny, and I don’t think a lot of people in the us did, but if you did in a magical world, you know you would want her a governess. 

Emma: Yeah, yeah, even the word like hmm, I don’t even know, like that’s strange. Yeah, I’m going to give it five, five out of five. Doremi’s it’s famous, you know all the songs, but I will say, for me and my taste, it’s a little overly sweet. If I’m not watching this with some little girls, I’m like, eh, I don’t know. I’m like, eh, I don’t know. 

Elsie: It’s a little much, she said. She thinks it’s too happy. 

Emma: That’s what she said before we came on, and then it also has Nazis. It’s just got a kind of a strange. You know vibe, the vibes are weird. 

Elsie: The vibes are weird, the vibes are weird. I think it’s very unique, but I stand by it. Yeah, I’m going to stand by it, okay, well, by it. Yeah, I’m gonna stand by it, okay, well, trivia time okay, trivia time, my favorite. I have trivia too, because I’ve been watching a lot of christopher plumber interviews this week. 

Emma:n Okay, oh, wow. Okay. The first one is about Christopher plummer. So Christopher Plummer intensely disliked working on this movie. He was known to refer to it as the sound of mucus or S&M and likened working with James Julie Andrews to being hit over the head with a big Valentine’s card every day. Nonetheless, he and Andrews remain close friends until his death. Andrews claimed that Plummer’s cynicism probably helped his performance in the movie, keeping it from being too sentimental. 

Elsie: Oh, that’s sweet, I can see. I guess I can see it. So the video that I watched recently, because I think he passed in like 2020, ish or 2021 like not very long ago and okay, first of all, for those few who don’t realize, he’s in knives out our favorite movie of all time. Yeah, he’s the dad, he’s Harlan Thrombey, and I don’t know. I don’t think I would have totally like made that recognition if I didn’t know. So I think that’s an important detail, that it’s like two of our favorite all-time movies and he’s starring in both of them. I think it’s kind of special and they’re like I don’t know like 50 years apart, 60 years apart, I don’t know like 50 years apart, 60 years apart, so anyway. So the video I watched. They said to Julie Andrews did you ever have a crush on Christopher Plummer? And she said yes, but I was so young, kind of I didn’t know what to do with it. And then they asked him in a separate interview, just spliced together did you ever have a crush on Julie Andrews? And he said we should have ended up together, we should have had a ravishing affair or something like that. And I just thought that was the greatest answer, so sweet and generous and just adorable. So I love it. I love how, like hindsight is 20-20, right yeah. 

Emma: It’s also a strange thing when you get asked in an interview because you wouldn’t want to say no, that’s true, even if it was the truth, if perhaps maybe they were too young for you or you know whatever? 

Elsie: Yeah, maybe they were lying. You were attached to someone else at the time or who knows, I don’t know. 

Emma: So it’s kind of an interesting thing to think about, like situation where you’re like ooh, how do I? I don’t want to make this weird, but I also definitely want to be complimentary. 

Elsie: Okay, to be fair, it’s like a very unprofessional question to ask, but I’m still glad they asked. 

Emma: It kind of is. I was also looking up, so as I was reading this trivia, I was like, oh, I want to read more about that because that’s hilarious. The sound of mucus. That’s just funny. 

Elsie: When did he say that? 

Emma: So I was Googling it. And what I read in a couple of things was like he actually really liked working with Julie Andrews. That wasn’t the thing. He just didn’t really like the movie Like. He felt like it was just too happy and sing-songy and it just wasn’t his vibe. Basically is what he said, mr. 

Elsie: Cool Guy, Mr Cool Guy. 

Emma: He was like waiting for Knives Out. 

Elsie: Well, it finally happened. It did Coolest movie to me, but I don’t know. I looked at his IMDb and he has like 50 movies, so I don’t know what his coolest movie to him was. I think this was kind of a breakout for him to both of them. You know couldn’t swim, so the original idea was to get Dame Julie Andrews to catch her when the boat tips and they fall into the water. However, during the second take, the boat toppled over so that Andrews fell on one side and Kerith fell to the other. Oh God, that’s really dangerous, really dangerous. Heather Menzies Urich, who played Louisa, saved her. Instead, Andrews stated that she felt guilty about it for years. 

Emma: I don’t think you should feel guilty about it, Julie Andrews. I think maybe that was a problem. I think they have laws for that now. I think they have laws for that now. Yeah, I’m like this actor can’t swim and you’re just like here’s the plan, we’re going to tip the boat and we’ll just see what happens. 

Elsie: It’s a plan. We’re gonna tip the boat, yeah, and we’ll just see what happens. It’s like what? Yeah, I’ve heard that now they have to have announcements when they have a real candle on the set not like you know what I mean. 

Emma: Yeah, well, you hear those stories about every now and someone gets really hurt from like a firearm or a knife or you know something. It’s like, oh my gosh, anyway. Okay, this movie shows Captain Von Trapp and Maria falling in love immediately, but in real life Maria wanted to return to the Nonnberg Abbey and become a nun, as that was always what she desired. She was very upset that she wasn’t able to return. Unlike in the movie, where it seemed like she wanted to leave, the real Maria Von Trapp said in interviews that she fell in love with the children and saw marrying the captain as the best way to become a permanent part of their lives. She said at first she merely liked her new husband and only learned to love him over the years. 

Elsie: Okay, Interesting. I mean I like the movie version better, but I also think it sounds like she told the truth in an interview, which is good for her. 

Emma: Yeah, I’m like okay. So you decided this was what you wanted and you made that work for you, okay. It kind of makes me think about arranged marriages, which is not something that’s like in my culture, or like I really know about the lavender marriage. 

Elsie: I don’t know anyone who’s ever done it. I read about that like every week. 

Emma: Yeah, so you know, it’s definitely just a foreign thing to me where I’m like oh but I kind of, you know, can understand. I do think kids in the mix kind of changes things. But it’s so weird to me to think about going from wanting to be a nun, intensely wanting to be a nun, to getting married to someone who you just like. For I don’t know, it’s just a, it’s a life man. 

Elsie: I get falling in love with kids. I get that part of it. Yeah, I get that part of it for sure. 

Emma: And I get to see falling in love with someone over time and that being like. 

Elsie: That’s romantic too. Yeah, In its own way. Yeah, in its own way. 

Emma: But it’s very different from what I wanted for my life, yeah, so. 

Elsie: Maria von Trapp was not invited to the Hollywood premiere of the movie. Rude. I know Strange, they would not do that today. She would be there. Strangely enough, the woman who made it all possible the movie, the Broadway musical and everything else Maria von Trapp was not invited to the opening night, as reported by the Telegraph. Maria wondered why she hadn’t received an invitation and took it up with the producers, but they simply told her that there were no seats left. Oh my God, this might have been because she clashed with the director and producers during the production. 

Emma: Okay, very respectful 0 out of 10. I know there are just no seats left for you to see the movie that’s based on your life. What, yeah, rude, very rude, okay. Next one, while the Von Trapp family hiked over the Alps to Switzerland in the movie, in reality they walked to the local train station and boarded the next train to Italy. 

Elsie: That makes more sense. 

Emma: Sorry, oh, oh, my God, who can hike over mountains with seven children? 

Elsie:

I kind of was like there’s no backpack, there’s no water bottles. 

Emma: I kind of get that. Where are the granola bars? Mm-hmm, my kid’s going to need a snack every five seconds. 

Elsie: They just seemed like it was the next morning and they had been walking all night and they were in good moods and I was a little suspicious because I have children, okay and from italy they fled to london and ultimately to the us. 

Emma: Had the Von Trapps hiked over the mountains, they would have ended up in Germany, near Adolf Hitler. 

Elsie: She even lived in the us and she didn’t get a f***ing invitation. Okay, that’s even worse. Wait, say that. I think I interrupted that last line, which was kind of intense. Say that again. It did have Adolf Hitler in it. Go ahead, go ahead. 

Emma: Had the Von Trapps hiked over the mountains, they would have ended up in Germany, near Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat. 

Elsie: That’s Hollywood for you? 

Emma: Yeah, they were like geography. Don’t even worry about it. This is a beautiful shooting location there’s no seats left. 

Elsie: Okay, 16 going on. 17 was shot in the gazebo, one of the last to be done. On the first take, Charmaine Carr, who played Liesl, slipped while leaping across the bench. That is a very intense dance. It looks really technically difficult, like because of all the balance. It’s kind of like skateboarding, where you like get up there and you kind of have to get back down. Gracefully. 

Emma: Really, the kids in this movie are strong performers. 

Elsie: Okay, sorry. She leaped across a bench and fell through a pane of glass. Although she was not badly injured, her ankle was hurt and the scene was later shot, with her leg wrapped and makeup covering the bandages. Poor, oh my gosh. Well, I will say I’m sure I don’t know if she’s living, but I’m sure she could watch it now and think it was worth it, because that is one of the greatest dancing numbers I’ve ever seen in anything. It’s incredible, like how they’re like jumping up on the benches, up and down, up and down. 

Emma: Like I love it, so yeah no it’s, yeah, it’s a performance, and what you do as a child actor to get the scene. You know it does sound like the children on the set were not safe and were not looked after properly. But, it was a long long time ago, so yeah, long time ago, so yeah, no seats left. There’s just no seats left. Okay, now it’s time for a joke or a fact, or a meditation with Nova. 

Elsie: Hey Nova, what do you have for us this week? 

Nova: A memory. Okay, one of my favorite memories was when I went to Disney World with Lily and Iris, for Marigold’s birthday. We had a lot of fun, and wasn’t that the year I went on The guardians of the galaxy

Elsie: Yeah, she went on a grown up’s roller coaster.

Nova: I loved it, and also it was kind of scary. 

Elsie: Oh yeah, did you feel really big yeah? 

Nova: Also, I liked the Slanky roller coaster. One of my favorite memories was probably Halloween. 

Elsie: Oh, what about Halloween? 

Nova: I got to dress up. We had trick-or-treating with Oscar. I got to see my great grandma, and so my cousin was dressed up as the monkey in Curious George, and then my aunt was dressed up as a banana. My uncle was just dressed up as the man that takes care of George. I was dressed up as Iron man, and Marigold was dressed up like Elsa. Mommy and Daddy came along happily holding our candy buckets and helping, yeah, and we all ate dinner at Grandma’s pizza, and then we helped give out candy, which that’s my favorite thing to do on Halloween. Besides eating the candy.  

Elsie: Thank you for sharing your memories with us this week 

Nova: Yeah, have a good week. And also, if you have kids sorry I didn’t add this last week, but tell them that I said in this podcast, have a good summer and have a good vacation. I hope you do well, bye bye. 

Emma: Thank you so much for listening. We are taking a break for the summer, but we’re going to be dropping a few episodes over the summer, so make sure that you are subscribed, because otherwise you really won’t know when they’re going to come out. We’re no longer going to be doing show notes on Mondays, or just generally on our site abeautifulmess.com so you won’t be able to listen from the show notes. So you really need to be subscribed. Wherever you listen to podcasts, that way it’ll just show up in your app, you’ll have it and it’s going to be random, yep, but we have pre-recorded them for you. We thought about you. We know you’re still bored in the summer, we are too. So we have a few for you, but we’re also taking a lot of time off, as we mom and I have a maternity leave. 

Elsie: Hell yeah, okay. So make sure you’re subscribed and we will be back with three surprise summer bonus episodes.