The Trapp Family

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The Trapp Family
Die Trapp Familie Poster.jpg
German theatrical release poster
Directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Screenplay by
Story by Maria von Trapp
Based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
by Maria von Trapp
Produced by Ilse Kubaschewski
Starring
Cinematography Werner Krien
Edited by Margot von Schlieffen
Music by Franz Grothe
Production
company
Divina-Film
Distributed by Gloria Film (West Germany)
20th Century Fox (United States)
Release dates
  • October 9, 1956 (1956-10-09)(West Germany)
  • April 19, 1961 (1961-04-19)(United States)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryWest Germany
LanguageGerman
Box office6 million DM (Germany) [1]
$800,000 (US) [2]

The Trapp Family (German: Die Trapp-Familie) is a 1956 West German comedy drama film about the real-life Austrian musical family of that name directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Ruth Leuwerik, Hans Holt, and Maria Holst. [3] Based on Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers , the film is about a novice nun sent to care for the unruly children of a wealthy baron, who falls in love with and marries the young woman. Through her caring influence, the family becomes a famous singing group. When the baron is pressured to join Hitler's navy, the family escapes to the United States, where they establish themselves as singers.

Contents

The Trapp Family became one of the most successful German films of the 1950s and was the inspiration for the even more fictionalized 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music, and its highly successful 1965 film version. The film had one sequel, The Trapp Family in America (1958).

Plot

At a Nonnberg Abbey in Austria in the 1930s, a spirited novice named Maria (Ruth Leuwerik) is sent by her abbess to the estate of a widowed Austro-Hungarian Navy war hero, Baron von Trapp (Hans Holt), to look after his seven unruly children. The baron is a stern disciplinarian and runs his household like a World War I U-boat. When Maria arrives, she encourages the children to play games like other kids, and teaches them how to sing. When the baron discovers how Maria is ignoring his orders, he sends her back to the convent. Later, when he hears his children singing songs they've learned from Maria, his feelings for her change. Gradually, the baron falls in love with the young woman and proposes marriage.

After obtaining permission to marry from the abbess, Maria becomes the Baroness von Trapp. After the Captain loses his fortune, the family's priest, Dr. Franz Wasner (Josef Meinrad), encourages Maria and the children to sing for charity, and soon they develop a large following. After the Nazis annex Austria, the baron, unwilling to live under the Nazi regime, has the family flee to the United States, where they continue performing. But their troubles are far from over when a naïve Maria tells the immigration inspector they want to stay forever, after he asks how long they will be visiting the country.

Cast

Production

The film is based on Maria von Trapp's memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers , written in 1948 to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband, Captain von Trapp, in 1947. [4] Hollywood producers expressed immediate interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told. [4] In 1956, German producer Wolfgang Liebeneiner offered her $10,000 (equal to $112,069 today[ citation needed ] for the complete rights to her story. Following her lawyer's advice, she asked for a share of the film profits, but was told that German law prohibited a German film company from paying royalties to non-German citizens—Maria was an American citizen by then. She signed away the rights to her story without confirming that such a law existed (it did not). [4] The same agent that misled her offered her a single cash payment if she would accept $9,000, which she did. [4]

Liebeneiner brought in George Hurdalek and Herbert Reinecker to write the screenplay, and Franz Grothe to supervise the soundtrack, which included traditional Austrian folk songs. [5] The movie was filmed on location in Salzburg, Austria, and Murnau am Staffelsee in Bavaria, West Germany.

Release

The Trapp Family was released in West Germany on October 9, 1956, by Gloria Film and became a major success. [4] Two years later, Liebeneiner directed a sequel, The Trapp Family in America , and the two films soon became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years. [4] Their success extended throughout Europe and South America. [4]

Critical response

In his review of the 1961 United States version for The New York Times , Howard Thompson gave the film a positive review, calling it "genteel, tuneful and frankly sentimental". [3] According to Thompson, the film "steers an undramatic, but disarming, course", with "friendly" acting and "pretty" cinematography. [3] The central attraction for Thompson, however, is the traditional folk music:

As happens nightly on Broadway, the music really carries the film. Instead of Rodgers and Hammerstein, we now hear genuine folk tunes, light European favorites and the classics. The flavor of these genuinely sweet young voices (dubbed, we assume) is as distinct and clear as an Alpine bell.

Thompson concludes, "The children will love it. Nobody, certainly, will resent such a happy family, content to love one another and, thank heaven, to sing." [3]

Adaptations

In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English-language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria. [4] The studio eventually dropped its option, but one of its directors, Vincent Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for Mary Martin. [4] Producers Richard Halliday and Leland Heyward secured the rights and hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won a Pulitzer Prize for State of the Union . [5] They approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to compose one song for the musical, but the composers felt the two styles—traditional Austrian folk songs and their composition—would not work, and offered to write a new score for the entire production. [5] The Sound of Music opened on November 16, 1959, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City and ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. [6]

In June 1960, 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights to the Broadway musical for $1.25 million (equal to $12,874,016 today) against 10% of the gross, and at that time, also purchased the rights to the two German films for distribution in the United States. 20th Century Fox combined the two German films, Die Trapp-Familie and Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika, hired Lee Kresel to dub the films in English, and released them as a single 106-minute film titled The Trapp Family on April 19, 1961. [7] [8]

Fox released the better-known film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein play, starring Julie Andrews, on March 2, 1965. [9]

The Trapp Family is a historical fiction. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Sound of Music</i> Musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, premiered in 1959

The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father, Captain von Trapp. He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, but he opposes the Nazis. He and Maria decide on a plan to flee Austria with the children. Many songs from the musical have become standards, including "Do-Re-Mi", "My Favorite Things", "Edelweiss", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", and the title song "The Sound of Music".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg von Trapp</span> Trapp family patriarch (1880–1947)

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Meinrad</span> Austrian actor

Josef Meinrad was an Austrian actor. From 1959 until his death in 1996, Meinrad held the Republic of Austria's Iffland-Ring, which passes from actor to actor — each bequeathing the ring to the next holder, judging that actor to be the "most significant and most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria von Trapp</span> Matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers (1905–1987)

Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS, often styled as “Baroness”, was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. She wrote The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edelweiss (song)</span> Song from The Sound of Music

"Edelweiss" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. It is named after the edelweiss, a white flower found high in the Alps. The song was created for the 1959 Broadway production of The Sound of Music, as a song for the character Captain Georg von Trapp. In the musical, Captain von Trapp and his family sing this song during the concert near the end of Act II. It is a statement of Austrian patriotism in the face of the pressure put upon him to join the navy of Nazi Germany following the Anschluss. It is also Captain von Trapp's subliminal goodbye to his beloved homeland, using the flower as a symbol of his loyalty to Austria. In the 1965 film adaptation, the song is also sung by the Captain earlier in the film when he rediscovers music with his children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trapp Family</span> Musical family

The Trapp Family was a singing group formed from the family of former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family achieved fame in their original singing career in their native Austria during the interwar period. They also performed in the United States before emigrating there permanently to escape the deteriorating situation in Austria leading up to World War II. In the United States, they became well known as the "Trapp Family Singers" until they ceased to perform as a unit in 1957. The family's story later served as the basis for a memoir, two German films, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical The Sound of Music. The last surviving of the original seven, Maria Franziska, died in 2014 at the age of 99. The youngest and last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers is Johannes von Trapp.

<i>The Sound of Music</i> (film) 1965 film by Robert Wise

The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise from a screenplay written by Ernest Lehman, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, and Eleanor Parker. The film is an adaptation of the 1959 stage musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Lindsay and Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp and is set in Salzburg, Austria. It is a fictional retelling of her experiences as governess to seven children, her eventual marriage with their father Captain Georg von Trapp, and their escape during the Anschluss in 1938.

<i>The Story of the Trapp Family Singers</i> 1949 memoir by Maria von Trapp

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers is a 1949 memoir written by Maria Augusta von Trapp, whose life was later fictionalized in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical The Sound of Music in 1959.

<i>Trapp Family Story</i> Television series

Trapp Family Story is a 1991 Japanese animated series by Nippon Animation, based on the story of the real-life Austrian singing family the Trapp Family. It is a part of the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, which adapted classic works of literature into animated TV shows. 40 episodes aired on Fuji TV.

"Do-Re-Mi" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Each syllable of the musical solfège system appears in the song's lyrics, sung on the pitch it names. Rodgers was helped in its creation by long-time arranger Trude Rittmann who devised the extended vocal sequence in the song.

"The Lonely Goatherd" is a popular show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Franziska von Trapp</span> Member of Trapp Family Singers

Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp was the second-oldest daughter of Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. She was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives inspired the musical and film The Sound of Music. She was portrayed by Heather Menzies as the character "Louisa". She died at age 99, and was the last surviving sibling portrayed in the film.

"No Way to Stop It" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, but not included in the later film version from 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trapp Family Lodge</span> Building in Vermont, U.S.

The Trapp Family Lodge is a 2,500-acre (10 km2) resort located in Stowe, Vermont. It is managed by Sam von Trapp, son of Johannes von Trapp of the Austrian musical family, the Trapps. It was formerly known as Cor Unum.

"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess. It is themed as an inspirational piece, to encourage people to take every step toward attaining their dreams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Leuwerik</span> German actress

Ruth Leuwerik was a German film actress, one of the most popular stars of German film during the 1950s. She appeared in 34 films between 1950 and 1977. Leuwerik is probably best known for her portrayal of Maria von Trapp in the films The Trapp Family and The Trapp Family in America.

<i>The Trapp Family in America</i> 1958 film

The Trapp Family in America is a 1958 West German comedy drama film about the real-life Austrian musical Trapp Family directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Ruth Leuwerik, Hans Holt, and Josef Meinrad. It is a sequel to the 1956 film The Trapp Family. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich. The film's sets were designed by the art director Robert Herlth.

"Something Good" is a song written by Richard Rodgers for the 1965 film version of the 1959 stage musical The Sound of Music. It replaced the original song sung by Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp called "An Ordinary Couple". Since then the song has been used in the various reproductions of the play and most recently the 2015 television special, The Sound of Music Live.

The Sound of Music Live is a television special that was originally broadcast by ITV on 20 December 2015. The special was an adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music, starring Kara Tointon as Maria von Trapp, performed and televised live from 3 Mills Studios in London.

<i>The Sound of Music</i> (1988 cast album) 1988 studio album by Erich Kunzel

The Sound of Music is a 70-minute studio album of Richard Rodgers's and Oscar Hammerstein's 1959 musical, starring Frederica von Stade, Håkan Hagegård and Eileen Farrell, performed with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the direction of Erich Kunzel. It was released in 1988.

References

Citations

  1. "Germany's Top Grossers (Since World War II)". Variety . 9 April 1958. p. 62.
  2. "O'Seas Films $69,000,000 in US". Variety . 2 May 1962. p. 18.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Thompson, Howard (August 31, 1961). "The Trapp Family". The New York Times . Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hirsch 1993 , p. 4
  5. 1 2 3 Hirsch 1993 , p. 6
  6. Hirsch 1993, pp. 7–8.
  7. Hirsch 1993, p. 8.
  8. "The Trapp Family: Notes". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  9. "The Sound of Music". (Official website). 20th Century Studios. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  10. "Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family | National Archives". www.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-04-06.

Sources

Further reading