The Sound of Music

In Salzburg, Austria, Maria, played by Julie Andrews, is studying to become a nun. Maria is a free spirit and Reverend Mother (Peggy Wood) is not sure if convent life is right for her. So the Reverend Mother sends her temporarily to be the governess to seven children of a widower naval commander, Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Maria and the Captain immediately disagree on the way the children are treated. The Captain, still stricken with the grief of his deceased wife and not wanting to be reminded of the joy they once had (music is expressly forbidden), has been raising them according to the principles of military/navy discipline. He shows this because he is very controlling and stern to the children. He blows whistles at the children when he gives them orders and makes them wear uniforms. Maria, on the other hand, wants them to enjoy life as children while they can. The children are: Liesl (16) (Charmian Carr), who originally thinks she doesn't need a governess; Friedrich (14) (Nicholas Hammond), Louisa (13) (Heather Menzies), Kurt (11) (Duane Chase), Brigitta (10) (Angela Cartwright), Marta (7) (Debbie Turner), who likes the color pink (Maria does too) and Gretl (5) (Kym Karath).

The children, mischievous and initially hostile to Maria, eventually come to love her when she introduces them to the pleasures of music and singing. After a confrontation between Maria and the Captain, at the end of which he orders her to return to the abbey, he unexpectedly hears the children singing. He softens, tells Maria that she was right, and asks her to stay. One of the Captain's friends, Max Dettweiler (Richard Haydn), tries to persuade the Captain to let the children perform in his concert. Maria finds herself falling in love with the captain, who seems likely to marry the wealthy Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Eleanor Parker). The Baroness becomes jealous of Maria's talents and the effect she has on the Captain. She convinces her to leave during a grand party at the house by exploiting Maria's inner conflict about becoming a nun and her discomfort at the Captain's obvious affection towards her. Shortly thereafter, the Captain announces his intention to marry the Baroness Elsa. However, she doesn't have good rapport with the children.

Maria talks with the Reverend Mother, who convinces Maria she must "climb every mountain" to find God's will for her life and how God "wants her to spend her love." Maria decides to return to the von Trapp family to explore where these feelings will grow. Before, Maria felt that her attraction to the Captain was improper, given her assignment and her role at the convent. Upon Maria's return, the Captain confesses to the Baroness that he is in love with Maria and the Baroness decides to leave for Vienna after realizing marriage between them would not work. Afterwards, the Captain and Maria reveal their feelings for each other in Something Good and finally wed.

In a subplot, Liesl, the oldest of the children, falls for a messenger named Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte). At first he encourages Liesl to sneak out and meet him whenever he delivers a telegram to her father, such as in one memorable episode where they are dancing in the rain. The two become estranged after he joins the Nazi Party, as he realizes that her father has no regard for him and does not support Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Rolfe subtly warns the von Trapps about the danger they face for not obeying the summons of the Reich.

The Third Reich takes power in Austria as part of the Anschluss and tries to force Captain von Trapp back into military service. The Captain, unwilling to serve the Reich, delays the matter by insisting to Zeller (Ben Wright), the Gauleiter, or party leader for the district, that he is part of the von Trapp Family Singers and must appear with them during a performance at the Salzburg Music Festival, in a guarded theater. After they fail to appear for their curtain call, a search party is formed to track the family fugitives. Rolfe alone discovers the von Trapps hiding in a cemetery at Maria's old convent, and after a brief confrontation with the Captain, alerts his fellow soldiers to their presence. The soldiers give chase as the family flees, but they are unable to catch up with the von Trapps: their vehicles have been sabotaged by the nuns at Maria's former abbey. The von Trapps are free. The film ends with the von Trapps hiking over the Alps to Switzerland.

Several key members of the cast had their singing voices dubbed by others: Peggy Wood, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mother Abbess, was dubbed by Margery McKay after Wood discovered she could not handle the high registers of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." Anna Lee, who played Sister Margaretta, was dubbed by Marie Greene.

Originally Plummer was slated to do his own singing and trained during the film and pre-recorded his singing vocals. However, Robert Wise and the creative team felt his singing voice, while good, was overshadowed by the excellent singing voice of Julie Andrews.Plummer agreed with the assessment, so they enlisted Bill Lee to "ghost" Plummer's singing.

There were once rumors that some or all of the children's voices were dubbed. Wise insists that none of their voices were dubbed, though at times other children's voices were added to theirs for a stronger effect; the extra singers included Randy Perkins, Diane Burt, Sue McBain, and Darlene Farnon, sister of Charmian Carr (Liesl). Farnon sang the high note for Duane Chase, who played Kurt, in the song, "So Long, Farewell," because it was well beyond Chase's vocal range.

The movie features a rare onscreen performance by Marni Nixon, who plays Sister Sophia. Nixon dubbed the singing voices for many famous movie stars, including Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Because Julie Andrews, who originally played Eliza in the stage version of My Fair Lady, was not selected to reprise her role in that film and Marni Nixon had ultimately dubbed Audrey Hepburn's singing voice, the cast and crew were concerned how Andrews would react when they met for the first time.

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… [E]verybody was sort of worried that Julie would be upset that I was hired, because they imagined that she'd have this great envy of me because I had done the dubbing on a part that she should have done in My Fair Lady. And when they said, "Julie, this is Marni Nixon," everybody was kind of 'how is she going to react?' And she stood up, strolled across the room, and extended her hand … [and said,] "Marni, I'm such a fan of yours." Everybody went 'ahh'; you know, it was going to be all right.