EXCLUSIVE: 'The Sound of Music' Turns 60! Radar Lifts the Lid on Film's Behind-The-Scenes Secrets... Including the Moment Julie Andrews Was Nearly Blown Away
'The Sound of Music' is one of the most legendary movies ever, but it was marked with plenty of mishaps.
Aug. 23 2025, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
The hills weren't the only places that were alive with The Sound of Music in 1965 – the epic musical drama was everywhere, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. And for five years, it was the highest-grossing movie of all time, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews as a nun named Maria, turned governess, and Christopher Plummer as the widowed father of seven and naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp, the film tells the love story between the two as the family is forced to flee the Nazis in pre-war Austria.
The movie is based on the 1959 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein stage play, which itself was based on Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, about her experiences with the children, her marriage to Georg, and their 1938 escape.
Who Wasn't A Fan Of The Film?
Christopher Plummer mocked 'The Sound of Music,' calling it 'The Sound of Mucus.'
During filming, a miserable Plummer probably wanted to make his own escape from the movie. In his 2008 autobiography, In Spite of Myself, he called it The Sound of Mucus and dubbed it "S&M."
"I was a bit bored with the character," Plummer explained. "Although we worked hard enough to make him interesting, it was a bit like flogging a dead horse. And the subject matter is not mine. I mean, it can't appeal to every person in the world. It's not my cup of tea."
Meanwhile, the role of Maria blew Andrews away... literally. During the opening scene of Maria twirling on the mountain, it was not only rainy and cold, but there "was a jet helicopter," she explained.
"And the downdraft from those jets was so strong that every time the helicopter circled around me, the downdraft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened. It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry... I really tried. I mean, I braced myself. I thought, 'It's not going to get me this time.' And every single time, I bit the dust."
A Scary Drowning Incident
Julie Andrews was knocked flat by a helicopter downdraft during the film's iconic opening scene.
Andrews – who had spoofed the Broadway musical with a skit called The Pratt Family Singers on her 1962 TV special, Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, with Carol Burnett – wasn't the only one put in peril during filming. In one scene, Maria and the kids are in a rowboat that overturns, traumatizing Kym Karath, who portrayed 5-year-old Gretl von Trapp.
Karath couldn't swim, and Andrews was supposed to fall forward close to her and rescue her, but Andrews accidentally fell backward and couldn't reach her. Recalled Karath: "I went under, I swallowed a lot of water, which I then vomited all over Heather," as in Heather Menzies, who played Louisa von Trapp, who actually pulled her from the water.
The Real real von Trapp
Kym Karath nearly drowned filming the rowboat scene before Heather Menzies pulled her to safety.
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And while playing Leisel, 21-year-old Charmian Carr fell through the glass in the gazebo and sprained her ankle while filming the Sixteen Going on Seventeen number.
The real Maria has a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo: She can be seen with her daughter and granddaughter in the background as Maria leaves the abbey while singing I Have Confidence.
"We got her a costume and everything, but like in every film, we had to do a number of takes, and it took three hours," said director Wise in the book The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie. "She didn't know you have to do it again and again."
Andrews spoofed 'The Sound of Music' in a 1962 TV special with Carol Burnett.
The Sound of Music changed a number of facts about the real von Trapp family. Maria and Georg had already been married for 11 years when the family fled Austria, and they traveled to Italy by train instead of escaping over the mountains to Switzerland. At the time, there were nine von Trapp family members, as Georg and Maria had two kids of their own, with a third on the way when they left Austria. The names, ages, and sexes of the kids were also changed.
In her memoir, Maria admitted, "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him, but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children."
The Sound of Music was nominated for a whopping 10 Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Music. It raked in about $286million, or more than $2billion when adjusted for inflation, against a budget of a mere $8.2million.
It was music to the producers' ears.
