I am
currently reading a book by the late, (I’m sorry to say) Charmian Carr by the
title of, “Forever Liesl.” As the moniker of her compelling volume implies,
Charmian portrayed ‘Liesl’ in the mid-1960’s movie classic, “The Sound of
Music.”
As I read my
latest chapter I chanced upon a couple of passages which stood out for me, and
which recounted the words and actions of the actor who assumed the role of
Captain Georg Johannes Ritter von Trapp, (Christopher Plummer), and those of the real life Maria
Augusta Kutschera von Trapp, (wife of Captain von Trapp).
It seems Christopher
Plummer, for all his positive traits and abilities, could be somewhat of a
grouch, irreverent and difficult with which to work. During the filming of the
movie, and sometime afterwards Charmian reported that the actor came out with
some ‘hum dingers.’
In one case, Mr.
Plummer complained about having to do a retake of the final scene of the movie.
It seems he was
tasked with carrying the smallest of the children, ‘Gretl’ (Kym Karath) piggy
back up a steep slope.
“Another take? Not
again! I can’t carry that kid one more step up this mountain. She’s built like
a bloody tank!”
As a result, the
director ended up using a child double who was lighter.
And there were times
when Chris would arrive on the set grumbling and swearing.
“It’s raining. We’re
not going to work today. Why the h_ _ _ do we have to go through the paces when
we know we’re not going to do anything? Bloody h_ _ _!”
Pt. 2
And then, as I
previously inferred, there was Maria
Augusta Kutschera von Trapp. Christopher Plummer and
Maria von Trapp had met on the set in Salzburg and would become quite fond of
one another.
It seems the real
Maria, (as portrayed by Julie Andrews) was, during her middle years, somewhat
‘a contradiction in terms,’ since the overweight heroine of Third Reich Austria
was a marathoner, and swimmer.
The gregarious widow
was the polar opposite of the man who portrayed her late husband in the classic
movie. She was as pleasingly personable, as Mr. Plummer (apparently) was not;
(unless, as Charmian’s volume implies, it was convenient for him to be).
Christopher Plummer
reminisced that,
“She was naughty and
funny and just a delightful person. She had this laugh like a German Hausfrau.
‘Ho, ho, ho,’ she chortled. ‘Ach, Christopher, you’re so much more handsome
than my real husband. Ho, ho, ho.’ God love her. She was fun.”
Mr. Plummer recounts
another incident from that time period, and which betrays Maria’s vivacious
nature.
“She was quite famous
as a long-distance swimmer, and it just so happened when I was in Nassau, Maria
was also there, …swimming the Nassau Channel. It was marvelous. Here was this
wonderful rotund woman with all these little boats following her, and throwing
her bananas to eat during the crossing.
We arranged to meet
later at the hotel. Maria had this wild humor and absolutely no pretensions of
grandeur at all. She arrived with the governor general of Nassau, and everyone
was being very stuffy and prim, and Maria saw me across the room, and shrieked,
‘My husband! My husband!’ and came running over to me, giving me this huge bear
hug embrace. I absolutely adored her.”
Afterward:
Two persons with two
absolutely contradictory natures.
An individual who
only portrayed the real life hero of
“The Sound of Music.”
The flesh and blood luminary who experienced
the rigors of Nazi-occupied Austria, and who, along with her husband and
children, managed to make their departure from that place.
The genuine and the
counterfeit
I think the
counterfeit might have done well to learn something from the genuine.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright Pending
If you would like to copy, share or save, please include the credit line, above
No comments:
Post a Comment