Julie Andrews on Super 8

[Paul Adsett]

Julie Andrews's recent AFI Award has me revisiting the JA S8 releases. I have both the superb Mary Poppins Disney 200 footers of Super Nanny and Jolly Holiday, still with good color, and a couple of the Fox 400ft digests of Sound of Music now faded. Were there any others?

[Steve Klare]

Hi Paul,

How about Derann‘s 200’ 'scope Do-Re-Mi?

-technically part of my wife’s film collection!

(It was on the Derann Used List and I bought it for her.)

Nice Reel: a great crowd-awakener for early on in a show.

[Paul Adsett]

Thanks for that Steve, I was not aware of that one. Sounds nice, particularly if redubbed in stereo. I will keep an eye open for it.

[Mike Newell]

Throughly Modern Millie 400 Universal 8, Little Miss Marker 2x400 Universal 8 not sure if Julie survives the edit. 10 Dudley Moore optical feature very small role, SOB optical feature I think I remember Victor/Victoria was it Derann or optical feature.

[Brian Fretwell]

And, of course, Derann released The Sound of Music as 3x600ft, 6x600ft and the trailer. All 'scope.

[Steve Klare]

These are from the last gasp of the Derann Website:

12. DO RE MI 1 x 200ft. Col SCOPE Price code E

33. SOUND OF MUSIC, THE 3 x 600ft. Col SCOPE Price code S

34. SOUND OF MUSIC CREDITS, THE 1 x 200ft. Col SCOPE Price code D

(What was "Credits" like?)

July Andrews in The Sound of Music is so iconic that she very often shows up when somebody is trying to show just how great Motion Pictures are. For example(s), she is seen singing the opening theme in Derann's This is Scope and cameoed in Precious Images, and many other places too, I'm sure.

-not half bad for a movie that was pretty widely panned by critics when it came out! (Everybody hated it but the audiences!).

What's interesting is it's not a fan favorite in Salzburg itself. My wife and I were there in 2002, and since she's such a fan we took the Sound of Music bus tour. (Froze our butts off up on that mountain that day: SNOW in JUNE!). At least at that time, the tour still wasn't being offered in German.

They had to lock up the gazebo where they filmed "I am sixteen going on seventeen": some 80 year old tourist was dancing across the benches and broke her hip!

(-The Mania of the Truly Devoted!)

[Paul Adsett]

These movie themed tours are very interesting for film buffs. San Francisco has a Vertigo tour which goes to all the now iconic locations shown in Hitchcocks masterpiece film. My wife and I were there in 2002 but we decided to do our own private Vertigo tour, driving out to Fort Point, Coit Tower, the Hotel location, and all the way down to the Spanish Mission where Novak supposedly jumped from the bell tower. It all looked exactly the same as in the film, with the exception of the bell tower itself which never existed and was matted in as a process shot. I have a shot of my wife standing outside Scotty's (James Stuart} apartment on Lombard Street, trying very hard to look like Kim Novak. The impersonation was somewhat difficult as my wife is a natural brunette!

[Carter Bradley]

I have "The Sound of Music" credit reel and, even though I haven't watched it in some time, I seem to remember it is a slightly edited version of the opening aerial scenes, then the complete song followed by the complete opening credit sequence, ending just prior to the abbey scenes.

[Steve Klare]

That sounds really nice!

-maybe if I'd known about it back in the day I would have bought my wife one of those too.

What's interesting is both Derann's "Do-Re-Me" and the Sound of Music Bus tour end at those steps where the song of the same title ends.

-now, typical of many musicals based on historic events, The Sound of Music is not a minute by minute historic record, but adapted to a nice story with toe-tapping tunes. In real life, Captain von Trapp was some decades older than Maria and they were married some years, and had several of their own kids before they left Austria. The Baroness and Herr Detweiler were both fictional characters and the kids didn't really like Maria at first. Thing is too, they didn't put on hiking clothes and climb over the Alps to Switzerland (the border there is Bavaria: quite close to Hitler's summer place, actually...), but they faked passports and rode on a train to Italy.

They explained these details on the Tour. Apparently some Devotee on an earlier tour heard these and said to the guide "You've RUINED my life!!!" when he stood at the bottom of the steps waiting for his tips.

[Carter Bradley]

I once heard a supposed quote from Maria Von Trapp, "Lovely movie, but I'm not sure whose life it was supposed to be." Probably a fictional quote, but funny all the same.

[Steve Klare]

What's also interesting that's rarely mentioned is Captain von Trapp was a submarine commander, and that's why Berlin was so interested.

So, in some bizarre alternate Universe, Georg von Trapp DID go to Bremerhaven instead of Vermont!

-They DON'T have the Sound of Music, but Christopher Plummer stars in Das Boot!😁

-Maybe with a little crossover to The Hunt for Red October so he winds up in Vermont anyway!

(-and maybe Julie Andrews gets to be Eliza Doolittle opposite Rex Harrison, and still wins Best Actress that year.)

[Osi Osgood]

Mike, you are a wealth of information. I never knew S.O.B was an optical sound feature! I'll have to look for that. Knowing my luck, there is only one We should compare lists sometime!

[Burton Sundquist]

I am Dame July Andrews fan as well and have nothing further to add except that the Full Features of The Sound of Music and Victor / Victoria are excellent! Great color and sharp. My SOM was a mono release but could not be recorded in stereo due to poor balance stripe quality. When Alberto resumes removing aged Derann stripes I would consider it for this one, currently in Mono Dolby Digital. I haven't tested V/V for stereo potential but I will get to it.

[Mike Newell]

I once heard a supposed quote from Maria Von Trapp, "Lovely movie, but I'm not sure whose life it was supposed to be." Probably a fictional quote, but funny all the same.

The Sound of Music movie bears no resemblance to the truth like most movies. In Austria until recently there was no mention of SOM anywhere and quite a bit of resentment against the Von Trapps. Mozart was flavour of the month.

[Steve Klare]

Well,

There was also an earlier German language film made in Austria that stuck closer to the facts of the matter and Austrians like this one much better.

There were also problems in Salzburg during the filming of The Sound of Music. It was (and is) illegal to display the flag of Nazi Germany in Austria and without discussing it with anybody, the film crews hung them quite liberally in places both public and private. It basically went downhill from there: they were asked to leave Salzburg earlier than they'd planned and parts of The Sound of Music meant to be filmed in Salzburg were done in Los Angeles instead.

Still the same: there's more than enough of Salzburg in the movie, that when you've been there you keep saying "HEY! WE saw that!"

-and don't get me wrong: if they can make a few Euros in tours and merchandise, they won't turn their backs on you! Without the The Sound of Music, we may have just kept going to Vienna for a few extra days. (Salzburg IS a beautiful old city, with or without the movie.)

On the bus tour, we were in the village where they filmed the wedding. There was a real wedding as we were there and we learned that it is tradition there for the Bride to walk to Church behind a brass band.

-I felt relieved my wife didn't know this before WE got married!


We were in Vermont and went to the Trapp Family Lodge: great gift shop! (I called it the Tourist von Trap!)