The Trapp Family

This film, being the prototype of the more famous Sound of Music, naturally invites comparisons. The most glaring differences are the faster pace, lack of character development, lack of drama and expansion of the New York storyline. While there is nothing really wrong with this film, it doesn't use the story to its full potential and feels like it is being too straightforward and fast-paced, never slowing down to give the viewer a better impression of the setting, characters, music and emotion.

Just when everybody thought that German post-war cinema was on the downward hill financially, along came this warm, often tender, sometimes touching, colorful hit of gargantuan proportions.

Produced on the lavish side, with Germany's top box-office attraction, regal Ruth Leuwerik in the lead, 'Die Trapp Familie' broke all records, second only to 'Schwarzwaldmaedel' as Germany's most popular Heimatfilm and easily became the biggest hit in Miss Leuwerik's chain of successes.

Largely forgotten today, the pic holds up quite well. The story is not too exciting, there's nothing that might offend blue-noses and all takes place against an pastoral background of green meadows and snow-capped mountains.

Ruth Leuwerik does what she can with the wafer-thin part and her warmth and natural beauty prevent the whole thing form being too syrupy.

Interesting sideline: while 'The Sound of Music', a lavish musical version of the same story, broke box-office records in 1965 all over the world, it flopped miserably in Germany and Austria, still faithful to 'Die Trapp Familie'.

The year 1956 was the most successful cinema year in the history of the West German film industry between 1946 and 1969. More than 817 million cinema tickets were sold in West German cinemas in 1956, about half of which were for purely German/German-language films. A huge number that was never to be reached again!

And the most successful film of 1956 was THE TRAPP FAMILY by Wolfgang LIEBENEINER, with more than 26 million cinema tickets sold. With this success behind her, the Essen-born actress Ruth LEUWERIK, who sang and played the main role of Maria von Trapp, finally became the most successful box office magnet in the West German film industry.

The film tells the well-known story of Maria von Trapp, who came to the family of the widowed Baron von Trapp (very pale: Hans HOLT) as a novice at a monastery, captured the hearts of his seven children, married the somewhat boring Baron, fled from Salzburg to America with the whole family to escape the Nazis and began a legendary career there as a member of the family choir. With this material, the busy German film producer and distributor Ilse KUBASCHEWSKI had discovered a real goldmine. The film, with LEUWERIK in the lead role, was even very successful in cinemas in North America (box office: 800,000 USD).

Great pictures from Salzburg and the surrounding area, cute children (including Michael ANDE, who later became very popular in the TV miniseries DIE SCHATZINSEL and the crime series DER ALTE with Siegfried LOWITZ, and stars like Josef MEINRAD and Agnes WINDECK! The biggest box office success (box office equivalent to more than 16 million EURO) in German film history was complete. It was not until WIR CHILDREN FOM BAHNHOF ZOO 25 years later that the earnings of DIE TRAPP-FAMILIE were surpassed.

It is also interesting that the Memoirs of Baroness von Trapp became a major musical success on Broadway in New York in 1959. Mary MARTIN, the mother of DALLAS star Larry HAGMAN, played Maria von Trapp there. The film musical with Julie ANDREWS, which was made six years later, became an enormous box office success in America and worldwide. Only in German-speaking countries was THE SOUND OF MUSIC less well received. Here The version with Ruth LEUWERIK continues to be more popular.

Romantic story of the lively young novice who falls in love with the Baron and his children. Then, due to the war, they all hit off to America to pursue their singing career. Different from the Julie Andrews version but I can`t say that it is better !

If you want a true account of the von Trapp family, you'd best read up on it yourself. While there have been movie accounts (including "The Sound of Music"), all take liberties with the facts. "Die Trapp-Familie" is closer to the truth, but it still feels a lot like the Hollywoodized film.

The version of this movie I watched combined both "Die Trapp-Familie" with its sequel, "The Trapp Family in America", into one movie....and it was dubbed into English as well...at least most of it. The songs, in contrast, were all sung in German.

In this less musical version, the only singing you mostly hear is when the family is performing in concerts...and the style of music is nothing like any you hear in "The Sound of Music". "The Sound of Music", simply put, has great music written for it....and the German-made films feature mostly classical style and religious tunes.

I could recount the plot...but most everybody knows about the family. So instead, let's talk about what was good and bad about the movie. The singing was, at times, dull and the entire movie looks and sounds like the Hollywood film but with a cheaper look to it. It is interesting but flat. Overall, it's similar enough to the more famous film that most won't want to bother with this one. Mostly it's a film for the very curious.