Eleanor Parker in "The Sound of Music"

Over time, I've really grown to love her performance and sympathize with her character.

Those bratty children needed to be in boarding school.

And they THREW the ball at her. That was assault. She should have slapped those children for being so rude and disobedient.

I was fascinated by her hairstyles... especially those little curls tucked right under the wave on each side of her head, how sophisticated and elegant that made her look. I was like, how did they do that? hah

Lol, wow - gayest thread ever. (And here I am reading it, haha)

I thought, even as a kid, that it was notable that the film doesn't make her out to be nothing more than a snotty bitch.

I also now think (imminent Nazi invasion aside) that she dodged a bullet.

She is way out of Trapp's league.

You may find this brief thread of interest which is more about her career in general.

Spectacularly beautiful, yet astonishingly untalented. She was probably the worst actress who made it big during the studio era, but she's absolutely delightful in TSOM. Maybe her essential phoniness made her perfect for the role?

You just know during the war years she would have become Herr Captain Zeller's mistress.

Hell, in comparison to her, Norma fucking SHEARER was positively captivating!

She really deserved Peggy Wood's nom (and Wood didn't sing either).

Did the TSOM director use her before? Did she take the supporting role for reduced price?

Did she actually travel to Europe? Or was she photographed in front of back-projections on the studio lot?

I wonder will the Baroness survived the incoming war? Or the nuns punished for sabotaging the SS cars.

How did the nuns manage to sabotage 55 cars, that's a lot.

[quote] 55 cars

No, they were SS cars.

Look at at gauzy nonsense on her dress in the OP's picture.

It's just as silly as that terrible dress that caused all that drama for Jeanne Crain.

I was thinking yesterday about her character in the movie, how the Baroness is who we most feel connected to, her and her gay parties in Vienna.

Eleanor Parker was not untalented. She was a very good actress who frequently stole the scene from everyone she was playing against. In fact, it's hard to keep your eyes off her in TSoM whenever she's in the frame.

In the 70mm version of the movie and the Blu-Ray, you can clearly see the silk of her wig across her forehead.

She had been directed by Robert Wise in Three Secrets back in 1950 and he always held her in high regard for her professionalism and her screen presence. That's how she got the Baroness part in TSoM.

I love watching her as the Baroness. She uses her hands and props a lot, doing little bits of business that draw attention to her. Watch her on the balcony with Richard Hayden. He asks her "What kind of talk is that," and she replies and gestures with her hand, ultimately pointing to him saying "That's none of your business talk, Max!"

Three Secrets is available on Youtube; Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman co-star with Parker, but, unfortunately, it's not much of a movie.

Loved that gesture, 17, but watch the scene where the baron off-handedly invites sister maria to the party since she's already there by the ballroom and has a dress upstairs to put on -- Eleanor's side-glances back and forth in that moment are oscar-worthy.

Can we assume that Eleanor Parker is the on-screen personification of the off-screen homosexual Ernest Lehman?

She is fabulous in the role. Really makes the movie. Maria needs a nemesis for the film to work and Elsa is perfect as that nemesis.

Elsa and Max don't get the credit they deserve for their parts in the movie.

"Come my dear. We are women. Let's not pretend we don't know when a man notices us."

This writer clearly has the right idea.

You are on crack, R16-she was a truly appalling "actress." In actual fact, I literally once vomited while watching her emoting in A Millionaire For Christy.

[quote] she was a truly appalling "actress."

No, she was a truly appalling "movie star."

Didn't Eleanor Parker do a Bus and Truck of "Applause"?

Some mature person on Google says

[quote] I am fairly certain that there are no recordings of the great Eleanor Parker in Applause. This was either a production produced exclusively for Dallas Summer Musicals OR a touring production. .. I don’t remember much about Parker’s singing. I was , say, 12 or 13 at the time. My guess would be, ...that a lot of talk-singing was involved.

I thought Parker's performance in Caged was acclaimed? I have yet to see the movie.

[quote] Parker's performance in Caged was acclaimed

The last three minutes of it were the best.

Parker seemed to come from another era but she was only 7 years old than Plummer.

She was great in Scaramouch.

I'm sure she made an excellent nun.

R31 She was 'the flame-haired wildcat' in that movie

She's great and very sexy in The Naked Jungle.

[quote] Lol, wow - gayest thread ever. (And here I am reading it, haha)

Honey, you're on a gay gossip forum.

What did you think we were going to talk about... the Vikings' starting lineup this fall?

Well, are there some hot asses in it?

[quote] are there some hot asses in it?

Stewart had some hot thighs!

^ (I can see up into Stewie's taint)

Yes but what about the Vikings' lineup? Any bubble butts?

I’ve always liked that she is Maria’s rival but they don’t try to make her too bad, I mean there are nazis in the film so she was never going to be the big baddy in the film.

You should see her in She's Dressed to Kill.

GOWNS by ME.

She made “You blushed in his arms” sound so dirty.

My favorite line of hers is "Now, if you'll forgive me, I'll go inside, pack my little bags, and return to Vienna where I belong."

When I went to TSOM singalong at the Ziegfeld when the credit Eleanor Parker as the Baroness appeared in the opening titles the audience booed except for one DLer who stood up and yelled 'I love you Baroness!'

Jeakins gave her a great wardrobe. But she made it up to Julie with the wedding dress which Andrews said when she wore it that was the only time in her life she felt beautiful.

The film was very smart to leave out the two 'adult' songs. Though How Will Love Survive is used nicely as a waltz in the party scene. That room is so gorgeous it was hard for me to believe it was a Hollywood set. The film's great designer Boris Levin who also designed Wise's West Side Story went on to crown his career with the immortal Mandingo.

[quote] She had been directed by Robert Wise in Three Secrets back in 1950 and he always held her in high regard for her professionalism and her screen presence. That's how she got the Baroness part in TSoM.

William Wyler did two years of pre-production on TSOM but asked out right before shooting was to start so he could do The Collector. Fox and the producers agreed only because Robert Wise was available and agreed to take over immediately. I'm pretty sure Parker was cast long before Wise came onboard.

I'll correct myself above. After reading at WP, IMDB and a couple of blogs, Wyler left the project and Wise joined much earlier than I had thought. Wise was heavily involved in the casting.

I'm sorry they cut the confrontation between the Baroness and Maria, where the Baroness drops her highfaluting accent and serves up some Helen Lawson realness:

"Listen sister, I got your number. You ain't foolin' me for a minute with your sweet little 'Imma virgin!' schtick. Back in Vienna social climbers in cheap frocks and dykes in bad hairstyles like you are two a penny. Now, back off before someone gets hurt. And by someone, I mean you. And by hurt, I mean DEAD! [The Captain walks in] Oh, Georg, there you are, darling. Maria and I were just having the most delightful conversation. I was reading her fortune. Alas, the only one she'll ever have."

Wyler I believe wanted to show the invasion of Austria and make the Nazi threat much stronger. Rumbling tanks and all that. The producers realized this was not what they wanted. Wyler didn't much want to do it anyway. Why he said yes initially is a mystery. It had a terrible reputation in Hollywood despite its Broadway success. And then why he chose Funny Girl as well is a mystery. Still he did a terrific job with that one.

The two biggest directorial mysteries of movie musicals are Coppola for Finian's Rainbow and Huston for Annie. I guess you can throw in Fleischer for Dolittle. You want the man who directed the most grim depressing big budget epic of all time to direct a big colorful family movie musical?

Wyler really did want to do The Collector, badly, and he first asked for the shooting of TSOM to be delayed so he could. Wise had been the first choice for TSOM but he was contracted to do The Sand Pebbles. TSP had financing problems and was delayed. So now the producers had a disinterested director while their first choice is suddenly available. it was a win/win for everybody and they let Wyler out of his contract.

Huston had no interest in directing Annie but he owed producer Ray Stark several favors. He helped in the casting and then did as little as possible, mainly showing up every couple of weeks to go over the dailies and make suggestions. I think Easy Street was completely reshot at his request.

The bulk of the film was shot by choreographer Joe Layton, working closely with the DP. He received an Executive Producer's credit for taking over.

^ And that's a good thing because the idea of Huston directing Annie never quite congealed for me.

R49 I love your version! That would be with the price of admission alone.

"I am amusing, I suppose. I have the finest couturier in Vienna and a glittering circle of friends. I do give some rather gay parties. But take all that away and you have just wealthy, unattached little me, searching, just like you."

Exactly, r55. Even as a little kid I never understood why the Captain chose frumpy Maria over the beautiful, elegant Baroness.

"How Can Love Survive?" is just a silly song (it gives Max and the Baroness something to do), but "No Way to Stop it" is an important song--it establishes that Max and the Baroness are cowards and don't deserve to get out of Austria.

And they both give Maria a rest. You don't need that in a film.

Parker as a drunken bitch on wheels in "An American Dream" She even has a nightstand with a mini fridge built into it! Her voice reminds me of Eileen Heckart's in The Bad Seed when she played the drunken Mrs. Daigle.

[quote]And then why he chose Funny Girl as well is a mystery.

He wanted to work with the legendary Beanie Feldstein.

[quote]Huston had no interest in directing Annie but he owed producer Ray Stark several favors.

I know the feeling.

"How Can Love Survive" and "There's No Way to Stop It" were two of my favorite songs on the original Broadway soundtrack album. I couldn't believe they weren't included in the movie, and the incredibly lame, undistinctive "I Must Have Done Something Good" (or whatever it's called) - one of those blah songs you can essentially sing along with the first time you hear it - was apparently written for the movie.

She's magnificent in Caged. Not so much here...

"Something Good" was used to replace "An Ordinary Couple," which may well be the worst song Richard Rodgers ever wrote.

I first saw TSOM when I was about 12. All I can remember from that evening was that I got a funny feeling whenever the captain was on screen and that I wanted to be just like the baroness when I grew up. You can imagine how popular I was in Kansas.

[quote]"Something Good" was used to replace "An Ordinary Couple," which may well be the worst song Richard Rodgers ever wrote.

The worse song Rodgers ever wrote replaced by the second worse song Rodgers ever wrote. God, that "Something Good" is so cloying and saccharine.

Elaine Stritch sang it in her act.

The Naked Jungle is a great B picture. Heston has never been sexier or acted worse and Parker’s red hair should’ve gotten it’s own movie credit.

Something Good is a very beautiful melody and works especially well in the opening titles. An Ordinary Couple is one of the worst songs to appear in a Broadway hit. Maybe the worst.

She was my Margo...

[quote]God, that "Something Good" is so cloying and saccharine.

Blame the lyricist.

Chicken legs.

Something Good has all the charm of elevator muzak from the '60s. I'm one of the few people I know who actually likes An Ordinary Couple. I think it has the elegant simplicity of a folk song. But I'll admit it might not have worked well in the film.

And Something Good has...*what* to do with Eleanor Parker?

It was originally Eleanor's number but she insisted it be given to Julie.

[quote] I'm one of the few people I know who actually likes An Ordinary Couple. I think it has the elegant simplicity of a folk song.

I think that Mary Martin made the song work. And I agree, I like its simplicity. And it fit nicely between "No Way To Stop It" and the wedding.

Actually it was that bitch Julie who demanded to have Something Good given to her. "The only hit that comes out of a Julie Andrews film is Julie Andrews, and that's ME, baby, remember?"

Julie Andrews kept falling down in that opening shot when the camera pulls away for the long shot. Bitch couldn't sustain. Probably drinking during the filming of it.

Julie was twat drunk.

She was a cute trick.

[quote]I'm one of the few people I know who actually likes An Ordinary Couple.

And when you die, there'll be one less.

There was so much wind from the helicopter propeller that when it flew in close for Julie's close up, it blew her over. It happened on more than one take.

It could have been worse.

That song about she must’ve done something good had a scene taken out before it. It was of her giving the captain head. He agreed she did something good …. Lol.

I'd like to change her type

R59 I love that movie! And her wacky apartment.

The Baroness’ wedding cancellation on McSweeney’s is one of my favorite things.

She never participated in the numerous TSOM reunion interviews they had years after the film came out. Did she have disagreeable feelings about the movie and her co-stars?

What was her big song?

She was wonderful as the Baroness. She brought some glamour into the wholesomeness. Her contrast to Maria was the little hint of acid which cut through the saccharine sweetness and made the whole confection palatable.

I’ve always thought the worst R&H song was Chop Suey from Flower Drum Song.

There was an earlier thread about Ms Parker here years ago that disclosed she died, living in a small condo in West Hollywood IIRC. It was sad.

She was wonderful in The Detective Story opposite Kirk Douglas as his secretive wife.

She died in a lovely mid century condo in Palm Springs. I know because I almost bought it!

[quote]She never participated in the numerous TSOM reunion interviews they had years after the film came out.

Press and TV interviews always seemed to ignore both Eleanor Parker and Richard Haydn. I don't recall ever seeing either of them interviewed about the movie. Maybe they were and I missed it, but the press never seemed that interested in them.

Elsa and Max make the movie! The movie wouldn't be nearly as interesting without them.

She was...troubled.

[quote] "How Can Love Survive?" is just a silly song

I think it's Ok.

How Can Love Survive and There's No Way to Stop It are both great songs but the film takes a decidedly different tone from the stage show and I can understand why they were omitted. And replacing An Ordinary Couple with Something Good.

I love the film but like the stage show better. And for me, I Have Confidence is the worst song Richard Rodgers ever wrote and is totally unnecessary. I'm disappointed it is sometimes interpolated into current stage productions. It's vapid and does nothing but delay getting to the main story.

I don't think it delays it, r96. It's a travel song. it moves on screen and probably doesn't on stage.

^ What do you mean by 'travel song'?

I Feel Confidence is vapid and doesn't advance either the story or Maria's character in any way. It should never be included.

Doesn't she sing it as she's traveling to the Von Trapps, r98? There's motion in it that I think is moving the story along, not delaying it.

Well, it's a favorite of mine, r99.

I have Confidence is my favorite song in the film.

Gives us an idea of Maria's inner thought process. Her inner fears and the things she says to herself.

It moves the film along by giving us a travelogue at countryside near Salzburg.

Someone had to play competition for the affections of Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp, and against the virginal purity of Julie Andrews, Eleanor Parker was just the broad.

Thank you, r103. My first job was at a movie theatre that was showing TSoM when I started. Confidence was one of the parts I'd always manage to do a house check during.

^r102

[quote]Eleanor Parker was just the broad

She never looked as stunning before or after.

Oh look, she could have sung her numbers!

On the AFI tribute to Julie Andrews on TCM last night, many celebrities were raving about how "I Have Confidence" was their favorite song of the movie. I myself like the way "Do-Re-Mi" was shot, it really had an interesting drive to it that seemed unusual for musicals of the time.

The interviews with Julie were great, but I was surprised they didn't bring up the Andrews/Hepburn Oscar controversy.

As for Parker, how did people like her as Sinatra's "invalid" wife in The Man With The Golden Arm?

[quote] I was surprised they didn't bring up the Andrews/Hepburn Oscar controversy.

Why would they?

Andrews and Hepburn were mere pawns in the capitalist corporations' chess game. They wanted maximum box office.

R82 Because the helicopter kept blowing Julie down is the reason why there's a film cut at that point. It was originally supposed to be filmed without a cut there.

"Thinkin' " from PIPE DREAM is pretty awful. That one Hammerstein co-wrote, unlike "Something Good". "Chop Suey" at least has a nice melody.

[quote] one of the parts I'd always manage to do a house check during.

What were you checking? The behavior of the audience?

Those SOM audiences could get pretty wild out of sheer boredom.

You'd do them every 20 minutes, r112. You'd walk with your usher flashlight pointing down. It had a long red plastic tip that dimmed the light. You went down one aisle, up a few steps through a curtain. crossed backstage behind the screen and come back out and go up the other aisle. You also checked the balcony where smoking was allowed. Every 20 minutes. I timed them for Confidence and also Goatherd. This was the theatre, but there was a 70 mm screen in front of that decor.

1926-1984

[quote] This was the theatre, but there was a 70 mm screen in front of that decor.

That's interesting.

It's little before my time but I've wondered how those grand 1930s picture palaces accommodated the new wider screens in the 50s. I hate the idea of a wide-screen picture being shrunk down to fit within the comparatively-narrow proscenium arch.

Yep, r116, it was an actual 70 mm screen. They can officially advertise it as in 70 mm, but if it's not projected on a 70 mm screen...it just ain't 70 mm. Especially where 2001: Space Odyssey was concerned. That was the next movie we showed.

Sad...

[quote] They can officially advertise it as in 70 mm, but if it's not projected on a 70 mm screen...it just ain't 70 mm.

It has nothing to do with the screen, only with the gauge of the film. 70mm film can be projected against a wall and it'll still look super sharp. It doesn't require a special screen although many theaters have a large screen that shows off the sharpness of the film.

How do you solve a problem like Eleanor?

^A cold hose should do the trick

It isn't the sharpness, r119, it's the size. How many theaters around you have an actual 70mm screen?

The 70 mm refers to the width of the celluloid film.

70 mm is just under 3 inches wide.

[quote] How many theaters around you have an actual 70mm screen?

There's no such thing as "a 70mm screen".

PIPE DREAM is a terrible show. It is difficult to believe the amateurish effort was by the same team who wrote the sublime THE KING AND I.

[quote] PIPE DREAM is a terrible show. Cinderella is lame. But it's impossible to be consistent.

Cinderella is NOT lame. It's lovely.

Talented actress and beautiful to boot. But her legs were not her best feature…

R127 I agree that Rodgers made some nice tunes but that childish plot offered no chance for Hammerstein to write any interesting lyrics.

I’ve never seen The Sound of Music. What have I missed?

Rodgers work with Hart was in another galaxy to what he did with Hammerstein

They were different types of shows, r131.

Some songs in "Pipe Dream" were quite good; the tragically gone too soon Judy Tyler was quite wonderful and held her own singing with Wagnerian soprano Helen Traubel.

At least Encores did a pretty good job of "Pipe Dream" with a wonderful Leslie Uggams and a pre-controversial Laura Osnes. I've never had a chance to see "Me & Juliet", like the rarest of the rare Rodgers & Hammerstein shows. Even saw a great "Allegro" a few years ago in Queens.

R134 agree that production of Allegro in Queens was wonderful. Much better than the starry one at Encores during their first (I think) season.

I saw the one at Encores. It was a bore. The show has like two good songs but lasts forever.

“Our arms around each other and our children by our side…”

Me & Juliet was Shirley MacLaine's Broadway debut.

I like the little bit in Beautiful Thing when the mother calls out to the gayling son, asking the name of the baroness, and he immediately answers “Eleanor Parker.”

It was almost an inside joke.

Eleanor is such an old-fashioned name. It's redolent of the first decade of the century.

^ Someone got an 800 verbal on their SATs.

I've always thought I must be missing something with the pink lemonade scene?

[italic] "Not too sweet, not too sour" "Just too ... pink" [/italic]

[italic] "I think I'm brave enough to try some of that" [/italic]

Are they alluding to alcohol? I think they have glasses for the kids. Or is there some other joke at play?

The pinkness of the lemonade is my own personal Da Vinci Code.

^It was code for PUSSY.

Go enjoy your maid who makes clothes from curtains

She never should have been killed off Guiding Light.

The score to The Sound of Music is magnificent. And if you don't think so you're an idiot. Dish the story all you want but those songs have imprinted themselves on everyone's DNA. A stupendous achievement. And I love the songs of Rodgers and Hart(yeah some of Hart's lyrics are not great but at his best he surpasses Sondheim like a supernova) but their shows are rarely revived and when they are they sink like a stone in a pond. The greatest shows of R and H are revived all the time in all kinds of circumstances.

R57 It's a good song, and yes, Elsa and Max are cowards, but why would they even WANT to leave Austria? What is the issue about them not "deserving" to? She is a seemingly apolitical, wealthy aristocrat. By the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire some Jews had been raised to the nobility. But not many and there is no indication she comes from that background. There were also a very small number of aristocrats who became left-wing activists, who would have had reason to fear Nazis, but again that's not her. People like her did fine under the Nazis, even if they considered them vulgar. I don't think we learn anything about Max that suggests he needs to leave either. Most Austrlans were fine with the Anschluss. It was actually the real life von Trapp who was unusual in being so anti-Nazi, despite his conservative background, that he decided to leave.

[quote]the original Broadway soundtrack album.

Oh,dear.

[quote]There were also a very small number of aristocrats who became left-wing activists,

And some became the punchline to an obscene joke.

Elsa and Max didn’t have a military background like Georg von Trapp. GvT had to flee the country or report for duty in the Nazi Party.

That’s why I think “How Can Love Survive” is such an interesting song. On one level, it’s Elsa and Max mapping out how they’ll survive in the coming years.

They may not have been Jewish, but wasn't Max GAY?

[quote] Oh,dear.

Oh, dear.

Her best line was "I'm sure you'll make a very fine nun."

R151. I think it's not clear that Max was gay. It's ambiguous, as I guess it would have had to have been. The film actor may have been. The stage actor portraying him seems to have been straight. I think Max also is supposed to have initially been Georg von Trapp's friend, NOT Elsa's, which would make it less likely.

According to Wikipedia, Richard Haydn never married and never had children

Doesn't necessarily mean he was gay. He could've just been smart.

[quote] Richard Haydn never married and never had children

Well I never in all my life!

Who can forget EP's triumphant turn in The Oscar?

Richard Haydn was a fag!

[quote] triumphant turn in The Oscar?

I squinted all the way through that horrendous movie.

It was when gorgeous Stephen Boyd lost his looks!