Young Brigitta

I've watched SoM a bunch of times. All the way through sometimes, but mostly different favorite scenes. Angela Cartwright is by far the most natural actress of the bunch. She's the one you can see working on her own, figuring out her own internal life. She's next to Julie Andrews when everyone sings "Eidelweiss" on stage for a reason - she doesn't need to be coached on how to feel, or how to believe in the moment.

Sometimes I play a game of, if I could "x" some of the kids out and keep others, who would I choose? I'd definitely keep Brigita first. Basically I like Brigita, Kurt, and Marta. The two I can't stand are Liesl and Greta, with Frederick a strong runner up. Those three I'd get rid of, and maybe let Louisa stay, although I don't like her as much as the other three.

While I think Charmian Carr is perfect as Liesl, there's also something super stagey in her acting. On youtube, there's a video of the dialogue coach going over the dialogue over and over with her. She's very earnest, but you can see on camera that the whole performance was fed to her (except the dancing and singing with Rolf - she seems more at ease there).

The casting of the children as siblings were spot on, especially Birgitta and Marta. Angela Cartwright when she appeared on "Make Room for Daddy", looked very much like Debbie Turner did as 'Marta. Also Friedrich and Louisa looked very much alike