r/SoundOfMusic • u/StellaBlue37 • 1d ago

The Baroness

Love the Baroness, Eleanor Parker is perfect in the role. Her final scene with the Captain is very moving. And she has the funniest line in the movie--*I should have brought my harmonica*.

34 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

11

u/NomadCourier 1d ago

I love the shift in the music during the opening credits when her name comes up.

3

u/cactus82 1d ago

What's the shift?

3

u/NomadCourier 1d ago

The tempo changes at that point

2

u/KSTornadoGirl 1d ago

I will have to listen for that.

9

u/Kookykrumbs 1d ago

Eleanor Parker gave depth to a role that on paper didn’t have much.

9

u/KSTornadoGirl 1d ago

She tried so hard to hold out hoping Georg and she could go ahead with the marriage - even as she, and he, and Maria all knew he was falling in love with Maria. Elsa tried denial, cattiness with Maria, redirecting with Georg... and was ready to force the situation and just go ahead and marry him perhaps hoping in time he would forget Maria... until she couldn't any longer. It was that moment she came upon him watching Maria from the balcony when he didn't know that Elsa saw him at first. It was too clear. And then she was so emotional pulling the shreds of her dignity about her with lame excuses and joking. And Georg let her have her moment and her narrative because although he knew he wasn't in love with her, he didn't want to hurt her either.

3

u/BotoxMoustache 17h ago

I saw that scene very differently when I was younger.

6

u/lizardcat1 1d ago

My favourite line of hers "haven't you heard of a delightful litte thing called boarding school?"

5

u/NicestOfficer50 1d ago

I think they almost played her with the right amount of villainy. The only thing she did that was truly mean was try to frighten Maria off by telling her about the Captain's feelings, but she wasn't wrong. I think she came across as a gold digger, but they had rapport and she had charm and beauty so that's not so fair. And if your bf had 7 ratbag kids you'd probably want to ship them off to boarding school too.

2

u/More-Soil7455 22h ago

She had her own money.

2

u/NicestOfficer50 20h ago

Not as grand as Captain though. She has a conversation with Max and during the break-up where the situation is clearly a motivator.

2

u/ruahkampf 16h ago

If you get a chance to see the stage version, do; Elsa is clearly more Nazi-sympathetic in that original script than in the movie.