The Sound of Music is celebrating its 50th anniversary in March 2015, which will be marked with a special festival in Salzburg, Austria, in June

1. It is the fifth highest grossing film of all time. Sort of...

The Sound of Music won five Oscars in 1966, and became the highest grossing film in history, knocking Gone with the Wind off the top spot. Translating the figures into today's money, it would be the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.

2. The key players responsible for making it a success nearly didn’t take part

Julie Andrews nearly turned down the part due to its similarity to the previous year’s Mary Poppins. Robert Wise originally didn’t want to direct the film because he felt it was too saccharine. Christopher Plummer didn’t want anything to do with the film, referring to it as “The Sound of Mucus,” and allegedly needed to have some drinks before going on set so he could cope. He hated Edelweiss so much he asked for it to be replaced.

3. Lots of critics didn’t care for it, either, in both its stage and film incarnations

The eminent critic Pauline Kael described the film as “the sugar-coated lie that people seem to want to eat”. Brooks Atkinson, a New York Times critic, said it was clichéd, and Walter Kerr at the New York Herald Tribune thought the show was “not only too sweet for words but almost too sweet for music”.