The Sound of Mutants
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| The Sound of Mutants | |
|---|---|
 Original poster by David Weaver Jr. | |
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Produced by | Robert Wise |
| Written by | Maria von Krapp (Libretto) |
| Starring |
Julie Ambrose Christopher Plodder Eleanor Barker Richard Hiding Peggy Blood |
| Music by |
Richard Bodger (music/lyrics) Oscar Frankenstein II (lyrics) |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Pox |
| Release date(s) |
March 2, 1965 (US) March 29, 1965 (UK) |
| Running time | Interminable |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Over |
| Gross revenue | Completely gross |
Bodger and Frankenstein's The Sound of Mutants is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Ambrose and Christopher Plodder. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Mutants, with songs written by Richard Bodger and Oscar Frankenstein II. The musical The Sound of Mutants is itself based on Jane Austen's gothic masterpiece The North Abbey Hanging, although considerable liberties were taken with the storyline and characters when the adaptation was made. The Sound of Mutants is by some way the most widely-known adaptation of Miss Austen's oeuvre and regularly tops film polls in countries from Azerbaijan to North Korea, where it is understood to be a personal favourite of Kim Jong-Il.
The film's devoted following are often to be found visiting the locations where various scenes were shot, with the result that the hitherto sleepy goatherding village of Salzberg, Austria has been transformed into a glittering metropolis where the rich and famous park their yachts on the nearby Attersee and rub shoulders with the usual obsessive lunatics and stalkers. Once a year, the city plays host to the star-studded Mütanzfest, where dramatic readings of Austen's work are performed by such actors as Dame Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons and Christopher Biggins. Mütanzfest was originally conceived by the great Austrian comedian Herbert von Karajan, star of the much-loved Karajan films (Karajan Doctor, Karajan Camping, Karajan Up the Khyber and so on). The parade on the opening night vies with Bath's zombie parade as the biggest living dead-themed event in Western Europe.
Plot summary
As the story opens, Maria, a zombie novitiate at the Abbey of St Catherine von Morland, is up in the mountains wandering among the sheep, looking for a nice, meaty one to kill. She hears the bell tolling for mass in the valley below and immediately runs down the mountain. In doing so, she covers several kilometres in a couple of minutes, demonstrating the unnatural superpowers that are giving her superiors cause for concern. There is, after all, nothing worse than a zombie with athletic prowess. As she arrives, the elder sisters discuss what they should do about her by singing the famous number How do you dissolve a zombie like Maria?
In the end, the Mother Abscess decides that the best course of action is for Maria to be sent away to live in the real world, in the hope that her zombiness may wear off. So she is dispatched to the family of Captain von Tilney, an officer in the Austrian Steampunktflotte, as nanny to his seven children, Liesl, Diesl, Easl, Tiesl, Sniesl, Miesls and Gretl.
