Sound Of Music Reunion For 50th Anniversary

Julie Andrews has said it feels like a "big joke" that The Sound Of Music has celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The actress was reunited with her co-star Christopher Plummer for a screening of the 1965 classic in Hollywood.

"It feels like 75 actually," joked Plummer when asked if it seemed like a half century had passed.

And Andrews couldn't quite believe it: "No I think it's a big joke. I think it feels like about 30."

Few American musicals are as beloved as The Sound of Music and Andrews, 79, said she is always asked why.

"I can't honestly give you that answer because I'm asked it all the time and it could be any number of things," she said.

"It could be that it's a family movie, it could be that it's a love story, it could be that the music is so great or the scenery is so beautiful but they all came together to make I guess a joyous family film. That's the best way I could describe it."

The musical and movie are a fictionalised account of the life of Maria von Trapp and tell the story of a 1930s governess who teaches her charges to sing and falls in love with her employer, naval captain Georg von Trapp, and the family's flight before World War II.

Plummer, who played Captain von Trapp, has in the past derisively called the film The Sound Of Mucus but through the years that changed as he realised the impact the movie had on millions of people across the globe.

"No, I've said this already but I think it's an escape film. I think it's very important," said the 85-year-old.

"It's from an innocent time and with the horrific whole world situation right now it's great for parents to take their children to see something as innocent and pure as this and that's why each year there's another old phalanx of children coming to see it."