The Oscar-winning 1965 movie of the Rodgers & Hammerstein stage classic has kept the actress a favorite performer for several generations. The tuneful film lives on in a 40th-anniversary DVD edition, recently released by Fox Home Entertainment and packed with fresh bonus features. It also returns to television with a four-hour broadcast Saturday, Dec. 17, on ABC.

"It seems it's always being shown somewhere," Andrews says, "particularly around Easter or Christmas, depending on whether it's England or America. It's phenomenal how it has held up and been so beloved. I love it, too. I'm very, very fond of it. Every several years, there's a new generation that will probably see it, and I'm supremely blessed to be a part of that."

Quickly proving herself not as easily terrorized as her predecessors, she wins the kids over to the degree that they join her on song standards such as "Do-Re-Mi" and "My Favorite Things." A romance also develops between Maria and the captain, but the rise of Nazism becomes a threat.

However familiar anyone may be with "The Sound of Music," its star included, the DVD revolution keeps adding new elements. "I love watching documentaries on the making of movies," Andrews says, "getting a window into how hard the work was."

The newest "Music" disc reteams her with Plummer to reminisce about the filming, "and it was reassuring to discover how much we felt the same about certain things like the weather, and like Salzburg and how beautiful it was. He and I have remained great friends for many years.

"In this particular DVD, there's a lot of footage I hadn't ever seen before," Andrews adds, "like film of me pre-recording the soundtrack in a studio. I had completely forgotten there was a camera there, so to see it now is a revelation. It was a pleasure to watch it, I have to say."

"The Sound of Music" earned Academy Awards for best picture, editing and -- appropriately enough -- sound and music scoring. Its fifth Oscar, for best director, went to veteran filmmaker Robert Wise; he died earlier this year, as did the picture's screenwriter, Ernest Lehman.

"I did two movies with Bob," Andrews says. "We also made 'Star!' together, and in both cases, he was gentle in every way. He was a mentor, and one always felt he had a very quiet, firm control."

That was no small thing in the case of "The Sound of Music," since Wise also had to oversee seven youngsters of varying ages. Andrews reunited with the entire septet last month at a New York event celebrating the release of the new DVD.

"Quite often, I've bumped into one or maybe even three or four of them ... but to see all seven at the same time, I don't think that had happened since the 25th anniversary of the movie. Every 10 years or so, we used to have our own anniversary celebration where we'd all get together. We've stayed fond of each other and sent messages back and forth."

Of the seven, arguably the most famous are Angela Cartwright ("Lost in Space"), Nicholas Hammond (television's 1970s "Spider-Man") and Heather Menzies, who was married to the late Robert Urich.

Along with Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins," for which Andrews won a best actress Oscar, "The Sound of Music" locked her into the hearts of countless film fans for all time. She still keeps a busy schedule including writing children's books and directing theater. Her staging of "The Boy Friend," the musical in which she made her Broadway debut in the mid-1950s, has been touring nationally since mid-summer.

Additionally, Andrews' screen appearances in the "Princess Diaries" comedies and her voice-over work in the "Shrek" fantasies have brought her a new fan base. "It is a bookend in a way," she says. "It's something I never anticipated. I never expected to be going this long or doing what I'm doing. My life is just so full."

Andrews credits part of that to her husband of the past 36 years, producer-director Blake Edwards, with whom she has made movies including "10" and "Victor/Victoria." Deeming herself "one of his biggest fans," she hopes for "a huge retrospective of his work some day, because he's done so much in so many different genres."

While she claims it's "mind-boggling" to discuss the 40th anniversary of "The Sound of Music," Andrews has no doubt why it has endured. "I think it's the great use of the music," she says. "When you're making a musical, it just elevates the whole process of loving coming to work every day. There's just great sound all around you when you're doing the songs."