Psycho's Movie Reviews #370: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 British musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car (1964). The film stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Adrian Hall, Heather Ripley, Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Barbara Windsor and Gert Fröbe.

The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli. John Stears supervised the special effects. Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music, while the musical numbers, written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. The song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was nominated for an Academy Award.

Plot

At a rural England garage, two children, Jeremy and Jemima Potts, find a car formerly used for racing in Grand Prix races across Europe until it crashed and burned in 1909. When they learn the car is due to be scrapped, they beg their father, inventor Caractacus, to save it; he makes multiple unsuccessful attempts to sell his inventions in order to raise money to buy it, until he earns tips from a song-and-dance act at a carnival. He purchases the car and rebuilds it with a new name, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for the unusual noise of its engine. In the first trip in the car, Caractacus, the children, and a wealthy woman they've had awkward encounters with before, Truly Scrumptious, picnic on the beach. Caractacus tells them a tale about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The story starts with the quartet escaping Bomburst's pirates. The Baron then sends two spies to capture the car, but they capture Lord Scrumptious, then Grandpa Potts by accident, mistaking each for the car's creator. Caractacus, Truly, and the children see their Grandpa, Bungie Potts, being taken away by airship, following it to Vulgaria, which involves the car sprouting wings and propellers to fly. Grandpa is taken to the castle, and has been ordered by the Baron to make another floating car just for him. He bluffs his abilities to the Baron to avoid being executed. The Potts' party is helped and hidden by the local Toymaker, who now works only for the childish Baron. Chitty is discovered and then taken to the castle. While Caractacus and the Toymaker search for Grandpa and Truly searches for food, the children are kidnapped by the Baroness's Child Catcher, as children are against the law in Vulgaria under Bomburst's rule.

The Toymaker takes Truly and Caractacus to a grotto beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children. They concoct a scheme to free the children and the village from the Baron. The Toymaker sneaks them into the castle disguised as life-size dolls for the Baron's birthday. Caractacus snares the Baron, and the children swarm into the banquet hall, overcoming the Baron's palace guards and guests. In the ensuing chaos, the Baron, Baroness, and the evil Child Catcher are captured. Jeremy and Jemima are freed by Caractacus and Truly and fight against the guards. Chitty comes to their rescue and, at the same time, they are reunited with Grandpa. The Potts family and Truly bid farewell to the Toymaker and the rest of the village, then fly back home to England.

When Caractacus finishes the story, they set off for home, stopping to drop Truly off at Scrumptious Manor, where Caractacus dismisses any possibility of them having a future together, with what she regards as inverted snobbery. The Potts family arrive back at their cottage where Lord Scrumptious surprises Caractacus with an offer to buy one of his inventions, the Toot Sweets, as a canine confection, re-naming them Woof Sweets. Caractacus, realising that he will be rich, rushes to tell Truly the news. They kiss, and Truly agrees to marry him. As they drive home, he acknowledges the importance of pragmatism as the car takes off into the air again, this time without wings.

Production

Fleming used to tell stories about the flying car to his infant son. After the author had a heart attack in 1961, he decided to write up the stories as a novel. He wrote the book in longhand as his wife had confiscated his typewriter to force him to rest.

The novel was published in 1964 after Ian Fleming's death. The book became one of the best selling children's books of the year. Albert Broccoli, who produced the James Bond films, based on novels by Ian Fleming, read the novel and was not enthusiastic about turning it into a film. He changed his mind after the success of Mary Poppins.

In December 1965, it was reported Earl Hamner had completed a script from the novel. In July 1966, it was announced the film would be produced by Albert Broccoli. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman produced the James Bond films but would do separate projects as well; Chitty Chitty was done by Broccoli alone.

In December 1966. Broccoli announced that Dick Van Dyke would play the lead.[14] It was the first in a multi-picture deal Van Dyke signed with United Artists. By April 1967, Sally Ann Howes was set to play the female lead, and Ken Hughes would direct from a Roald Dahl script. Howes was signed to a five-picture contract with Broccoli. It was the first film for the child stars, and they were cast after an extensive talent search. Robert Helpmann joined the cast in May.

The film's songs were written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously composed the music for Mary Poppins. Director Ken Hughes claimed he had to rewrite the script.

The Caractacus Potts inventions in the film were created by Rowland Emett. In 1976, Time magazine, describing Emett's work, wrote that no term other than "Fantasticator...could remotely convey the diverse genius of the perky, pink-cheeked Englishman whose pixilations, in cartoon, watercolour and clanking 3-D reality, range from the celebrated Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway to the demented thingamabobs that made the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a minuscule classic."

Ken Adam designed the titular car, and six Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang cars were created for the film, only one of which was fully functional. At a 1973 auction in Florida, one sold for $37,000, equal to $215,704 today. The original "hero" car, in a condition described as fully functional and road-going, was offered at auction on 15 May 2011 by a California-based auction house. The car sold for $805,000, less than the $1 million to $2 million it was expected to reach. It was purchased by New Zealand film director Sir Peter Jackson.

Filming started June 1967 at Pinewood Studios.

Release/Reception/Box Office

United Artists promoted the film with an expensive, extensive advertising campaign, hoping for another Sound of Music. The movie was released on a roadshow basis.

Time began its review by stating the film is a "picture for the ages—the ages between five and twelve" and ended noting that "At a time when violence and sex are the dual sellers at the box office, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang looks better than it is simply because it's not not all all bad bad"; the film's "eleven songs have all the rich melodic variety of an automobile horn. Persistent syncopation and some breathless choreography partly redeem it, but most of the film's sporadic success is due to director Ken Hughes's fantasy scenes, which make up in imagination what they lack in technical facility."

The New York Times critic Renata Adler wrote "in spite of the dreadful title, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...is a fast, dense, friendly children's musical, with something of the joys of singing together on a team bus on the way to a game"; Adler called the screenplay "remarkably good" and the film's "preoccupation with sweets and machinery seems ideal for children"; she ends her review on the same note as Time: "There is nothing coy, or stodgy or too frightening about the film; and this year, when it has seemed highly doubtful that children ought to go to the movies at all, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sees to it that none of the audience's terrific eagerness to have a good time is betrayed or lost."

The film was the tenth most popular at the U.S. box-office in 1969. However, because of its high budget, it lost United Artists an estimated $8 million during its run in cinemas. Five films produced by Harry Saltzman, including The Battle of Britain, lost UA $19 million. This contributed to United Artists scaling back its operations in the UK.

Budget $10 million (or) $12 million

Box office $7.5 million

My Review

There's so much to attack but so much to love (begrudgingly) in this movie version of Ian Fleming's novel. Yes, indeed, the author of the Bond series wrote a musical about a magical car that floats, flies and bang bang bangs. It's also a lifesaver for the eccentric inventor Cattaragus Potts (Dick Van Dyke), his two precocious children (Adrian Hall and Heather Ripley), and a beautiful socialite (Sally Anne Howes) who is at the crossroads of her life and determined to get past the pretensions of being the daughter of a wealthy sweets manufacturer, Lord Scrumptious (a wonderfully imperious James Robertson Justice) who has nothing but her money to claim as her own. The widowed Potts and the lovely Truly don't hit it off at first (like many couples paired together in a movie musical), but her instant love for his children draws them closer, as does an adventure where they head off to a weird land of child-hating rulers and underground canyons where everybody under the age of 18 lives in fear.

The Sherman Brothers achieve another hit in their musical catalogue with the musical score, an obvious follow-up to "Mary Poppins", yet not released by Walt Disney. Van Dyke is the obvious choice for Potts, and with Julie Andrews unable to take on the role of the heroine, British musical diva Sally Anne Howes had her one American film role as Truly. "Lovely, Lonely Man" shows her as a gorgeous soprano, and it is sad for American audiences that she didn't get the chance to be seen in more films. Only some lucky audiences on Broadway got the chance to see her, mainly as a replacement in "My Fair Lady" for Andrews on Broadway.

Hall and Ripley are delightful as the children, looking more real than the kids from "Mary Poppins" and delightfully coy in their attitudes towards life. Lionel Jeffries gives a glorious performance as their flustered grandfather, an eccentric world traveller who pretends to go around the world in his little shack which really appears to be an out-house. There's gloriously campy performances from Gert Frobe and Anna Quayle as the Baron and Baroness Bomburst who perform "Choochy Face" with the attitudes of teenagers in a seemingly perfect lovefest, but its obvious that the Baron can't stand her, leading to some hilarious innuendos of him obviously trying to snuff her out. "Choochy Face" is followed up by the hysterical visual of the dried-up court of prunes who surround them socially, giving this a cartoon feel in its live action presentation.

Then, there's Robert Helpmann as the sinister looking Child Catcher, one of the most horrifying villains ever on screen, and one who probably gave a lot of children nightmares. He actually looks like he could be a distant relative of the Wicked Witch of the West, an escapee from Oz who was obviously banished by the little people who lived in that land. Even "Willy Wonka" with its darkness didn't have a character like this. Musically and choreographically, "Chitty" is phenomenal with several lavish production numbers, some extremely touching moments, and a fantasy element that is almost as magical as "The Wizard of Oz". A Broadway version proved to be even more elephantine than the movie, overly cute and missing the adult touches that made the movie as appealing to grown-ups as it was to children.

The only criticism is that at 2 and a quarter hours it is probably too long, I personally could have done without the spies, whose antics were rather silly rather than funny. Mind it is only two minutes longer than Mary Poppins, which I also love. Films like Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz and this were my childhood favourites, and if you want some entertainment in a musical, look no further than this. It has a witty script, anything the Grandfather says is enough to crack anybody up and Gert Frobe as the Vulgarian king is hilarious. The songs are unforgettable, and beautifully staged, the car looks glorious and the performances are first-rate. Dick Van Dyke is brilliant here. Personally I think he was better than he was in Mary Poppins. Sally-Ann Howes is beautiful as Truly, and she has a beautiful voice (apparently she has perfect pitch) Unlike some people, I thought "Lovely Lonely Man" was lovely, and the imagery was as if you were in a fairytale. Lionel Jeffries is really entertaining as the Grandfather, I couldn't believe he was younger than Dick Van Dyke. The children can't sing, but they can act and are cute. Finally, Robert Helpmann's child catcher, competes with Tim Curry's Pennywise in It as the scariest character on film, and I genuinely mean that. This film is beautiful with fabulous costumes- Howes never looked lovely than in her stunning white dress in "Lovely Lonely Man" and sets (especially the castle and Truly's garden), a must see. 9.5/10