Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)
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| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | |
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| Directed by | Ken Hughes |
| Produced by | Albert R. Broccoli |
| Written by | Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes, Ian Fleming |
| Starring | Dick Van Dyke Sally Ann Howes Lionel Jeffries |
| Music by | Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman Irwin Kostal |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editing by | John Shirley |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | (UK) December 16, 1968 (USA) December 18, 1968 |
| Running time | 144 min. |
| Country | U.K. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 feature film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, based on Ian Fleming's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The film was directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli, best known as co-producer of the James Bond series of films, also based on Fleming's novels. Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music, and the musical numbers were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. It was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Christopher Challis.
The film went significantly over budget, but was a box office hit. Although it received favorable reviews in the UK, Europe, and the East Coast of the United States, Hollywood was unkind in its reviews. The film's producers had culled the behind-the-scenes talent from the biggest Hollywood musicals from the 60s as well as its own team who had worked on the hit James Bond films. The movie has become a children's classic.
Taglines:
- It Was Just An Old Neglected Car. Who Could Have Guessed...
- The most fantasmagorical musical entertainment in the history of everything!
Contents |
[edit] Plot
As the story opens, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a dilapidated former racing car and a three-time Grand Prix winner, is the favorite playtoy of Jeremy and Jemima Potts, and is about to be sold for scrap. As the children rush home to persuade their father to buy the car for them, they narrowly avoid being run over by Truly Scrumptious, an heiress. Miss Scrumptious takes the children home, meeting their widowed father, inventor Caractacus Potts, giving him a tongue-lashing for failing to properly care for his children.
Potts, wishing to buy the car but lacking the thirty shillings necessary to do so, hatches numerous schemes to try and make money. He tries to peddle a whistle-like candy to a local candy tycoon, one Lord Scrumptious (Truly's father), and nearly succeeds until the tunes of the whistle attract a pack of dogs into the candy factory, wrecking the place. He then attempts to offer haircuts at a fair, via his "automatic haircutting machine." The machine malfunctions whilst cutting the hair of a local brute (giving him a ridiculous haircut) who then chases after Potts with the intent of beating him in retaliation, and in order to escape, Potts ducks into the middle of a song-and-dance troupe giving a performance. Potts joins the performers, does an outstanding job, and is showered with coins. With the money he makes, Potts buys the car and fixes it.
After repairing the car, the Potts family head off to the seaside for a picnic. Professor Potts runs Truly Scrumptious off the road (a running gag throughout the movie is that Truly's car keeps ending up in a pond) and the family persuade Truly to come along on their picnic. (As Dick Van Dyke explained in a documentary interview, in the original book, Professor Potts is married; in the movie, Truly Scrumptious is added as a love interest and Potts is assumed to be a widower).
At the beach, Caractacus spins a story about pirates who are trying to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a fantasy sequence which becomes the central plot.
The pirates are headed by Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria, who then sends a pair of bumbling spies ashore to steal the car. After numerous failed attempts to steal the car while in England, the spies capture Potts' father Grandpa Potts, having mistaken him for the professor, and transport him to Vulgaria hoping he will build another "fantasmogorical" motor car for the Baron. The elder Potts, a retired soldier and cricket player, has no clue how to invent anything. However, the Potts family witness the kidnapping and chase the bandits back to Vulgaria in the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In the barony of Vulgaria children are outlawed, as the Baroness hates children. The only toymaker in town makes toys exclusively for the Baron. When Professor Potts and the Toymaker hatch a plan to rescue Grandpa, and Truly goes out to go get food, the two Potts children, Jemima and Jeremy, are captured by the terrifying Child Catcher.
Eventually, Caractacus and Truly, with some help from the Toymaker, defeat the Baron and his armies, and set free all the children. The Potts family is reunited and return to England only to reveal that they are still at the beach from the day of the picnic. By this time Potts and Truly have fallen in love, but he denies his love by telling her that their class differences would keep the relationship from ever working out. When Potts returns home, he is greeted by Lord Scrumptious who has a candy contract. It turns out out that Potts' invention, the "Toot Sweets", previously rejected as being useless for humans, are wonderful for dogs and as "Woof Sweets" will make him a fortune. Potts goes back after Truly, running her off the road into the pond for the third time, and he professes his love for her. Caractacus and Truly "decide" (by way of a somewhat spontanious kiss) to get married.
[edit] Cast
- Dick Van Dyke .... Caractacus Potts
- Sally Ann Howes .... Truly Scrumptious
- Lionel Jeffries .... Grandpa Potts
- Gert Fröbe .... Baron Bomburst
- Anna Quayle .... Baroness Bomburst
- Benny Hill .... Toymaker
- James Robertson Justice .... Lord Scrumptious
- Robert Helpmann .... Child Catcher
- Heather Ripley .... Jemima
- Adrian Hall .... Jeremy
- Barbara Windsor .... Blonde
- Davy Kaye .... Admiral
- Alexander Doré .... First spy
- Bernard Spear .... Second spy
- Stanley Unwin .... Chancellor
- Peter Arne .... Captain of Guard
- Desmond Llewellyn .... Coggins
- Victor Maddern .... Junk man
- Arthur Mullard .... Big man
- Ross Parker .... Chef
- Gerald Campion, Felix Felton, Monti de Lyle .... Ministers
- Tottie Truman Taylor .... Duchess
- Larry Taylor .... Lieutenant
- Max Bacon .... Orchestra leader
- Max Wall, John Heawood, Michael Darbyshire, Kenneth Waller, Gerald Taylor, Eddie Davis .... Inventors
[edit] Songs/Musical Numbers
Memorable songs include:
- "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
- "Truly Scrumptious"
- "Hushabye Mountain"
- "Me Ol' Bamboo"
- "Toot Sweets"
- "The Roses Of Success"
- "Lovely Lonely Man"
- "You Two"
- "Chu-Chi Face"
- "Posh!"
- "Doll On A Music Box"
- "Doll On A Music Box/Truly Scrumptious"
"Doll On A Music Box" is sung near the end of the musical by Truly and is a musical counterpoint, also being sung simultaneously with Caractacus' rendition of the song "Truly Scrumptious". Two songs apparently intended for the film but ultimately relegated only to instrumental background music are "Come To the Funfair" and the "Vulgarian National Anthem"; they were published with lyrics in the sheet music along with the other film songs when the movie was released. The stage version restores these two as vocal numbers. The Sherman Brothers also were hired to write several new songs for the stage production including "Think Vulgar!" which was replaced in 2003 with "Act English", "Kiddy-Widdy-Winkies", "Teamwork" and "The Bombie Samba"
Two songs stand out for the use of musical instruments in the orchestra: "Toot Sweets" – especially in the motion picture – employs a multitude of flutes; and the subject of "Me Ol' Bamboo" is aurally suggested by the xylophone (and accompanies Potts performing a Morris dance with a troupe).
[edit] Trivia
- In the opening race sequence, during the second race there is a blue number 7B car. One scene it shows the vehicle running out of control and plowing into the stands, followed by an explosion, (obviously the car is totaled or destroyed). However, in the next scene, which is the end of the race, it crosses the finish line in 3rd. In the same race, there is a number 43 car that loses a wheel and crashes, and it also crosses the line in 4th or 5th, in front of all the cars that passed it while it was diasbled.
- Because of his comment 'This will out-Disney Disney', Van Dyke was banned from doing Disney productions for several years. However, Van Dyke was honored as a Disney Legend in 1998.
- The late Robert Helpmann, who played the 'Child-Catcher', was well-liked by the child actors. After each day's filming, he would give the children his wax facial add-ons.
- Lionel Jeffries, who played Grandpa, is actually a year younger than Dick Van Dyke.
- Benny Hill, playing the Toymaker, is best known for his self-named comedy series, and is therefore a surprise in this dramatic role.
- Barbara Windsor, most famous for the campy British Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, appears briefly as the wife of Arthur Mullard who was subjected to Potts' automatic haircut machine.
- The locations for Vulgaria were the Neuschwanstein Castle and the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria.
- Dakota Fanning sings the song "Hushabye Mountain" in the 2005 version of the film War Of The Worlds, and also stars in another Sherman Brothers film remake Charlotte's Web (2006).
- The song "You Two" was parodied in an episode of Family Guy, entitled "Peter's Got Woods" (aired 9/11/2005), as Peter duets with actor James Woods on a re-written version of the song.
- The Sherman Brothers, famous for their creation of the word 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' for the film Mary Poppins (1964), also coined a word for the title song of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was 'fantasmagorical'. Although there was always the word 'Phantasmagoria', until the release of the 1968 motion picture, there was no record of the 'F' spelling or the 'al' suffix which cobbles the root word into the adjective form. 'Fantasmagorical', as a descriptive, was subsequently used in many of the promotional materials to describe the film and later on, the London West End and Broadway stage musicals.
- Strangely, despite Van Dyke's previous attempt to perform using an English accent (as demonstrated in Mary Poppins), and his character's two children and father all portrayed as being English in the film, his character is apparently American. This is even more unusual when one considers that this film is a production that is British, not American. Also the children seem to be adopted, since Mr. Potts isn't married (which he was in the book.).
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the car of the film, was not a pre-1930s car at all. Four cars of this type were purpose-built in 1967 for the film, and these, due to using Ford Zodiac Essex 3.0L V6s, would easily keep up with the fastest vehicles of the day. Different Chittys did different duties (i.e. one was set up for floating out at sea - it was mounted on a speed boat and was remote controlled), and Chitty did actually fly (a partial car – hood only – being mounted underneath a helicopter in certain scenes).
- At the end of The Roses of Success sequence, the car Grandpa and the other inventors are working on has bars connected from the car to the floor, which were not there during the first three quarters of the song, and appear at the last second in order to make the car fall apart and drop.
- The full name "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is spoken (as opposed to sung or chanted) only once, by Jemima just after Truly has joined the picnic outing:
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- Jemima: It's called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
- Truly: That's a curious name for a motor car.
- In examples of American advertising for the film, Chitty was depicted as a left hand drive car. In the film of course, being based partly in Great Britain, Chitty is right hand drive.
- Sally Ann Howes, who plays Truly Scrumptious (the daughter of a candy magnate), once had a spaniel named Candy (1950s).
- Truly Scrumptious drives a yellow Humber 1909 in the film, with the registration plate 'CUB 1'. This plate was an in-film wink to Albert R. Broccoli (the film's producer) whose nickname was 'Cubby'. The original car, which was an antique, was a standard shift and proved too difficult for star Sally Ann Howes to drive; it was also a different color and the owners refused to allow the production to repaint it, therefore, a new Humber 1909 was built, and this one was automatic and painted to the production designer's liking.
[edit] The Bond connection
There are a number of similarities between Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the third James Bond film Goldfinger. Both movies:
- Are based on stories written by Ian Fleming
- Feature a villain played by Gert Fröbe as Baron Bomburst and Auric Goldfinger
- Have the hero using a gadget car, Chitty and an Aston Martin DB5
- Were produced by Albert R. Broccoli
- Had Ken Adam for the production designer
- Include Desmond Llewelyn, who plays the recurring Bond character Q; he appears in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Coggins, the junk dealer who sells Chitty to Potts.
- Were released by United Artists
- Author Roald Dahl wrote the screenplays for both Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and another Bond film You Only Live Twice
[edit] The Poppins connection
There are a number of similarities between Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Walt Disney's Mary Poppins. Both movies:
- Feature a song score by the Sherman Brothers: Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.
- Have musical arrangement by Academy Award winning music arranger, Irwin Kostal
- Have choreography by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood
- Demonstrate the magic of their title "character" by showing them in flight.
- Feature Dick Van Dyke as their leading man.
- Have hit stage musicals based on the original work touring in numerous cities world-wide including Broadway and London.
- Have groundbreaking dance numbers based on indigenous folk dances of England.
- Feature clever Sherman Brothers word play.
[edit] Locations
- Scrumptious Mansion - Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Bucks, England
- Windmill/Cottage - Cobstone Windmill in Ibstone, near Turville, Bucks, England
- Duck Pond - Russell's Water, Oxfordshire, England
- Beach - Cap Taillat in St. Tropez, France
- Baron Bomburst's castle - Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria
- Bridge where spies attempt to blow up Chitty - Iver Bridge, Iver, Bucks
- Bridge where spies kidnap Lord Scrumptious - Ilmer Bridge, Ilmer,Bucks
- The Church that the family in Chitty drive past - St. Mary the Virgin - Hambleden, Bucks
- Vulgarian village - Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
- Lighthouse and white cliffs Beachy Head, East Sussex
[edit] See also
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang |
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| Characters: Caractacus Potts | Truly Scrumptious | Child Catcher | Baroness Bomburst | Baron Bomburst |
| Objects and locations: Vulgaria | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (car) |
| Media: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (song) | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (musical) |
