Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Director:

Ken Hughes

Writers:

Roald Dahl (screenplay) &
Ken Hughes (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 December 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy | Musical | Fantasy

Tagline:

The most fantasmagorical musical entertainment in the history of everything!

Plot:

An eccentric professor invents wacky machinery, but can't seem to make ends meet. When he invents a revolutionary car...

Plot Keywords:

Children | Car | Inventor | Baron | Candy

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Dick Van Dyke	...	Caractacus Potts
Sally Ann Howes	...	Truly Scrumptious
Lionel Jeffries	...	Grandpa Potts
Gert Fröbe	...	Baron Bomburst (as Gert Frobe)
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 (as Alexander Dore)
Bernard Spear	...	Second Spy
Stanley Unwin	...	Chancellor

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

144 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track

Certification:

Iceland:L | West Germany:o.Al. | Australia:G (alternate rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Norway:5 (video rating) | Norway:7 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:U | USA:G (Approved No. 21682)

Filming Locations:

Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Dramatic Features

Trivia:

Heather Ripley recalled that she did not realize until much later that Dick Van Dyke was an alcoholic when the film was made.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The locomotive overtaken by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the main song sequence is a J94 "Austerity" Saddle Tank locomotive. It has the legend "GWR" (Great Western Railway) on the side. The J94 type of engine was not built until WW2, well after the period the film is set, and no J94s were ever operated by the Great Western Railway. Also, the GWR livery was a deep green, not blue as shown.

Quotes:

Caracticus Potts: The nerve of that woman! Coming in here and telling me how to raise my children! Do I need someone telling me how to raise my children? Do I? Where is my cardigan?
Jemimah: Under your jacket.
Caracticus Potts: Under-.Yes. Self-righteous busy body. Well, she won't be bothering us anymore.
Jemimah: But I liked her.
Jeremy: So did I. She was very pretty.
Caracticus Potts: She certainly was. Do you think your father's a crackpot?
Jeremy: Your cardigan's inside out.
Caracticus Potts: What? Oh. Do you think your father's a lunatic? Wasting my time on a lot of silly inventions?
Jemimah: But they aren't silly! They're wonderful!
Jeremy: Nobody else can think of them.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

Soundtrack:

Truly Scrumptious

Now available as "special edition" DVD ... go get it.

Well it's been 2 years since I last posted a review for this movie... I have just purchased the "Special Edition" version mainly because at last there is a wide-screen DVD version now available! This was one movie that suffered very greatly from a standard T.V format transfer ..... Now in wide-screen,it is possible to see the cinematography as it was intended to be viewed from the original Super Panavision format,even though there is still some "enhanced" format alteration to bring it into line with 16:9 ratio and luckily it was shot in Technicolor,which was easily the best analogue colour system around. Perspectives can now be seen as intended and the beautiful sets and the dance routines look vastly better... you can actually see all the dancers ! Take for instance one scene in Caractacus Potts windmill laboratory,where he shows Truly Scrumptious one of his inventions with which he intends to transmit "pictures and sound".....in the standard format half of the shot is missing so the machine cannot be fully seen and it makes no sense.. however in wide-screen you can see the "picture" and also the whole machine; so now you can enjoy one of Emmet Rolands fantasy machine creations in full. All through the movie the scenery and sets are set up framed with objects in the foreground and back ground which lend to perspective and depth of the image. The sound track seems also to have been worked on .. in previous releases the children's voices seemed to "squeak" but now they sound much more natural. You can see how much we have been missing with previous releases and it is a lot. The Special Edition also has some featurettes on the making of the movie and other related information plus a lovely booklet as well.

As to the movie itself .... it has never lost it's magic for me. I see reviews which pan the musical numbers or say it's too long or that

after seeing it as an adult they were disappointed from what they remember as a child ... but is that not the point ? It is a movie for children and/or those adults who can still view it remembering the child in themselves. It has no coarse language , no mindless violence (except the pantomime variety).. no cynicism ...just fun. In short it is a type of movie that Hollywood can no longer make because they no longer know how ... so it should be treasured more for it. People criticize Dick Van Dykes "American" accent but I find it not intrusive at all ... in fact he would probably have been better off using his normal voice in "Mary Poppins" than attempting the cockney accent which he obviously had some difficulty with.

Kids love this movie .. let them be the judges.

Thank-you Cubby Broccoli ..we miss you. Thank-you Ian Fleming / Roald Dahl / Richard Maibaum and Ken Hughes. Thank-you Ken Adam ... a genius in design for Chitty.