''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

and Hughes, loosely based on

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., an ...

's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars

Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage. Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio and telev ...

, 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 Albert Romolo Broccoli ( ; April 5, 1909 – June 27, 1996), nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career. Most of the films were made in the United Kingdom and often filmed at Pi ...

. John Stears supervised the special effects.

Irwin Kostal Irwin Kostal (October 1, 1911 – November 23, 1994) was an American musical arranger of films and an orchestrator of Broadway musicals. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kostal attended Harrison Technical High School, but opted not to ...

supervised and conducted the music, while the musical numbers, written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, were staged by

Marc Breaux Marc Breaux (November 3, 1924 – November 19, 2013) was an American choreographer and occasional film director best known for his work on musical films of the 1960s and 1970s. Most of his well-known work was in collaboration with Dee Dee Wood to ...

and Dee Dee Wood. The song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

Plot

The film opens with a sequence of European Grand Prix races won by the same car over an instrumental version of the main theme (" Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"), concluding with the eponymous car crashing and burning in 1909. Years later, widowed inventor Caractacus Potts is raising two young children, Jeremy and Jemima (" You Two"), who have become fond of the crashed ex-racer, housed at a local rural English garage. When they learn the car is due to be

scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

, they beg Caractacus to save it, so he demonstrates numerous unsuccessful inventions to raise money, including a disastrous attempt to market a musical hard candy ("Toot Sweets") that summons stray dogs instead. Discouraged, he sings the children a lullaby that night (" Hushabye Mountain") and brings them to a carnival the next day, where he earns tips from a spirited song-and-dance act (" Me Ol' Bamboo"). He purchases the car and rebuilds it as "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for its unusual engine sounds. In the first trip in the car, Caractacus and the children picnic on the beach with

Truly Scrumptious Truly Scrumptious is a fictional character in the 1968 film ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' and stage production based on the children's novel of the same name by author Ian Fleming. In the film the character is portrayed by Sally Ann Howes, after ...

, a wealthy woman with whom they have previously had awkward encounters ("

"). Caractacus tells the children a tale about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but the quartet escape Bomburst's pirates after the car transforms into a boat. On the way home, they stop to drop Truly off at Scrumptious Manor ("

Lovely Lonely Man "Lovely Lonely Man" is a song from the 1968 musical film ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang''. It was written by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. In the song, she pines for eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts ...

"). The tenacious Baron has sent two spies to capture the car, but they instead kidnap Truly's father, Lord Scrumptious, then Caractacus' father, Grandpa Potts, mistaking each for the car's creator. Arriving home, they see Grandpa Potts being taken away by

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

(" Posh!") and follow it to Vulgaria, as the car sprouts 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 ("Hushabye Mountain" (reprise)). Grandpa and the other inventors rally their spirits by celebrating numerous failures to replicate the car ("

The Roses of Success "The Roses of Success" is a song and musical number from the popular 1968 motion picture ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and ...

"). The Toymaker, Truly, and Caractacus concoct a scheme to free the children and the village from the Baron. As a present for the Baron's birthday ("Chu-Chi Face"), the Toymaker sneaks the pair into the castle disguised as life-size dolls (" Doll on a Music Box / Truly Scrumptious"). 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 ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (Finale)). When Caractacus finishes the story, they set off for home again; Caractacus dismisses any possibility of a future together with Truly, which she regards as inverted snobbery. The Potts family arrive back at their cottage where Lord Scrumptious surprises Caractacus with an offer to buy 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.

Cast

The cast includes: The part of Truly Scrumptious had originally been offered to

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy F ...

, to reunite her with Van Dyke after their success in ''

Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film star ...

''. Andrews rejected the role specifically because she considered that the part was too close to Poppins. Sally Ann Howes was given the role. Van Dyke was cast after he turned down the role of Fagin from the 1968 musical '' Oliver!''.

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 ''

''. 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. 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

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 Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' 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, watercolor 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 Sir Kenneth Adam (born Klaus Hugo George Fritz Adam; 5 February 1921 – 10 March 2016) was a German-British movie production designer, best known for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for '' Dr. Stra ...

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 $ 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.

Filming locations

File:Kempton Park Pumping Station (geograph 2512433).jpg, Kempton Water Works,
Surrey, England
''Scrumptious Sweet Co factory'' File:Heatherden Hall.jpg, Heatherden Hall, Buckinghamshire, England
''Scrumptious Mansion'' File:Cobstone Windmill.jpg, Cobstone Windmill, Buckinghamshire, England
''Windmill/Cottage'' File:Pond and village sign at Russell's Water - geograph.org.uk - 2891367.jpg,

Russell's Water Russell's Water is a hamlet about north of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire. It is in the Chiltern Hills about above sea level. There is 20th-century and older housing, a village hall, an area of common land called Russell's Water Com ...

,
Oxfordshire, England
''Truly's duck pond accident'' File:Longmoor Military Railway - geograph.org.uk - 1506243.jpg, Longmoor Military Railway, Hampshire, England
''Railway line scene'' File:Cap taillat.jpg,

Cap Taillat Baie de Briande is a bay in La Croix-Valmer, on the French Riviera south of Saint-Tropez. The bay is used by tourists. The bay and the adjacent land are protected as an and an of the Port-Cros National Park. History The is a prehistoric dol ...

, Saint-Tropez, France
''Beach scene'' File:Lane heading under railway bridge - geograph.org.uk - 1051727.jpg,

Ilmer Ilmer is a village in Buckinghamshire at the foot of the Chiltern Hills about northwest of Princes Risborough, near the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is in the civil parish of Longwick-cum-Ilmer. Toponym The village toponym is derived from th ...

, Buckinghamshire, England
''Kidnapping of Lord Scrumptious'' File:Beachy Head (2206).jpg, Beachy Head, Sussex, England
''First car flight scene'' File:The Needles. - panoramio.jpg, The Needles, Isle of Wight, England
''First car flight scene'' File:Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany (Unsplash UdQ4SdV9UE8).jpg,

Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle (german: Schloss Neuschwanstein, , Southern Bavarian: ''Schloss Neischwanstoa'') is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. T ...

, Bavaria, Germany
''Baron Bomburst's castle (exterior)'' File:Rothenburg ob der Tauber Spitalhof 6-008.jpg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Germany
''Vulgaria exterior scenes''

Release

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.

Reception

Original release

Film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

wrote: "''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' contains about the best two-hour children's movie you could hope for, with a marvelous magical auto and lots of adventure and a nutty old grandpa and a mean Baron and some funny dances and a couple of carymoments." ''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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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."

Box-office

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.

Awards and nominations

Later responses

''Filmink'' stated: "It's a gorgeous looking movie with divine sets, a fabulous cast and cheerful songs; it's also, like so many late ‘60s musicals, far too long and would have been better at a tight 90 minutes." Film historian Leonard Maltin disagreed, giving the movie just 1.5 out of a possible 4 stars, and describing it as "...one big

Edsel Edsel is a discontinued division and brand of automobiles that was marketed by the Ford Motor Company from the 1958 to the 1960 model years. Deriving its name from Edsel Ford, son of company founder Henry Ford, Edsels were developed in an eff ...

, with totally forgettable score and some of the shoddiest special effects ever." , the film has a 69% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 29 reviews with an average rating of 5.9/10.

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack album, as was typical of soundtrack albums of the period, featured mostly songs with few instrumentals. Some of the songs were edited to fit the time constraints of the standard 12-inch LPs of the time and to create a fluid listening experience. The soundtrack has been released on CD four times, the first two releases using the original LP masters rather than going back to the original movie masters to compile a more complete soundtrack album with underscoring and complete versions of songs. The 1997 Rykodisc release included several short bits of dialogue from the film between some of the tracks, but otherwise used the same LP master and has gone out of circulation. On 24 February 2004, a few months after MGM released the movie on a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, Varèse Sarabande reissued a newly remastered soundtrack album without the dialogue tracks, restoring it to its original 1968 LP format. In 2011, Kritzerland released the definitive soundtrack album, a two-CD set featuring the original soundtrack album plus bonus tracks, music from the "Song and Picture-Book Album" on disc 1, and the Richard Sherman demos, as well as six playback tracks (including a long version of international covers of the theme song). This release was limited to only 1,000 units. In April 2013, Perseverance Records re-released the Kritzerland double CD set with expansive new liner notes by John Trujillo and a new booklet by Perseverance regular James Wingrove. No definitive release of the original film soundtrack featuring the performances that lock to picture without the dialogue and effects can be made, as the original isolated scoring session recordings were lost or discarded once United Artists merged its archives. All that is left is the 6-track 70MM sound mix with the other elements already added in. Musical numbers *" You Two" – Caractacus, Jeremy and Jemima *"Toot Sweets" – Caractacus, Truly, Jeremy, Jemima and factory workers *" Hushabye Mountain" – Caractacus *" Me Ol' Bamboo" – Caractacus and carnival dancers *" Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" – Caractacus, Truly, Jeremy and Jemima *"

" – Jemima, Jeremy and Truly *"

" – Truly *" Posh!" – Grandpa *"

" – Grandpa and inventors *"Hushabye Mountain (Reprise)" – Caractacus and Truly *"

Chu-Chi Face "Chu-Chi Face" is a song from ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'', the 1968 musical film, musical motion picture. In the film it is sung by Gert Fröbe as Baron Bomburst and Anna Quayle as Baroness Bomburst. "Chu-Chi Face" ...

" – Baron and Baroness *" Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious (Reprise)" – Truly and Caractacus *"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Finale)" – Caractacus, Truly along with the rest of the cast during the last verse

Home media

''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' was released numerous times in the VHS format as well as

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

, CED, and LaserDisc. On 10 November 1998, the film saw its first DVD release. The year 2003 brought a two-disc "Special Edition" release. On 2 November 2010, MGM Home Entertainment through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released a two-disc

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

and DVD combination featuring the extras from the 2003 release as well as new features. The 1993 LaserDisc release by MGM/UA Home Video was the first home video release with the proper 2.20:1 Super Panavision 70 aspect ratio.

Adaptations

Novelisation of film

The film did not follow Fleming's novel closely. A separate novelisation of the film was published at the time of the film's release. It basically followed the film's story but with some differences of tone and emphasis, e.g., it mentioned that Caractacus Potts had had difficulty coping after the death of his wife, and it made it clearer that the sequences including Baron Bomburst were extended fantasy sequences. It was written by John Burke.

Scale models

Corgi Toys released a scale replica of the airship with working features such as pop out wings.

Mattel Toys Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories a ...

also produced a replica with different features, while Aurora produced a detailed hobby kit of the car. Post Honeycomb cereal contained a free plastic model of the car inside its specially marked boxes, with cutout wings for the car on the back of the box.

Comic book adaption

''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinkertown''

An educational PC game was released in October 1996, featuring the titular car where players have to solve puzzles to complete the game.

Musical stage adaptation

The film was adapted into a musical by the same name for the stage. For the theatre, the music and lyrics were written by Richard and Robert Sherman with book by Jeremy Sams. The musical premiered in the West End at the London Palladium on 16 April 2002 with six new songs by the Sherman Brothers. The Broadway production opened on 28 April 2005 at the Hilton (later Lyric) Theatre. After its closing in London, ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' toured around the UK. The UK Tour visited Asia when it opened on 2 November 2007 in Singapore. The Australian national production opened on 17 November 2012. The German premiere took place on 30 April 2014.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1968 films 1960s musical fantasy films 1960s fantasy adventure films American aviation films American children's adventure films American children's fantasy films American fantasy adventure films American musical fantasy films British aviation films British children's adventure films British children's fantasy films British fantasy adventure films British musical fantasy films 1960s English-language films 1960s fantasy comedy films Airships in fiction Films about kidnapping Films about automobiles Films adapted into comics Films adapted into plays Films based on British novels Films based on children's books Films directed by Ken Hughes Films produced by Albert R. Broccoli Films set in castles Films set in Europe Films set in the 1910s Films set in a fictional country Films shot in Bavaria Films shot in Buckinghamshire Films shot in East Sussex Films shot in England Films shot in Germany Films shot in Oxfordshire Films shot in Surrey Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in Saint-Tropez Flying cars in fiction Musicals by the Sherman Brothers Films with screenplays by Roald Dahl Varèse Sarabande albums 1960s children's adventure films 1960s children's fantasy films Films scored by Irwin Kostal Films with screenplays by Richard Maibaum American fantasy comedy films British fantasy comedy films 1968 comedy films 1960s American films 1960s British films