"Lovely Lonely Man" is a song from the 1968

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

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 Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...

''. It was written by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by

Sally Ann Howes Sally Ann Howes (20 July 1930 – 19 December 2021) was an English actress and singer. Her career on screen, stage and television spanned six decades. She is best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film ''Chitty Chitty ...

as Truly Scrumptious. In the song, she pines for eccentric inventor

Caractacus Potts Caractacus Pott (Caractacus Potts in the film adaptation) is one of the main characters in Ian Fleming's novel ''Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang'' and its Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, film adaptation. The film version of the story makes several changes to h ...

(played by

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 ...

) at her family's estate after she has an outing with the inventor and his children in the eponymous car. Sally Ann Howes used the song in her audition for the role; van Dyke later recalled "They couldn't have picked a better Truly Scrumptious than Sally. ... I heard her voice and it was the richest contralto ... I thought 'My God, this girl is great.

Reasons for being cut

Due to the length of the motion picture and the need to accommodate standard TV broadcast practices, entire sequences are often cut for television programming purposes. "Lovely Lonely Man" and " The Roses of Success" are often cut from

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

television broadcasts. *Both songs do not advance the main plot line of the film, so their absence is not missed in general. *The song was cut from the 2002/2005 stage version of ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' due to length and plot changes to the book by

Jeremy Sams Jeremy Sams (born 12 January 1957) is a British theatre director, writer, translator, orchestrator, musical director, film composer, and lyricist. Early life and education Sams is the son of the late Shakespearean scholar and musicologist Eri ...

. The songwriters fought for the song's inclusion but were eventually convinced by director

Adrian Noble Adrian Keith Noble (born 19 July 1950) is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003. Education and career Noble was born in Chichester, Sussex, England. After l ...

that its inclusion was impossible.

References

* Sherman, Robert B. '' Walt's Time: from before to beyond'', Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers, 1998.

External links

* 1968 songs Songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Songs written by the Sherman Brothers {{1960s-song-stub