Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

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:

Car | Children | Baron | Inventor | Flying

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

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 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:

Phil Collins claims he was one of the children storming the castle at the end of the film but was edited out because of a rather large and unsightly bandage on his head that was covering a cyst.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The switch for the cooking machine has wires connected to only one side of the switch.

Quotes:

Jeremy: I'm so glad you came. It's much more fun with two grown ups.
Truly Scrumptious: [laughs]
Jemimah: Truly Scrumptious. You know, even if we didn't know your name, we could have guessed it.
Truly Scrumptious: Oh?
Jemimah: You had to be called something lovely.
Jeremy: Like Yum-Yum!
Jemimah: Or Angel Cake!
Jeremy: Or Toot Sweets!
Jemimah: Yeah, Toot Sweets!
Truly Scrumptious: [laughs] Or Toot Sweets! Oh no!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Boston Legal: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (#2.20)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Hushabye Mountain

Doggedly whimsical...

Elephantine, ersatz-Disney family film with musical interludes has kooky inventor Dick Van Dyke, his two moppet kids and new lady-love outwitting the rulers of an evil fantasy world with help from their airborne automobile. Director Ken Hughes, who also co-adapted Ian Fleming's novel with none other than Roald Dahl, can't manage to work up any life within this not-too-fantastic scenario; it's an adventure story involving a flying car which never lifts off. The sugary songs aside, this loosely-hinged and slowly-paced picture doesn't even look good. The special effects are bland and chintzy (even for 1968). As to the performances, Van Dyke has always been an acquired taste, but Sally Ann Howes is certainly no Julie Andrews (though Ken Hughes fashions her role accordingly). Songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman work with the very best of intentions here (and the title song is catchy, as is "Truly Scrumptious"), but the Shermans are still doing what they did back in the early-'60s: winking and nudging at us with nursery ditties, almost all of which suffer from a fatal case of the cutes. *1/2 from ****