Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes, produced by Albert R. Broccoli, and starring Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall. The film is based on the 1964 children's novel by Ian Fleming, with a screenplay co-written by Hughes and Roald Dahl.
Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music for the film based on songs written by the Sherman Brothers, Richard and Robert, and the musical numbers were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood.
The film was released in the United Kingdom by United Artists on December 17, 1968, and in the United States on December 18. It was a critical success and was one of the highest-grossing films in the US for 1969. The film's title song was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, with a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score.
Plot
In 1910s rural England, two young children, Jemima and Jeremy, are enthralled by the wreck of a champion racecar. When they learn it is due to be scrapped, they vow to ask their father, widower and eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, to save it. They shortly meet the wealthy Truly Scrumptious, who drives them home to report their truancy to Caractacus; she leaves angered when he rejects her concerns. To raise money for the car, Caractacus attempts to sell one of his inventions, a musical candy whistle, to the large Scrumptious candy company, which Truly is heiress to; however, the sound attracts a horde of dogs, ruining his sales pitch.That evening, Caractacus goes to a carnival and attempts to raise money instead with an automatic hair-cutting machine. Fleeing a furious customer whose hair is accidentally ruined by the machine, Caractacus joins a song-and-dance act. He earns enough money in tips to buy the car and rebuilds it, naming it "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" after its unusual engine sounds. For their first trip in the car, Caractacus and the children go to a beach to have a picnic. They are joined by Truly and enjoy their time together. Caractacus then tells the children a story.
Caractacus' story
Baron Bomburst, ruler of the land of Vulgaria, attempts to steal Chitty while it is stranded by high tide. The family escapes thanks to Chitty's sudden transformation into a boat, and Caractacus returns Truly to Scrumptious manor; she finds she has fallen in love with Caractacus. The Baron sends two spies to get the car. During one attempt, the spies accidentally kidnap Truly's father, Lord Scrumptious, and his valet; they take advantage of the blunder by disguising themselves as English gentlemen, hoping to kidnap Caractacus. Arriving at Caractacus' home, they mistake Grandpa Potts for him. The spies take Grandpa's outhouse with him inside using Bomburst's airship and the Vulgarian party flies away. When Caractacus, Truly, and the children follow them, Chitty sprouts wings and propellers, and Caractacus flies the car to Vulgaria.Grandpa is taken to Bomburst's castle, where the Baron has imprisoned other elderly inventors, and ordered to make another floating car. When the Potts party arrives in the neighbouring village, they learn that children have been outlawed in Vulgaria as Bomburst's wife, the Baroness, abhors them. The local Toymaker hides the group in his shop from Bomburst's soldiers and Child Catcher. Chitty is taken to the castle. While Caractacus and the Toymaker survey the castle, and Truly searches for food, the Child Catcher returns and kidnaps Jeremy and Jemima. The Toymaker takes Caractacus and Truly to a grotto beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children; there, Caractacus concocts a scheme to free Vulgaria from the tyranny of the Bombursts.
The next day during Bomburst's birthday, the Toymaker sneaks Caractacus and Truly into the castle disguised as lifelike dolls that sing and dance. At Caractacus' signal, the Vulgarian children swarm the banquet hall, overcome Bomburst's guests, and capture the Baron, Baroness, and Child Catcher. The Vulgarian townsfolk storm the castle, while Caractacus, Truly, and the Toymaker free Jemima and Jeremy. The group joins the fight against Bomburst's soldiers; Chitty comes to their aid, and Grandpa is rescued. With the battle won, the Potts party bid farewell to the Vulgarians and fly home to England.
After the story
As Caractacus' story concludes, the children ask if it ends with him and Truly married, but Caractacus does not answer. He later apologizes for his children when he takes Truly home, saying that the difference in their social status would make a relationship between them unfeasible, offending Truly. Returning home, Caractacus is surprised to encounter Truly's father Lord Scrumptious, who is revealed to have been Grandpa Potts' former brigadier. Lord Scrumptious offers to buy Caractacus' failed candies and market them to the public as dog treats. Overjoyed, Caractacus rushes off to tell Truly, whose house staff has already told her the news, and she meets him halfway. They confess their love for each other, and as they return home, Chitty flies up into the sky without wings.Cast
Source:Production
Background and development
After Ian Fleming had a heart attack in 1961, he decided to write a children's novel based on the stories about a flying car that he used to tell his infant son. He wrote the book in longhand, as his wife had confiscated his typewriter in an attempt to force him to rest.The novel was initially published in three volumes, the first in October 1964, which was two months after Fleming's death. It became one of the best-selling children's books of the year. Albert R. Broccoli, producer of the James Bond films, read the novel and was not initially enthusiastic about turning it into a film, but the success of Mary Poppins changed his mind.
In December 1965, it was reported Earl Hamner had completed a script based upon the novel. The following July, it was announced the film would be produced by Broccoli, without Harry Saltzman, who was his producing partner on the James Bond films. By April 1967, Ken Hughes was set to direct the film from a screenplay by Roald Dahl, and Hughes subsequently rewrote Dahl's script. Further rewrites were made by regular Bond scribe Richard Maibaum.
Casting
Van Dyke was cast in the film after he turned down the role of Fagin in the 1968 musical Oliver!. The role of Truly Scrumptious was originally offered to Julie Andrews to reunite her with Van Dyke after their success in Mary Poppins, but Andrews rejected the part because she felt it was too similar to Poppins; Sally Ann Howes, who had replaced Andrews as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway in 1958, was then offered the role, and she accepted.Broccoli announced the casting of Dick Van Dyke in December 1966. The film was the first in a multi-picture deal Van Dyke signed with United Artists. Sally Ann Howes was cast as the female lead in April 1967, soon thereafter signing a five-picture contract with Broccoli, and Robert Helpmann joined the cast in May. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the first film for both of its child stars, Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall, who were cast after an extensive talent search.
Filming
Filming for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang began on 17 July 1967 and ended on 4 October 1967.The weather was so miserable during the summer, that the film's production moved to Cap Taillat and the South of France, where they had to hide vineyards in the background.
| Location in film | Image of location | Location of filming |
| Duck pond Truly drives into | Russell's Water, Oxfordshire, England | |
| Potts Windmill/Cottage | Cobstone Windmill in Ibstone near Turville in Buckinghamshire, England | |
| Scrumptious Sweet Company factory | Kempton Park Waterworks on Snakey Lane in Hanworth, Greater London, England This location now includes Kempton Park Steam Engines | |
| Scrumptious Mansion | Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath in Iver, Buckinghamshire, England | |
| Where Chitty passes a train | Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire, England This line closed in 1968 | |
| Beach | Cap Taillat in Saint-Tropez, France | |
| Where the two spies put dynamite underneath Bucks Bridge in an attempt to destroy Chitty | Iver Lane in Iver, Buckinghamshire, England | |
| Railway bridge where the two spies kidnap Lord Scrumptious | Ilmer Bridge in Ilmer, Buckinghamshire, England | |
| White cliffs Chitty drives off | Beachy Head in East Sussex, England | |
| White rock spires in the ocean and lighthouse when Chitty first flies | The Needles stacks and lighthouse on England's Isle of Wight | |
| Baron Bomburst's castle | Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, West Germany | |
| Vulgarian village | Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, West Germany |
Special effects and production design
supervised the film's special effects, and Caractacus Potts' inventions were created by Rowland Emett. An article about Emett that appeared in Time magazine in 1976 mentioned his work on the film, saying 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 designed the film's titular car and six Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs were created for the film, though only one was fully functional. At a 1973 auction in Florida, one Chitty sold for $37,000, equal to $ today. The original "hero" car, in a condition described as "fully functional" and "road going", was put up for auction on 15 May 2011 by a California-based auction house. Expected to fetch $1 million to $2 million, it was purchased for $805,000 by New Zealand film director Sir Peter Jackson.