Taglines: It was just an old neglected car. Who could have guessed.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie storyline. In England, circa 1910, eccentric Caractacus Potts works as an inventor, a job which barely supports himself, his even more eccentric father, and his two children, Jeremy and Jemima; but, they’re all happy. When the children beg their father to buy for them their favorite plaything – a broken down jalopy of a car sitting at a local junkyard – Caractacus does whatever he can to make some money to buy it.
One scheme to raise money involves the unexpected assistance of a pretty and wealthy young woman they have just met named Truly Scrumptious, the daughter of a candy factory owner, but Caractacus eventually comes into another one-time-only windfall of money, enough to buy the car. Applying his inventing skills, Caractacus transforms the piece of junk into a beautiful working machine, which they name Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the noise its engine makes.
At a seaside picnic with his children and Truly, Caractacus spins a fanciful tale of an eccentric inventor, his pretty girlfriend, his two children, and a magical car named Chitty, all involved in the faraway land of Vulgaria. The child-like ruler Baron Bomburst, ruler of Vulgaria, will do whatever he can to get his hands on their magical car; but, because of Baroness Bomburst’s dislike of children, youngsters are outlawed, even the unsuspecting offspring of foreign inventors of magical cars.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical adventure 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 Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Adrian Hall, Heather Ripley, Lionel Jeffries, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, and Gert Fröbe.
The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli. John Stears supervised the special effects. Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music, while the musical numbers, written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. The song “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was nominated for an Academy Award.
A.bout the Story
The story opens with a montage of European Grand Prix races in which one particular car appears to win every race it runs in from 1907 until its final race in 1909, when the car crashes and catches fire, ending its racing career. The car eventually ends up in an old garage in rural England, where two children, Jeremy and Jemima Potts, have grown fond of it. However, a man in the junkyard intends to buy the car from the garage owner, Mr. Coggins, for scrap.
The children, who live with their widowed father Caractacus Potts, an eccentric inventor, and the family’s equally peculiar grandfather, implore their father to buy the car, but Caractacus cannot afford it. While playing truant from school, they meet Truly Scrumptious, a beautiful wealthy woman with her own motor car, who brings them home to report their truancy to their father. After she leaves, Caractacus promises the children that he will save the car, but is taken aback at the cost he has committed himself to. He looks for ways to raise money to avoid letting them down.
Later that evening, Potts discovers that the sweets produced by a machine he has invented can be played like a flute. He tries to sell the “Toot Sweets” to Truly’s father, Lord Scrumptious, a major confectionery manufacturer. He is almost successful until the whistle attracts a pack of dogs who overrun the factory, resulting in Caractacus’s proposition being rejected.
Caractacus next takes his automatic hair-cutting machine to a carnival to raise money, but his invention accidentally ruins the hair of his customer Cyril. Potts eludes the vengeful Cyril by joining a song-and-dance act. He becomes the centre of the show and earns more than enough in tips to buy the car and rebuild it. They name the car “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” for the unusual noise of its engine. In the first trip in the car, Caractacus, the children, and Truly picnic on the beach. Caractacus tells them a tale about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Directed by: Ken Hughes
Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Heather Ripley, Adrian Hall, Barbara Windsor
Screenplay by: Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes
Production Design by: Ken Adam
Cinematography by: Christopher Challis
Film Editing by: John Shirley
Costume Design by: Joan Bridge, Elizabeth Haffenden
Art Direction by: Harry Pottle
Music by: Irwin Kostal, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: December 17, 1968 (United Kingdom), December 18, 1968 (United States)
Views: 354