# The Love Bug

The Love Bug, sometimes referred to as Herbie the Love Bug, is a 1968 film about a race car driver who becomes a champion with a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. It is the first in a series of comedy films made by Walt Disney Productions that starred an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie.
    Directed by Robert Stevenson. Written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on the 1961 book Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford.

## Jim Douglas

* Without a real car, I'm only half a man.
* You don't understand what happens, do you? They make ten thousand cars, they make them exactly the same way, and one or two of 'em turn out to be something special. Nobody knows why.
* I may be kidding myself, but I think I can make something out of that sad little bucket of bolts.
* Has everybody gone nuts around here? I can understand how Tennessee feels, he's just in off a flying saucer.

## Tennessee Steinmetz

* [to Herbie, sotto voce] I'm your friend.
* Up the Irish!
* [seeing a sabotaged spare wheel] Thorndyke again. He made a pizza outta it!

## Mr. Thorndyke

* I salute your honesty, my dear, a quality not necessarily to be despised.
* At a time like this, whatever kind of time it is, I always say money serves to ease the pain.
* Sometimes I really don't like myself…
* [caught in Herbie's cargo compartment] Get me outta here!

## Dialogue

    Carole: Help, I'm a prisoner! I can't get out!
    Van Hippy: We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in. [looks at his partner] Huh, a couple of weirdos, Guenivere.
    Jim Douglas: Why is it the only food we have in this house is parrot food? I mean, we don't *have* a parrot.
    Tennessee Steinmetz: Eat that! That's good! That's pressed kelp. That aerates your liver.
    Jim Douglas: Where's the beast? You didn't cut up the Edsel!
    [Jim notices the Edsel's grill mounted on the wall.]
    Tennessee Steinmetz: Came over me all of a sudden. Seemed like the only decent thing to do. Believe me, Jim, it'll be happier up there.
    Jim Douglas: What do you know? Engine stalled.
    Carole: [tries to get out] How about that? Door's stuck. That's how it is with cars sometimes. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens next.
    Jim Douglas: Well, as someone very wisely once said, "That's how it is with cars sometimes."
    Carole: I just said that.
    Jim Douglas: Oh.
    [Thorndyke kicks the little car]
    Jim Douglas: What's that for?
    Mr. Thorndyke: I beg your pardon!
    Jim Douglas: Well, why don't you let the little car alone?
    Mr. Thorndyke: Are you presuming to tell me what to do in my own establishment?
    Jim Douglas: Ok, I'm out of line. It just bugs me to see somebody abusing a decent piece of machinery.
    Mr. Thorndyke: [laughs coldly] How fascinating. Now that you've had the benefit of your point of view, shall we regard our relationship as terminated? Havershaw! Get this eyesore out of my showroom. And if I ever find it in here again, someone is going to find himself in a great deal of trouble!
    Carole: I wonder if your reputation is altogether true.
    Jim Douglas: What's my reputation?
    Carole: Well, I've heard that Jim Douglas is only interested in fast cars and easy money.
    Jim Douglas: Not true.
    Carole: Oh.
    Jim Douglas: Mm-hmm. You know something else?
    Carole: What?
    Jim Douglas: When the light hits you just right, you're as beautiful as General Grant on a $50 bill.
    Mr. Thorndyke: Good evening.
    Tennessee Steinmetz: Sorry, the other rats are out for the evening!
    Mr. Thorndyke: What part of Ireland did you say your mother came from?
    Tennessee Steinmetz: Coney, Island.
    [Jim accidentally bangs Herbie against Thorndyke's Rolls-Royce]
    Mr. Thorndyke: Have you gone mad?
    Jim Douglas: Okay, what's the joke?
    Mr. Thorndyke: What do you mean?
    Jim Douglas: I don't know how you rigged it, but I'm sure that car is a real cut-up when a convention comes to town.
    Mr. Thorndyke: What in the name of...
    Jim Douglas: If I'd wanted a trick car, I would have bought one at a joke shop.
    Mr. Thorndyke: Allow me to say that I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. You come billowing up in that beastly little car, and assault my personal Rolls-Royce!
    Jim Douglas: ...I brought it back! I want my money, I want the papers I signed, and then I'll get outta here, and you two clowns can, can have your little laugh.
    Carole: Mr. Douglas, if there is anything wrong with the car, would you be good enough to tell me what it is?
    Jim Douglas: Well, there's nothing essentially wrong with the car. It's just that it wants to go one way and I'd like to go the other-
    Mr. Thorndyke: Well, whatever it is, none of it is covered in our guilt-headed guarantee.
    Jim Douglas: Oh, I'm sure of that.
    [with Herbie closing in on the Thorndyke Special during the El Dorado race]
    Mr. Thorndyke: Havershaw, I'm not a cowardly man, but I get the feeling that thing is out to get me.
    Havershaw: Now, now, sir, none of that. We're not losing our nerve, are we?
    Mr. Thorndyke: BLAST you, Havershaw! How dare you patronize me! I am not losing my nerve!
    Havershaw: No, sir. No, sir, of course not.

## Taglines

* Herbie Will Honk His Way Into Your Heart.
* It's a Love-in for Herbie... the incredible little car who shifts for himself!

## Cast

* Dean Jones - James Jim Douglas
* Michele Lee - Carole Bennet
* David Tomlinson - Peter Thorndyke
* Buddy Hackett - Tennessee Steinmetz
* Joe Flynn - Havershaw
* Benson Fong - Mr. Wu
* Joe E. Ross - Detective
* Barry Kelley - Police sergeant
* Iris Adrian - Carhop
* Volkswagen Beetle - Herbie

## External links

* The Love Bug quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The Love Bug at Rotten Tomatoes