The Love Bug

The Love Bug (also known as Herbie the Love Bug) is a 1968 American sports adventure comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on the story "Car, Boy, Girl" by Gordon Buford. The film is the first installment in the Herbie film series.
The film follows the adventures of a sentient Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie, Herbie's driver, Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), and Jim's love interest, Carole Bennett (Michele Lee). It also features Buddy Hackett as Jim's enlightened, kind-hearted friend, Tennessee Steinmetz, a character who creates "art" from used car parts. English actor David Tomlinson portrays the villainous Peter Thorndyke, the owner of an automobile showroom and an SCCA national champion who sells Herbie to Jim and eventually becomes his racing rival.
The Love Bug was followed by a sequel titled Herbie Rides Again (1974). The film was originally given a limited release on December 24, 1968, and was later widely released on March 13, 1969 by Walt Disney Productions. It received positive reviews from critics, and received $51.2 million against a budget of $5 million.
Jim Douglas is a once-prominent race car driver now relegated to participating in demolition derbies, often competing against much younger challengers. Residing in a converted firehouse overlooking San Francisco Bay, Jim shares his abode with Tennessee Steinmetz, an eccentric mechanic and sculptor whose artistic creations repurpose discarded automobile components.
Jim’s fortunes shift when he visits a luxurious European car dealership, where he encounters Carole Bennett, a capable mechanic and sales associate, as well as Peter Thorndyke, the imperious British proprietor of the establishment. During this visit, Jim notices a peculiar Volkswagen Beetle—a vehicle Thorndyke openly abuses after it is returned to the showroom under mysterious circumstances. Lacking the financial means to procure a vehicle, Jim departs, only to find that the enigmatic Beetle follows him home. This uninvited acquisition leads to a police intervention on charges of grand theft, forcing Jim to reluctantly agree to a lease-purchase arrangement for the unconventional car.
Initially, Jim is disenchanted with the Beetle, whose idiosyncratic behavior includes avoiding highways and orchestrating encounters with Carole. Suspecting Thorndyke of duping him with a malfunctioning vehicle, Jim remains skeptical until Tennessee discerns the truth: the car possesses sentience. Endearing himself to the Beetle, Tennessee christens the car “Herbie”.
Jim and Herbie soon venture into the competitive world of racing. Despite Thorndyke’s scorn, Herbie secures an unexpected victory in his debut race, followed by a triumph over Thorndyke himself at Riverside Raceway, thereby solidifying Jim’s ownership of the remarkable car. A series of successive wins frustrates Thorndyke, who becomes increasingly desperate to unearth the source of Jim and Herbie’s success. Resorting to sabotage, Thorndyke clandestinely compromises Herbie’s performance on the eve of an important race, resulting in a crushing defeat. Disillusioned, Jim decides to replace Herbie with a brand-new Lamborghini, a decision that alienates both Carole and Tennessee, who had come to appreciate Herbie’s unique qualities.
Feeling betrayed, Herbie reacts by vandalizing the Lamborghini and fleeing. His escapades culminate in an attempt to leap from the Golden Gate Bridge, prompting Jim to intervene and reconcile with the emotionally distressed car. At the police station, Tang Wu, a racing enthusiast and local businessman whose property Herbie inadvertently damaged, agrees to an offer from Jim to drop charges in exchange for ownership of Herbie on condition that Jim and Tennessee may race Herbie in the prestigious El Dorado Road race, with the agreement that if Jim wins the race, Mr. Wu will sell Herbie back to Jim for one dollar.
The El Dorado race, a grueling two-day event traversing the Sierra Nevada, becomes the stage for Thorndyke’s underhanded tactics. Despite these obstacles, Jim, Carole, and Tennessee persevere, although the first leg of the race leaves Herbie in a battered state, limping across the finish line using a makeshift wagon wheel (Thorndyke and his co-driver Havershaw loosened one of Herbie's wheels and cut up his spare). Overnight, Jim can't start Herbie’s engine and tells Mr. Wu that Herbie is in no condition to continue the race. Thorndyke suddenly appears, revealing that he made a separate bet with Mr. Wu that should Herbie drop out of the race, Thorndyke would take possession of the car. When Thorndyke attempts to forcibly seize the car, Herbie unexpectedly springs back to life, chasing Thorndyke away in terror.
On the final leg, Herbie overcomes numerous challenges, employing ingenuity and resilience to regain his position. As they near the finish line, Herbie dramatically splits in two due to mechanical strain caused by Thorndyke's sabotages and Jim's wild driving. In a comedic twist, his rear half, carrying Tennessee and the engine, crosses the finish line first, while his front half, with Jim and Carole aboard, follows closely, securing both first and third place.
In the aftermath, Wu assumes control of Thorndyke’s dealership, appoints Tennessee as his assistant, and relegates Thorndyke to the mechanics’ workshop alongside his accomplice Havershaw. Restored to his former glory, Herbie serves as the vehicle for Jim and Carole’s departure, whisking the newlyweds away on their honeymoon.
Dean Jones credited the film's success to the fact that it was the last live-action film produced by Walt Disney Productions under Walt Disney's involvement, released just two years after his death in 1966. Although Jones tried to pitch him a serious, straightforward film project concerning the story of the first sports car ever brought to the United States, Walt suggested a different car story for him, which was "Car, Boy, Girl", a story written in 1961 by Gordon Buford.
Car, Boy, Girl; The Magic Volksy; The Runaway Wagen; Beetlebomb; Wonderbeetle; Bugboom and Thunderbug were among the original development titles considered for the film before the title was finalized as The Love Bug.
Herbie competes in the Monterey Grand Prix, which, except for 1963, was not a sports car race. The actual sports car race held at Monterey was the Monterey Sports Car Championships. The 1968 Monterey Grand Prix was in fact a Can Am Series race and did not feature production cars.
Peter Thorndyke's yellow "Special" is actually a 1965 Apollo GT, a rare sports car sold by International Motorcars of Oakland, California. It used an Italian-built body and chassis from Intermeccanica paired with a small-block Buick V8 engine that was installed in Oakland. This car exists today, is in the hands of a private collector, and has been restored as it was seen in the film with its yellow paint and number 14 logo.
Before the film entered production, the titular car was not specified as a Volkswagen Beetle, and Disney set up a casting call for a dozen cars to audition. In the lineup, there were a few Toyotas, a TVR, a handful of Volvos, an MG and a pearl white Volkswagen Beetle. The Volkswagen Beetle was chosen as it was the only one that elicited the crew to reach out and pet it.
The Volkswagen brand name, logo or shield does not feature anywhere in the film, as the automaker did not permit Disney to use the name. The only logos can be briefly seen in at least two places, however. The first instance is on the brake pedals during the first scene where Herbie takes control with Jim inside (on the freeway when Herbie runs into Thorndyke's Rolls-Royce), and it is shown in all the future scenes when Jim is braking. The second instance is on the ignition key, when Jim tries to shut down the braking Herbie. The subsequent films, however, do promote the Volkswagen name (as sales of the Beetle were down when the sequels were produced). The VW "Wolfsburg" castle emblem on the steering wheel hub is also seen throughout the car's interior shots. Within the script, the car was only ever referred to as "Herbie", "the little car" or "the Bug"—the latter, although a common nickname for the Beetle, was not trademarked by Volkswagen at the time of filming. Volkswagen was nervous of many of the scenes that showed Herbie apparently falling apart or malfunctioning - and thus carefully scrutinized the script of the film ensuring that it did not show the car in a negative light - allegedly sending teams of lawyers to the Disney studios on a regular basis to oversee the production.
The car was later given the name "Herbie" from one of Buddy Hackett's skits about a ski instructor named Klaus, who speaks with a German accent as he introduces his fellow ski instructors, who are named Hans, Fritz, Wilhelm, and Sandor. At the end of the skit, Hackett would say "If you ain't got a Herbie (pronounced "hoy-bee"), I ain't going."
Herbie's trademark "53" racing number was chosen by producer Bill Walsh, who was a fan of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Don Drysdale (Drysdale's jersey number, later retired by the team, was 53).
Walsh also gave Herbie his trademark red, white and blue racing stripes presumably for the more patriotic color and came up with the film's gags such as Herbie squirting oil and opening the doors by himself.
Benson Fong, who played Mr. Wu, said that when he and the others were dragged along the dirt by Herbie, it was like being pulled by 40 horses. The 1961–1965 Volkswagen Beetles actually were rated by the SAE at 40 horsepower (30 kW) in factory configuration (though only 34 horsepower (25 kW) by the European DIN system which measured engine output as installed in the car with cooling fan and exhaust system attached).
Herbie has his own cast billing in the closing credits, the only time this was done in the entire series of films.
Today, only a handful of the original Herbie cars are known to exist. Car #10 was recovered from a warehouse in Pennsylvania and has been preserved—still sporting its original paint from the film.
The bonuses on the DVD provide two deleted scenes named "Used Car Lot" and "Playground".
A scene shot but not included in the final cut of the film, featured Jim calling at a used car lot prior to his visiting Thorndyke's auto showroom. This missing sequence has long since been lost, and all that remains is the script and a single black and white photograph of Jim talking with the salesman at the lot.
An unfilmed scene at the end of the story that was scripted and storyboarded was to have shown Herbie playing with children at a nearby playground prior to taking the newly married Jim and Carole off on their honeymoon.
The opening scene of the demolition derby cars is stock footage from the film Fireball 500 (1966). Parts of this scene can also be found in a 1966-model year dealer promotional film by Chevrolet, titled Impact '66.
Some of the racetrack scenes were shot at the Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. Others were filmed at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, Willow Springs Raceway in Willow Springs, California and Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, California. Additional scenes depicting the El Dorado race were filmed near the San Bernardino Mountains in Big Bear City, California.
Andy Granatelli, who was popular at the time as a presence at the Indianapolis 500 as well as the spokesman for STP, appears as himself as the racing association president. Announcer Gary Owens (of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In fame) and Los Angeles Lakers play-by-play man Chick Hearn also appear as themselves.
The driving scenes were choreographed by veteran stunt man Carey Loftin. Drivers in the film billed in the opening credits include Dale Van Sickel, Reg Parton, Regina Parton, Tom Bamford, Bob Drake, Marion J. Playan, Hall Brock, Bill Hickman, Rex Ramsay, Hal Grist, Lynn Grate, Larry Schmitz, Richard Warlock, Dana Derfus, Everett Creach, Gerald Jann, Bill Couch, Ted Duncan, Robert Hoys, Gene Roscoe, Jack Mahoney, Charles Willis, Richard Brill, Roy Butterfield, Rudy Doucette, J.J. Wilson, Jim McCullough, Bud Ekins, Glenn Wilder, Gene Curtis, Robert James, John Timanus, Bob Harris, Fred Krone, Richard Ceary, Jesse Wayne, Jack Perkins, Fred Stromsoe, Ronnie Rondell, and Kim Brewer.
During one scene in the film, Herbie has lost one of his wheels, and Tennessee is hanging out of the passenger side door to balance him. The door opens, and there is no "53" logo on the door. This image was used heavily to promote the film.
The Love Bug was the second highest-grossing film of 1969, earning over $51.2 million at the domestic box office. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, later earning a 78% "Fresh" rating from 18 critics on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out to 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Vincent Canby of The New York Times panned the film as "a long, sentimental Volkswagen commercial ... which has the form of fantasy-comedy, lots of not-very-special effects and no real humor."
Variety wrote, "For sheer inventiveness of situation and the charm that such an idea projects, 'The Love Bug' rates as one of the better entries of the Disney organization."
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it
The Monthly Film Bulletin declared that "this very engaging mechanical fantasy is the best piece of work from the Disney studios for some time. The caper appears to have had the effect of injecting life into Robert Stevenson's usually pedestrian style, since with the exception of one glutinously sentimental episode the pace never lets up."
Four theatrical sequels followed: Herbie Rides Again, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Herbie Goes Bananas, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. Some parts of the racing sequences from the film were later reused for Herbie's dream sequence in Herbie Rides Again, responding to Grandma Steinmetz's telling Willoughby Whitfield that Herbie used to be a famous race car.
A five-episode television series, titled Herbie, the Love Bug, aired on CBS in the United States in 1982. Directed by Vincent McEveety, the series acted as a continuation of the films, with Dean Jones reprising his role as Jim Douglas. In 1997, there was a made-for-television sequel which included a Dean Jones cameo, tying it to the previous films. The most recent sequel, Herbie: Fully Loaded, was released on June 22, 2005, by Walt Disney Pictures.
At Disney's All-Star Movies Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, Herbie has been immortalized in the "Love Bug" buildings 6 and 7.
The film was released on VHS on March 4, 1980. It was re-released on November 6, 1985, September 11, 1991, and on October 28, 1994, with Herbie Rides Again. It was soon re-released again on September 16, 1997, along with the entire Herbie the Love Bug film series. It was released on DVD for the first time on May 20, 2003. It was released again with its sequels in a four-movie collection in 2012. A 45th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc was released on December 16, 2014, as a Disney Movie Club exclusive title.