Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Movie)

**Chitty Chitty Bang Bang** is a 1968 musical film directed by Ken Hughes, loosely based on the children's novel by Ian Fleming entitled *Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car*.

## Plot

The movie focuses on Grand Prix races from the period of 1907-1910 in England, France, and Germany. In all of these races, one such car wins the races. During the 1909 British Grand Prix race, the car swerves off the track to avoid hitting a dog, and explodes into flames.

1 year later, in 1910, the car ends up in an old garage run by a man named Bill Coggins. Two children named Jeremy and Jemima Potts love playing in this car, but a junkman arrives to claim the car for 30 shillings so that he can melt down the car for scrap metal. Horrified by the thought, the Potts children beg Mr. Coggins to promise not to sell the car until their inventor father Caractacus Potts can buy the car. Coggins promises, and the excited children run into the road, causing a beautiful upper-class woman named Truly Scrumptious to swerve into a nearby duck pond. Truly is cross, both at the children for off-roading her and for being truant from school, so she takes them home to report them for truancy.

When they arrive at the Potts home, the children are greeted by their sheepdog Edison, and witness Caractacus with a giant firework strapped to his back, attempting to send himself flying into the air. When this backfires and almost sends him into the house, Truly douses the fire with a bucket of water, infuriating the inventor. Although Truly shows an interest in Caractacus's inventions, he feels affronted by her.

While going over his bizarre inventions, many of which seem to be similar in function and form to modern appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and televisions, Caractacus discovers that one of the sweets he has invented can be played like a flute. He tries to sell the "Toot Sweet" to Truly's father Lord Scrumptious, a major confection manufacturer, but when the factory is overrun by dogs responding to the whistle, he is thrown out.

Later that night, Caractacus takes his automatic hair-cutting machine to a carnival to raise money, but it goes haywire. He eludes the wrath from his first (and only) customer named Cyril by joining a song-and-dance act, stealing the show and earning enough tips to pay for the car. Potts rebuilds the car, which he nicknames Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the noises its engine makes, and he and the children, accompanied by Truly, go for a picnic on the beach, where Truly becomes very fond of the Potts family and vice versa.

While on the beach, Caractacus tells them a story about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant ruler of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and keep it all for himself. In the story, the quartet and the car are stranded by high tide, but Chitty suddenly deploys huge flotation devices and they escape inland. The Baron sends two comical spies ashore to capture the car for him, but they briefly capture Lord Scrumptious by accident, and then kidnap Grandpa Potts, mistaking him for the inventor of Chitty. Caractacus, Truly, and the children see him being taken away by airship, and give chase. When they accidentally drive off a cliff, Chitty sprouts wings and propellers and begins to fly.

They follow the airship to Vulgaria, where the Baroness Bomburst has ordered the imprisonment of all children, whom she abhors. Grandpa the "inventor" has been ordered by the baron to make another floating car, and is bluffing to avoid being tortured. The Potts party is hidden by the local toymaker, who now works only for the baron. Chitty is discovered and taken to the castle. But while Caractacus and the toymaker go in search of Grandpa and Truly goes in search of food, the children are captured by the Baron's Child Catcher.

The toymaker takes Truly and Caractacus to a grotto far beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children, and they concoct a scheme to free the children and the village from the baron. The toymaker sneaks them into the castle disguised as life-size dolls, gifts for the baron's birthday. Caractacus snares the Baron and the town's children swarm into the banquet hall overcoming the baron's palace guards and guests. In the ensuing chaos, the baron, baroness, and Child Catcher are all captured. The family is freed and fly back with Truly to England.

As Caractacus finishes the story, Jeremy and Jemima finish the story themselves: "And Daddy and Truly were married!" which Truly seems to find appealing, but Caractacus is evasive, believing that the class distance between them is too great. When they arrive home, Caractacus is surprised to find his father and Lord Scrumptious (who it turns out are old army friends) playing a lively game of soldiers. Scrumptious surprises him further with an offer to buy the Toot Sweet as a canine confection and, realising that he is soon to become wealthy, rushes off to propose to Truly. As they drive off together in Chitty, the car takes to the air again, this time without wings.

## Cast

* Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts.
* Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious.
* Lionel Jeffries as Grandpa Potts.
* Heather Ripley as Jemima Potts.
* Adrian Hall as Jeremy Potts.
* Gert Fröbe as Baron Bomburst.
* Anna Quayle as Baroness Bomburst.
* Benny Hill as Toymaker.
* James Robertson Justice as Lord Scrumptious.
* Robert Helpmann as Child Catcher.

## Soundtrack

The score was composed, arranged, and conducted by Irwin Kostal, who also composed the score for *Mary Poppins* in 1964.

The songs were written by the Sherman Brothers:

1. You Too - performed by Caractacus, Jemima, and Jeremy.
2. Toot Sweets - performed by Caractacus, Truly, and factory workers.
3. Hushabye Mountain - performed by Caractacus.
4. Me Ol' Bamboo - performed by Caractacus and Morris Dancers.
5. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - peformed by Caractacus, Truly, Jemima, and Jeremy.
6. Truly Scrumptious - performed by Truly, Jemima, and Jeremy.
7. Lovely Lonely Man - performed by Truly.
8. Posh - performed by Grandpa.
9. Roses of Success - performed by Grandpa and Vulgarian inventors.
10. Hushabye Mountain (reprise) - performed by Caractacus and Truly.
11. Chu-Chi Face - performed by Baron and Baroness Bomburst.
12. Doll On a Music Box - performed by Caractacus and Truly.
13. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (reprise) - performed by Caractacus and Truly.