Chitty Chitty Bang Bang **** (1968, Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe) – Classic Movie Review 2,464

The 1968 children’s musical fantasy movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stars Dick Van Dyke as eccentric widowed Edwardian inventor Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as his beautiful rich fiancée Truly Scrumptious.

Co-writer/ director Ken Hughes’s 1968 children’s musical fantasy movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stars Dick Van Dyke as widowed eccentric Edwardian inventor Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as his fiancée Truly Scrumptious, who whizz off in their flying, sailing car to rescue Grandpa (Lionel Jeffries) from the wicked Baron Bomburst (Gert Fröbe), ruler of the land of Vulgaria.

It’s rural England in the 1910s, and young children Jemima (Heather Ripley) and Jeremy Potts (Adrian Hall) ask their father Caractacus to save the wreck of a champion race car, which is about to be scrapped. Caractacus joins a song-and-dance act and earns enough money in tips to buy the car and rebuild it, naming it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang after its weird engine noises.

This sweet-natured children’s extravaganza mixes jovial comedy with whimsical fantasy and happy musical numbers via songs with music and lyrics the Sherman twins, Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman.

If the mixture is unruly at times, there is much pleasure to be gained from the hard-working cast, the songs, the inventive sets and the clever gadgetry. The title song was Oscar nominated for Best Original Song at the 41st Academy Awards.

Robert Helpmann is memorably scary for young children as The Child Catcher, who is employed by the Baron Bomburst (Gert Fröbe) and Baroness Bomburst (Anna Quayle) to snatch and imprison children on the streets of Vulgaria. The character does not appear in Ian Fleming’s source book. Roald Dahl, co-author of the film’s screenplay, was said to have created the character, but Dahl’s screenplay was much rewritten by the film’s director Ken Hughes, who claimed he created the character.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is based on Ian Fleming’s stories in his 1964 children’s novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car, with a screenplay credited as co-written by Ken Hughes and Roald Dahl.

The 007 author Fleming wrote the book while convalescing after a heart attack as a bedtime story for his son Caspar. But Fleming died of another heart attack on 12 August 1964 and the book was published two months later.

The film comes from the producer of Fleming’s James Bond movies, Albert R Broccoli, with Gert Fröbe (Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger) and Desmond Llewelyn (Q in 17 Bond films from 1963’s From Russia with Love to 1995’s GoldenEye) among the welcome cast, and Ken Adam as production designer, as well as Roald Dahl and Richard Maibaum as screenplay writers.

It boasts a rich treasure trove of character actors. Also notable in the lovely cast are: Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Anna Quayle, Barbara Windsor, Stanley Unwin, Davy Kaye, Peter Arne, Victor Maddern, Arthur Mullard, Desmond Llewelyn, Gerald Campion, Totti Truman Taylor, and Richard Wattis.

Irwin Kostal supervises and conducts the music, and the numbers are staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood.

Running time: 145 minutes.

It was popular enough, earning $7.5 million at the box office, but because of its high budget of $10 million to $12 million and expensive advertising campaign, it lost United Artists an estimated $8 million.

Dick van Dyke said in 2025 that he was supposed to get 20 per cent of the box office for the film, but he ‘never saw a dime’.

Truly Scrumptious was originally offered to Julie Andrews to reunite her with Van Dyke after Mary Poppins but Andrews rejected the part because she felt it was too similar to Poppins. Sally Ann Howes, who had taken over from Andrews as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway in 1958, was then offered the role.

Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall

It is the first film for child stars Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall, cast after an extensive search.

After making Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Heather Ripley continued to audition for roles but eventually left the film industry. Her earnings from the film were held in trust until her 18th birthday. She later recalled: ‘After 10 years of it being invested, it was only about £7,000.’ She returned to home in Dundee, Scotland, where she later joined the family optician business.

Adrian Hall later became principal of the British drama school Academy of Live and Recorded Arts until 2020, two years before it closed.

Sally Ann Howes

RIP Sally Ann Howes, who died on 19 December 2021, aged 91. Her stage, screen and TV career spanned six decades, but she was best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious.

Dick Van Dyke

Dick Van Dyke was born on 13 December 1925. His awards include six Emmys, a Grammy, a Golden Globe and a Tony. He turned 100 in 2025.

He will always be remembered as as Bert the cockney chimney sweep in Mary Poppins (1964), but his other films include Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and The Comic (1969).

The cast 

The cast are Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts, Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious, Lionel Jeffries as Grandpa ‘Bungy’ 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, Heather Ripley as Jemima Potts, Adrian Hall as Jeremy Potts, Barbara Windsor as Blonde at the carnival, Davy Kaye as Admiral, Alexander Doré as First Spy, Bernard Spear as Second Spy, Stanley Unwin as Chancellor, Peter Arne as Captain of the Guard, Desmond Llewelyn as ‘Bill’ Coggins, Victor Maddern as the Junkman, Arthur Mullard as Cyril the Big Man at the carnival, George Leech as Chitty’s original driver, Richard Wattis as Philips, the secretary at Scrumptious Sweet Co, and Michael Audreson as Peter the blond Vulgarian boy.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,464

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