|
Year
: 1968
Director:
Ken Hughes
Starring:
Dick Van Dyke, Sally Anne
Howes, Benny Hill, Professor Stanley Unwin. |
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Again
another non-christmas themed film on a Christmassy
movies list - but everyone thinks of this film
when they talk about Christmas TV favourites.
A
quick summary of the plot. Professor Caractacus
Potts lives at home with his father and his two
young children. Potts ia a struggling inventor,
whose magnificent (but seemingly over elaborate)
inventions often only work intermittently and he
is forever striving for an invention that will
finally make him some money. When Potts gets to
work doing up on an old racing car he finds it
can also fly and also drive on the water, oh and
its magic too. When Grandpa Potts gets kidnapped
by a small european principality (who have mistaken
Grandpa as the inventor of the flying car) Potts,
his children and his romantic interest, Truly Scrumptious,
fly off to the remote european castle kingdom to
rescue him. There they find the kingdom whose
people are ruled by fear, and the Potts are
rushed off the streets by the local Toy maker who
explains the regime. He also explains
that under orders of the king, that children aren't
allowed in the kingdom and this is strictly enforced
by the evil child catcher. Caractacus, Truly and
the toy maker hatch a cunning plan to rescue Grandpa.
Meanwhile the two children are left in the toy
maker's house with strict instructions to keep
out of sight, unfortunately they don't and the
child catcher catches them and takes them to the
castle, meaning the an even more elaborate plan
needs to be hatched by Potts to rescue Grandpa,
Jemima, Jeremy and all the rest of the children
hidden below the castle.
A
second appearance on the list for Dick Van Dyke,
thankfully after his attempt at a Cockney accent
in Mary Poppins he doesn't attempt an accent at
all here (so rather ridiculously we get the single
American accent whilst all his family have
classically english accents - but it's a lesser
of two evils). The original novel was written by
Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond Novels) and
adapted by Roald Dahl which is a pretty fine combination
that helps the film steer a different course than
Disney would have taken, and towards a more dark
and edgier places (for a family film anyway). Speaking
of scary The Child catcher is surely one of the
scariest cinematic creations of all time (portrayed
by Robert Helpmann whose career as a world renowned
principal ballerina no doubt helping him actualise
the scary movements of the child catcher for maximum
effect). The film has a cast of great British talent
including glimpses of Max Wall, Barbara Windsor,
professor Stanley Unwin, James Robertson Justice
and the legendary Arthur Mullard (perhaps the actor
with the smallest range in the history of British
cinema).
Ok
the kids are too squeaky, and the Child catcher
is far too scary, and perhaps the lead role should
have been given Wilf Lunn (of The
Great Egg Race and Jigsaw fame) but Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang
is a great family fun and a Christmas favourite
so is placed at December 19th on our Films
guaranteed to make you feel Christmassy (UK edition).
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD Store in association
with Amazon.co.uk
