Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bond

NeverSayDie

I've never seen CCBB before and my fiancée made me buy it on BluRay yesterday.
I'm currently half through and it's great. Not just a fun kids film
but the huge amount of Bond connections it has.
Produced by Cubby Broccoli, starring Goldfinger and Q with effects by John Stears.

I'm just up to the part when Chitty converts into a hovercraft which is very similar to the gondola scene in Moonraker. Has any one else noticed any sequences in CCBB that recycled for later 007 films?

Charmed & Dangerous

The flying car found its way into TMWTGG )

I guess you know it was written by Ian Fleming too?

Btw - hope you are still smiling from your excellent 007 day yesterday -{

NeverSayDie

Yes I forgot to put it was written by Ian Fleming.
Still have the biggest grin ever from yesterday.

Kent007

I've actually read the book of Chitty as I had read Dr.No and Casino Royale and wanted to compare them. The book is very different to the film. It's all about smugglers and I suppose it's more similar to Bond in that way than the film is and it also contains the usual Fleming description of cars and car chases! Also, I suppose Truly Scrumptious is quite a Bondian name for a woman!

With all the connections between Chitty and Bond, it is interesting to jokingly wonder what the films would be like if Dick Van Dyke was Bond haha I'm sure we could've expected a dancing number when he sings "Underneath the Mango tree" in Dr. No )

Firemass

Chris, tell us about your big 007 day ? ?

I've never actually seen CCBB but it's now #1 on my netflix queue.

always shaken

Hey firemas ,i was just about to say where the hell do you live not to have seen CCBB
then i noticed you live in the biggest state in the USA ,we was raised on CCBB as kids '
i wish i still had the toy car. in the UK it must have been on the tv at leat 5 times a year for the past
30 years plus ,one of the best family films ever made you must watch it im going off now to have a cry for you
for missing out on this magnificent peice of film history

NeverSayDie

Just finished watching CCBB on BluRay.
Brilliant kids film! Can't believe I've never seen it before. Some ideas in the film were similar to YOLT (not surprising as Roald Dahl was the screenwriter on both).
The metal side
The attack on the castle similar to the attack on Blofeld's volcano lair.
Gadgets

My 007 adventure yesterday was at the Memorabilia convention in Birmingham where I met Pussy Galore herself.


More photos can be seen on this thread here:
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/40930/memorabiliathis-weekend1617-march-nec-birmingham/

always shaken

Arrrgghhh ,now agent neversaydie says hes never seen CCBB either ,
all i need now is for silouhette man to say he has never seen it
either ,and im reaching for the brandy ( i dont have a gun) hic

Kent007

I'm actually watching it now because of this post haha Love the film so much!!

always shaken

Ok agent Kent007, are you saying you are watching it ie for the 1st time or re-watching it
be carefull cos im on the 12th floor and the window is open ?

Kent007

Watching it on DVD. Yes I have it on DVD that's how many time's I've seen it! Sorry

NeverSayDie

I've seen it now. Brilliant film! I've just been listening to the soundtrack in the car.

Charmed & Dangerous

Brilliant film! I saw it as a child, have only seen it once or so since then, and not for years.

I do clearly recall being absolutely terrified of the Child Catcher!

always shaken

Yes apparently Robert Helpmanns portrayal of the child catcher was in the top 1oo
of most frightening characters ,but a very talented gentleman none the less

PMN

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a splendid family film and one that I really loved as a child.
I've watched it a few times on dvd with my own children and it is always a hit. When
Chitty emerges from the shed in all her renewed splendour it is a movie moment to cherish
and very emotional. The childcatcher must be one of the most terrifying characters ever
invented and still scares me after all these years and Sally Anne Howes' rendition of 'This Lovely
Lonely Man' is heartbreaking. I love spotting all the Bond connections every time I watch it and
i would heartily recommend it to all. Saw the stage show a few years' ago and that was excellent
too.

Silhouette Man

Plus, was Fleming's Chitty flying car the inspiration for Francisco Scaramanga's flying car in the film TMWTGG. I do think so - a nice little influence on the Eon James Bond film series there, too.

NeverSayDie

Truly Scrumptious is a very Fleming name. The actress would have made a great Bond girl :x

Silhouette Man

NeverSayDie wrote:

Truly Scrumptious is a very Fleming name. The actress would have made a great Bond girl :x

Yes, I suppose you could say that it's a polite, censored version of the much more risque Bond girl name Pussy Galore! )

Lexi

It is one of the best kids movies (and adults alike) IMO... my son Oliver loves it. As I did, when I watched it... it was a Christmas staple on UK TV.

It def has Bond similarities (which is hardly surprising) and the car can be seen at Beaulieu (where the Bond exhibition is as well)

Glad you are all enjoying it! -{

PoorMansJB

Like a number of films -- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory* comes to mind -- CCBB did not do well on initial release but has since taken on cult status -- particularly as a result of holiday TV showings -- with many baby boomers citing it has a influential part of their upbringing.

The car itself is a near legendary prop with auction houses imagining it would rival Bond's Aston on the block.

*It happens that I first saw both WWATCF and CCBB each for the first time as a double bill here in the US.

The_Commander

I work in the film and TV industry and I've heard from several sources that CCBB was fairly rushed into production as EON had a lot of their film crew on retainers and basically doing nothing (but getting paid for it) after Connery decided to have a break after YOLT.

I'm not sure of the validity of the story, but it'd explain why there were so many links to the Bond films' crew and the timing fits perfectly in between 1967's YOLT and 1969's OHMSS.

And I'm so glad they did make CCBB - the film is a perennial favourite of mine and is a breath of fresh air and colour, not to mention those incredibly hook-y tunes.

Barbel

Fleming wrote CCBB while recovering from a heart attack during the TB court case. He had been telling his son Caspar bedtime stories about a magical car, and enjoyed writing them down.

AlphaOmegaSin

And he thought that he was too young for the Bond Novels.

Firemass

NeverSayDie wrote:

I'm just up to the part when Chitty converts into a hovercraft which is very similar to the gondola scene in Moonraker. Has any one else noticed any sequences in CCBB that recycled for later 007 films?

…and who says the film version of Moonraker doesn't have any Fleming material in it?! )

I agree…when I watched CCBB, that scene instantly reminded me of the Bondola. Very Fleming indeed.

I suppose now I have to read the novel CCBB as well to be a true completionist....

always shaken wrote:

i was just about to say where the hell do you live not to have seen CCBB

Unfortunately, never saw it as a kid but I am certainly enjoying it now. I was actually wondering if CCBB is more popular than the Bond films? The reason I ask is CCBB has 1,704 customer reviews on Amazon USA compared to Goldfinger has only 616.

Napoleon Plural

It's good but it does go on a bit, like a lot of films in the late 60s - Thoroughly Modern Millie, for instance, even OHMSS. I know Mary Poppins and Sound of Music did too, but they merited it.

Desmond 'Q' Llewellyn pops up in an early scene in CCBB, as the country yokel mechanic selling the old banger, if I recall.

superado

As a kid, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was one of many movies I watched over and over thanks to broadcast reruns on local channels. I didn’t realize the Fleming connection until much later. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was (and is) such a feel-good movie in my childhood, along with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Scrooge, Mary Poppins and the earlier Winnie the Pooh cartoons.

One of the special features of the movie, Tomorrowland, talked about the premise of the movie and its plot, in that movies in the 60’s up to the beginning of the 70’s reflected the general optimism of the time, before sentiments began becoming more gritty and dystopian (though the trend of that had already started in the late 50’s).

I had my kids watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with me recently and let them know how innocent times seemed like when I was a kid in the 70’s, which I miss very much.

The Domino Effect

Last autumn CCBB was on the telly and I pointed it out to my wife with an idle "That was one of my all-time favourites growing up." We started to watch it and I thought I'd be ready to flick the channel after 10 minutes and she'd barely last 5 minutes, but lo and behold if we both didn't love it...and her arguably even more than me! We now own our own copy. For anyone on here who hasn't seen it but also hasn't completely lost their sense of innocence and adventure, GO FOR IT!!!

chrisisall

I made a model of the car for my Son when he was small. He still has it. It's a wonderful movie.