Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
As the truly scrumptious 1968 film celebrates its 50th anniversary, Katharine Wootton uncovers the surprising ‘fantasmagorical’ facts behind the much-loved movie musical
Julie Andrews was the first choice for Truly Scrumptious but she turned the role down, saying it was too close to her Mary Poppins character so instead, they cast Sally Ann Howes, who had previously replaced Julie Andrews in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady
Dick Van Dyke repeatedly refused to join the cast, too, believing the script had too many holes and unanswered questions, but a big salary eventually made him say yes on the stipulation he didn’t have to reprise the questionable English accent he’d grappled with in Mary Poppins! The production team agreed and the character of Caractacus Potts was transformed into an eccentric American inventor
As for Grandpa Potts, loveable Lionel Jeffries was the obvious choice, although being a year younger than his onscreen son,
3 weeks, 38 dancers, 40 singers, 85 musicians and 100 dogs – that’s what it took to film the musical number Toot Sweets!
Dick Van Dyke, the production team had to apply prosthetic makeup to make him look older!
Dick Van Dyke insisted Benny Hill should join the cast as toymaker. He also asked Benny to make some rewrites to the script, although Benny was never credited for them.
Professor of nonsense language and comedian, Stanley Unwin, starred in Chitty as the Chancellor of Vulgaria.
The colours of Chitty’s inflatable cushion when she floats – purple, green and white – were the colours of the suffrage movement While Bond author Ian Fleming wrote the book for Chitty, Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay, adding in Baron Bomburst and the Child Catcher
Fine, four-fendered friend...
The car may have been the star, coining her name from the sound she makes, but what you saw on screen was actually seven different Chittys. One had wings, one had a hovercraft, one was the ‘junk’ version from the scrapyard and just one was a fullyfunctional roadworthy model which Dick Van Dyke claimed, “was difficult to manoeuvre, with the turning radius of a battleship”. After the movie, Pierre Picton, Dick Van Dyke’s stand-in driver for the film, bought two Chittys and over the years had countless offers to buy them, including one from Michael Jackson, but in the end he sold one to Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson who still uses the car for charity drives.
Where was it filmed?
The Potts’ Windmill was filmed at Cobstone mill in Ibstone (below left), Buckinghamshire. The windmill hadn’t worked since the First World War but was fitted with mock sails and a fantail for the film. The scenes where Caractacus and the children drive Chitty through a village were also filmed in Buckinghamshire, handily near Roald Dahl’s home. The beach scenes where Chitty takes to the water were shot in Saint-Tropez, France. Baron Bomburst’s Castle is actually Neuschwanstein Castle (below centre), originally built for ‘The Mad King of Bavaria’ in the late 1800s. This castle was also the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. Scrumptious Sweet Co. factory was filmed in Kempton Waterworks in Hanworth (below right) which now houses the Kempton Steam Museum.
Don’t miss...
Read more about the making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and other classic movie motor cars in the latest issue of Yours Retro. Plus discover the stories behind Natalie Wood’s troubled childhood and Elvis’s close bond with his mother, or remember Britain’s own rock ’n’ roll star, Billy Fury and the cult TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E.