Chitty and James Bond have more in common than just sharing Ian Fleming as their author. The film of Chitty was produced by Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli as were all the first seventeen Bond films. Desmond Llewelyn who played Q in the Bond films until his death in 2000 played the scrap dealer Coggins and Gert Frobe was the villain Goldfinger as well as Baron Bomburst. Also every Bond film features a car with some extra special built in gadgetry to help 007 in his quest.
There is a Trivial Pursuit game card which asks 'Which British spy novelist wrote the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?'
The film screenplay was written by prolific children's author Roald Dahl and the film's director Ken Hughes.
The song Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was nominated for an Oscar in 1968.
The Sherman Brothers also wrote the songs for Disney's Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book as well as countless other films including The Slipper and the Rose.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was originally published as separate adventures in three separate volumes over 1964 and 1965. It was not published in a single volume in England until 1971.
Some of Rowland Emett's strange and wonderful inventions for the film are housed and on show at the Mid-America Science Museum.
Locations used in the film include Ibstone Windmill, Buckinghamshire and Neuschwanstein Castle near Munich. This castle was built by King Ludwig Konig of Bavaria as a temple to Wagner based on designs by Christian Janck which were in turn inspired by Angelo Il Quaglio's stage sets for the 1867 production of
Lohengrin.
The films cast included many British comedy favourites in supporting roles including Benny Hill as the toymaker, Barbara Windsor, Arthur Mullard, Bernard Spear, Stanley Unwin, Davy Kaye, Max Bacon, Kenneth Waller and Max Wall.
Empire magazine recently rated the film's child catcher scenes amongst the 100 most frightening ever filmed.
|
ID YOU KNOW.....
