In the days before home entertainment as a treat, children used to be taken to the Odeon in the nearest large town to see what their parents thought they would like. Usually this was a dreaded Disney movie and my childhood was just the same. We were often taken to Bath or Trowbridge to see Uncle Walt’s latest offering.
For some reason, from an early age, they used to bore me and as I watched the confectionary on the screen I longed for the French New Wave or Ingmar Bergman. But my protests fell on deaf ears and I was told not to be ungrateful in no uncertain terms by my Nan after enduring That Darn Cat in 1965.
As I was tall for my age, I was able to see X rated movies from the age of thirteen onwards (not that the staff really cared in those days). At first it was Clint in the Spaghetti Westerns and then as I matured, I made the step upwards and started watching the movies of Bergman and the directors of the New Wave in France. As you can imagine, these were thin on the ground and I went as far as Bristol to see these movies. I am not saying that I was mature but there was something in my DNA which preferred more adult themes in movies.
And then disaster struck, as just a few months after seeing Bonnie and Clyde, I was told that I would have to take both my brother and sister plus a couple of loathed cousins to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Trowbridge Odeon. Naturally I protested, but as my father financed most of my football trips I had to give in. So with the worry that my street cred would be forever harmed, I made the three-mile journey to Trowbridge just before Christmas in 1968. I had travelled with the intention of hating the movie and was not disappointed as although it was not a Disney production, it might as well have been. Thankfully, it was the last film for children that I had to endure as my parents had began to notice my arty ways.
I never had occasion to see the movie again, although there have been endless repeats on TV over the years and I believe there was a stage version a few years ago. That was until today, some fifty years later, when in the youth of my old age, I wandered into the Arcade to look for a car for one of my grandchildren as I knew that there was a chest full in a unit near the front door. I had purchased the occasional four wheeled friend from it before and what I liked about this unassuming chest was that the vehicles within were in all states of repair. This for some reason takes me back to my childhood when like all boys, I had a large collection of Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox toys which were normally kept in a wooden box. These toys constituted a large part of the games you played at the time and served as competitors in the Monte Carlo Rally and ambulances during the large scale wars that you fought between the greenhouse and the path that led to the canal. Like all toys, these models had a lifespan and usually disappeared under the Hydrangeas or were secretly disposed of by one’s parents after Rover had started eating them during one of his more lucid moments. I can confidently say that not one of my cars followed me into adulthood.
But now I own a model car, or at least the shell of a model car, as whilst searching though the chest for a car for my grandson, I found it. And guess what? it is the car from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie and to be truthful, I rather like it. As you can see from the photos I have taken, it appears that the passengers of the unfortunate car have met Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as, with the exception of Jemima Potts, they have all lost their heads and Truly Scrumptious has disappeared altogether. I would imagine that at some stage since 1968, a ferocious child decided that the occupants of the car would look better without their heads and removed them for some reason with his mothers best scissors. This poor model has gone through the wars and because of that, just seems more lived in and more a memory of childhood.
Just across the passage in the Arcade, there are some wonderful Corgi and Dinky models in tip top condition. These are very collectable and are available at reasonable prices and I know that there is a great deal of interest in them. But to me, the bashed up old Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is all I want as it has taken me back to a time when I was between childhood and adulthood. I still like foreign movies, though it is likely that my grandchildren will condemn me to watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sometime in the future, unless I run away to South America.
However, before I go, here are five facts that I discovered whilst researching this article
1. The movie was shot in locations such as Bavaria and St Tropez.
2. Six Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs were created for the movie.
3. Heather Ripley, who played Jemima Potts, was once arrested at Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base and was jailed for some fifteen hours.
4. Dick Van Dyke, who is now ninety-three, appeared recently in the remake of Mary Poppins.
5. Sally Anne Howes who played Truly Scrumptious, made her first movie in 1943 and was once contracted to the Rank Organisation.
In the days before home entertainment as a treat, children used to be taken to the Odeon in the nearest large town to see what their parents thought they would like. Usually this was a dreaded Disney movie and my childhood was just the same. We were often taken to Bath or Trowbridge to see Uncle Walt’s latest offering.
I never had occasion to see the movie again, although there have been endless repeats on TV over the years and I believe there was a stage version a few years ago. That was until today, some fifty years later, when in the youth of my old age, I wandered into the Arcade to look for a car for one of my grandchildren as I knew that there was a chest full in a unit near the front door. I had purchased the occasional four wheeled friend from it before and what I liked about this unassuming chest was that the vehicles within were in all states of repair. This for some reason takes me back to my childhood when like all boys, I had a large collection of Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox toys which were normally kept in a wooden box. These toys constituted a large part of the games you played at the time and served as competitors in the Monte Carlo Rally and ambulances during the large scale wars that you fought between the greenhouse and the path that led to the canal. Like all toys, these models had a lifespan and usually disappeared under the Hydrangeas or were secretly disposed of by one’s parents after Rover had started eating them during one of his more lucid moments. I can confidently say that not one of my cars followed me into adulthood.
But now I own a model car, or at least the shell of a model car, as whilst searching though the chest for a car for my grandson, I found it. And guess what? it is the car from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie and to be truthful, I rather like it. As you can see from the photos I have taken, it appears that the passengers of the unfortunate car have met Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as, with the exception of Jemima Potts, they have all lost their heads and Truly Scrumptious has disappeared altogether. I would imagine that at some stage since 1968, a ferocious child decided that the occupants of the car would look better without their heads and removed them for some reason with his mothers best scissors. This poor model has gone through the wars and because of that, just seems more lived in and more a memory of childhood.