CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (1968) *** One of the great kid movies though it never regains the unadulterated brilliance of the opening Dick Van Dyke fire & feather scene. Every time it gains any semblance of serious momentum they launch into less than brilliant musical scores. The ones with Sally Ann Howes (as Truly Scrumptious, daughter of a candy magnate) are the worst but it's not entirely her fault-her voice is only slightly irritating but they give her the full-on dog songs. Van Dyke eventually takes a flying car to Vulgaria where he liberates a revolutionary force from a subterranean dungeon. The royalist autocrats are abused, mocked, and caught in a giant net. Songs result but by then you're somewhat used to it and they trot the better ones back out. Roald Dahl helped write the screenplay based on an Ian Fleming (James Bond) story. Flying cars, subterranean dungeons, lots of great inventions, bizarre gimmicks, and good lines...they substitute children for Bond girls and candy for martinis, I think to make the parents think it's wholesome. Child revolutionaries, indeed.
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