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In the scene where the Baroness is shot from the back seat of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, she is shown drifting through the air with her skirt serving as a parachute. In one view of her, there is a short white crinoline under her dress, in all other views there is none. See more...

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Julie Andrews was the actress chosen to play the part of Truly Scrumptious. However, Ms. Andrews had grown tired of being typecasted in playing the same type roles, ie, Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. She turned down the part. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) - 20 corrections

starring Dick Van Dyke (add more)

Genres: Family, Comedy, Musical, Fantasy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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Updated this week When Mr. Potts and the children go for a ride for their first picnic outing after Chitty has been created, they are singing and driving through the streets of a village. Just when they sing "...the envy of all we survey", Mr. Potts raises his arm in the air, then turns forward with a seriously startled look and immediately reaches for the brake, then the scene cuts to them driving through the large open field. [The 'startled look' is because there is a narrow bridge in front of the car, and they nearly hit the side. The scene then cuts because it is unnecessary to see every moment on film.]
Entry The name of the book and the film come from the time when it was written-British soldiers in France were given permission to go and see the Parisian prostitutes by means of a piece of paper or a "chitty" from their superiors- i.e. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. [Unless I see a credible source for this, I'm inclined to dismiss this one as an urban legend. For one thing, a title relating to events from the time the movie was WRITTEN would make little sense for a story set in a completely different time period (post-WWII vs. circa 1910). A Google and Wikipedia search provided nothing to support this allegation.]
Entry One of the scenes we can see Chitty's tires. They are made by "Goodyear". Since this movie takes place in the early 1900's, it is very unlikely that a tire company founded in Akron, Ohio, United States in 1898 with only 13 workers would have manufactured and shipped their tires overseas within the company's first 10 years. [Goodyear had over 300 employees, 28 in sales in 1905. First plant in a foreign company (Canada) in 1910. Was the world's largest tire company, with sales offices and factories in many countries by 1915. Previous to that, they were the world's largest supplier of carriage tires, along with sales of bicycle and aircraft tires by 1905. A little later than 10 years after opening, in 1916, Goodyear was the world's largest tire manufacturer. All of which is to say it is entirely possible that Goodyear shipped their tires overseas in the first 10 years.]
Time
Entry In the scene where they are in the boat and they are going through the cave into the castle if you look closely while they are going in you will see in one shot some guy with a hat in the background (Note: only his head is visible) [I watched this scene 4-5 times and saw no such man. Even if there was a man with a hat, he is not necessarily part of the crew. There are a few other people throughout the scene that are wearing hats and they are part of the movie.]
Entry During the Chitty/Baron Ship scene, the smoke coming from the Baron's smokestacks changes directions a lot: from port side, to the rear, to not blowing at all (just accumulating around the boat), to port side, to no smoke whatsoever, to starboard, to port side, to starboard, to port side, to practically no smoke again, to out the rear, and changes again a few more times. [Nothing unusual about that if the wind is slight or variable.]
Time
Entry When everyone is at the beach for the first time with Chitty, during the scene where Potts is describing what has happened (how they are now completely cut-off [by water]) you can see that the car is on dry land and there isn't any water except far in the distance. The very next instant (during Potts' sentence) the tide somehow completely surrounds the car. [Previously submitted and corrected.]
Corrected by Ioreth Time
Entry In the scene where Potts and the children are driving off for a picnic in the refurbished Chitty, Grandpa says that he is off to Alaska and heads toward his hut in a fur coat. As the car drives away, however, Grandpa is nowhere to be seen. [He has probably gone to Alaska (into the outside toilet).]
Time
Entry During the old bamboo dance scene Dick Van Dyke deliberately avoids the most energetic dance routine by walking off during the musical bridge. He was 44 years old at the time. [According to the notes with the DVD, the dance sequence took 4 days to film. There was therefore plenty of time for Dick van Dyke to rest between takes. In addition, during a featurette with Dick Van Dyke on the special edition DVD he says he was not a dancer and never trained as a dancer so all the dance sequences were difficult for him to make look good. Because of the intricacies in that scene perhaps it was decided best to let the pros handle it instead of making production even longer with continuous takes to get it right.]
Entry Just before Dick Van Dyke says, "The tide has been coming in, now we're completely cut off" visible behind him is the beach, and the car is nowhere near the water. [He is telling his children a story. Nothing in it bears any resemblance to the real world.]
Entry When Mr. Potts carries Truly from her car in the pond, the end of the ribbons on the back of her dress gets soaked in mud but when you see her again at the beach, there is no sign of the dirt. [This beach scene takes place days, possibly a week, after the pond incident, as they go to the factory, many nights pass and he goes to the carnival before the beach. There is plenty of time for her to clean her dress.]
Entry The back rest on Caractacus's rockets is a sawed-off baby car seat. [How this qualifies as a mistake, even a deliberate one, is beyond me. The fact that the imaginative Caractacus Potts can re-use something like a baby's seat is rather inventive, and what a coincidence - he's an inventor.]
Corrected by Rikki
Entry At the end of the Toot Sweet number when the dogs are rushing into the factory, there is a shot of the dogs running down the stairs and then the scene is cut to a shot of the entire factory to show dogs running along the catwalk. In the upper right corner of this shot a dog can be seen falling from the catwalk and immediately 2 of the factory workers turn and rush to check on the animal. [This is not a mistake. Maybe it wasn't planned in the script, but within the film itself why shouldn't the workers show concern if an animal gets hurt?]
Entry Because the film stars a car, it was necessary to make several (in this case six) cars that all took turns. However, obviously no-one had thought to keep the number plates the same, so the car's licence number is sometimes GEN 10, sometimes GEM 10, sometimes GEN 11 and sometimes GEM 11. [I've watched several times, and can't see any evidence of this. Also, the number was designed to read as close to "Genie" as possible. It is an unlikely error.]
Entry While singing Me Ol' Bamboo Mr Potts' hat is put on backwards by one of the other dancers, in the next shot it has been turned round the right way. [Mr Potts puts his own hat on backwards after his "ladies use a parasol" line. He then passes it along the line during the next part of the song. The dancer two men down gets the hat. It IS the right way round in the next shot, though.]
Entry During the "I Have You Two" number, you can see that the eggs in Potts' machine are brown eggs. But when Grandpa gets a single uncooked egg, it is a white egg. [There are various colors of eggs on the wheel. The first shot is shows only part of the eggs, however the second and third shot shows more.]
Entry The film is set in pre-WW1 England (assumed from the fact that the opening credits show Grand Prix races from 1907, 1908 and 1909 and the generally late Edwardian style of the costumes). When Grandpa Potts is taken to Vulgaria and shown into the castle, he stops on the top of the steps to make a speech and starts "On behalf of Her Majesty the Queen......" It should be "On behalf of His Majesty the King", i.e. George V (reigned 1910 to 1936). [Grandpa Potts is a slightly potty ex-soldier who thinks that he is still serving under Queen Victoria in the Raj. This is a perfectly natural mistake for HIM to make, but that doesn't mean it's a mistake in the film.]
Entry In the scene when Truley Scrumptious is walking on the beach with the children, one shot she has shoes on & in the very next shot, she is barefoot. [In the scene where Truley is walking with the children, she has her shoes on the entire time until she kicks them off when the children chase her.]
Entry In the scene where Mr. Potts is going to take the children for the first ride in the car, he tells Jeremy to get the picnic basket. Jeremy hurriedly rushes out of the shot and then back to the car with it within a few seconds, but he would not have had a chance to fill it with food. [How do you know the picnic basket wasn't already packed? After all, it was in his workshop where Jeremy couldn't pack food anyway since there is none.]
Entry At the end of the movie, when they fly off into the sunset, they forget to put the wings out. [I believe that this was done on purpose symbolizing that the car is magical.]
Entry In the scene where Truly finds the children in the tower, the cannon that Mr Potts and the toymaker use to smash down the door was a chest in the shot immediately before they appeared. [The chest was at the end of a corridor to the side of the door. The cannon was at the end of a corridor opposite the door which was smashed down. The cannon was always there.]

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