Whether it be in person or the TV screen, race cars have captured many attention for their noisy antics. No matter if it’s the speed these cars pass by at or the wrecks they get involved with, racing can be an exhilarating sport. The people who obviously get the most out of it though are the racers themselves. Even then though, they can hit slumps especially if their season isn’t going as planned. Pick me ups are possible, but sometimes it’s difficult getting back in the ring. But what are those pick me ups? Surely not getting a completely new car. Well, this movie happens to feature something like that with a very unlikely added feature for a fun ride. This is also the film that began a franchise favorite for many people who love racing and classic cars.
Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) is a struggling driver trying to make something of his profession. Unfortunately for him, he’s just making ends meet by participating in demolition derbies with his partner Tennessee (Buddy Hackett). That is until he takes a stroll and happens to meet Carole Bennett (Michele Lee) an assistant to Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) the owner of a car dealer. While perusing, he crosses paths with a white Volkswagen beetle. Feeling the car is an eyesore, Thorndyke offers it to Douglas. What nobody seems to know is that the car has a mind of its own except Tennessee, which leads to all kinds of shenanigans. Written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi from Mary Poppins (1964) fame, this story is a cute little racing movie, although highly unrealistic. Robert Stevenson serves as director who also helmed other Disney pictures like Mary Poppins (1964) and Old Yeller (1957).
As for stories go, there’s a decent amount of family entertainment to be had. While the character of Jim Douglas is a bit stubborn at times, he does have a character arc which makes him an amicable protagonist. It’s a little questionable why Michele Lee’s character would warm up to him rather quickly, but perhaps this writing is more of a product of the time. Both Tomlinson and Hackett are the actors who have the more comedic characters. Tomlinson plays Thorndyke as an overly confident man in his abilities to persuade others. His development is interesting seeing that he became more and more unstable as the story progressed. Hackett as Tennessee is fairly consistent throughout, but it’s never explained how he could tell that Herbie was a sentient motor vehicle or how it became sentient.
However, audiences do get to learn how Herbie gets his name. As for the car itself, Herbie is a charming little car that shows just how much energy it really has. While the vehicle may not be able to make faces, through a series of actions, audiences will be able to tell what mood the car is in. There’s also appearances from Joe Flynn playing Havershaw, Thorndyke’s sniveling partner, and Benson Fong playing Tang Wu, another shop owner who gets entangled with the bug. Since this is a family adventure fantasy film and the premise is about a sentient car, expectations should be low for realism. Reason for this being not even the racing segments are exactly believable. Which is kind of surprising, considering one would think that would be something to keep authentic if takes place in the human world.
When a car is operating only on ¾ of its base and the rest is being balanced by the crew, how is a race functioning properly with that? The cinematography shot by Edward Colman was well done for its time. Having also done cinematography for Mary Poppins (1964), the quality remains the same. Before that, he also worked on Dragnet (1954). This would however be Colman’s last credit as a cinematographer. Finally, the film score composed by George Bruns, a frequent composer for Disney films at the time, did a nice job. Unfortunately, there never was an officially released score, but Bruns does have a cute little jingle for Herbie. In a way it sounds like it took inspiration from Vic Mizzy’s Addams Family theme with the same instruments.
The realism in the racing aspects are far from plausible and the origins of Herbie’s existence isn’t given much explanation. Despite that though, it’s easy to ignore since it’s a fantasy film with goofy likable characters, cute music and skilled camerawork.
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