The first line was Jack Lemon, the second Shirley MacLaine.

Excellent! You're up.

Definitely okay to poke fun. One of my passions is musical theater, and I can't tell you how much I hate, loath and despise Sound of Music. As for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it came out after my childhood, I have no children of my own and, though I've actually enjoyed some of the other Disney movie musicals like Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast (though NEVER the stage versions), this is one that I won't see unless bound, hit over the head and dragged in.

I grew up with 7 sisters in my house, and it seems they were running non-stop loops of The Sound of Music and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with occasional side trips into West Side Story, and I can state that despite all that potential for exposure, I still have never seen any of these 3 films.

But Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was very different, and I suspect I was quite drawn to it as a kid simply because it was centered around a very cool 'gadgety' car that hosted a range of cool hidden features, including the ability to fly with crazy pop-out wings. (To this day, I am still a gadget nut.)

CCBB is, however not a Disney movie. Some aspects of it may have been "Disney-esque" - such as Dick Van Dyke in the lead role (who had done a number of Disney films to date, probably most notably, "Mary Poppins"), the song writers basically made their name up to that point writing songs almost exclusively for Disney productions, and even the Baron's castle had a "Disney-esque" feel to it.

CCBB is a slightly more complex, and even more convoluted production than a lot of Disney films, and is the result of an Ian Fleming premise, presented through a Roald Dahl story in an Albert R. Broccoli production using the over-the-top character antics of Dick Van Dyke with a little bit of Benny Hill (in a supporting role) thrown in. Knowing that it is not a Disney film, I think it is difficult to get away from the feeling while watching it that they were definitely trying to mimic the Disney formula.

After having seen it again as an adult, I was able to watch it with a different critical perspective and wonder just for what type of audience the film was intended.

Some bits might be too frightening for young children.
Some bits are too silly for older children.
Most of the songs (or earworms) are suited for easy memorization by young children, but are potentially way too sappy for older children and adults.

While it seems that the film itself is intended as a musical fantasy adventure for the whole family, at almost 2 and a half hours it begins to feel just too convoluted and bogged down so that by the end of the film, you've nearly forgotten most of what happened at the beginning.

If I felt that I could tolerate the earworms running around in my head for a week, I might consider renting the film for my 6 year old daughter to watch. She'd probably enjoy it - she keeps up with long films quite easily. But I think I'd really prefer just owning the car.

-Jon

I have to fess up and admit that I have not seen CCBB in it's entirety since the year it came out, when I was 11. Since it was my turn for quote I pulled up the movie on Netflix and watched about 3/4 of an hour, which is all I could manage. Turns out the very beginning of the movie is quite good cinema when the car is winning all the races throughout Europe and then crashes to avoid some kids crossing the race track. The first spoken lines in the movie obviously were a perfect setup for the film and gave enough clues for a savvy critic to guess the source, even without viewing.
I'm betting this film gave rise to 'My Mother the Car', and 'Herbie the Love Bug' and even Stephen King's 'Christine', and perhaps others. -BT

Man, was I off. Shirley Maclaine instead of Bukowski? Ouch.

My personal opinion, only, but I don't think there are many musicals that work as movies. West Side Story is one of the two most important and artistically excellent musicals written for the American stage (Sweeney Todd is the other), but doesn't play well on film at all (the same is true of Sweeney Todd). Oddly enough, animated film seems to do better with musicals, perhaps because there is, by definition, a highly-stylized artistic convention that the audience willingly accepts from the very beginning.

However, we digress. ;)

OK. Here's one line from many of this movie that really sticks out in my memory.


"Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you're supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another."

-Garrett

Nobody had a guess or noboby playing?

I am guess-less.

I could cheat, but I am ethically opposed to doing so.

I only cheat at tic-tac-toe.

-Jon

The sad thing is that this is a quote that I have in the back of my mind somewhere because it is a movie I am sure I have seen. But I cannot place it.


-Jon

I'm sure you know it. Hints:

Movie is set in San Francisco

Katherine Houghton played on one of the main characters and is the only one who is not an Academy Award winner.

-Garrett

Still nothing? Here are a couple more lines:

"But you're two wonderful people who happened to fall in love and happened to have a pigmentation problem,"

"But you think of yourself as a colored man."

Different characters said those lines at different points in the movie.

-Garrett

A wild shot in the dark, never having seen the movie (or its no-doubt godawful Ashton Kutcher re-imagining from a couple years ago), but could that by chance be "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"?

You got it Robert. It is indeed "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", the 1967 movie with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton in the lead roles.

The first quote is Sidney Poitier talking to his dad. The second is Spencer Tracy during his ending monologue and the last is again Sidney Poitier talking to his dad.

This is one of those amazingly well acted movies. It's incredible that Spencer Tracy didn't win the Oscar for his part.

Your turn Robert.

-Garrett

I almost feel bad; once you quoted the lines regarding the character's race, especially with "happened to fall in love", that film sprang to mind by reputation. One of those innumerable classics I've yet to enjoy. Anyway, on to my offering, a decidedly different type of 'classic':

"Sargassum; the weed of deceit. Sargassum fish; mighty hunter of the deep. What an inspiration you have been in my plot! Your life of hiding, waiting, stalking your prey. At just the right moment ... attack! I love you. I hope I'll be a good imitator."

The full monologue is a bit longer than that, but this should be enough to zero in on the film in question for the members of our crowd familiar with such gems. Good luck!