The Love Bug Movie Review (1969)

Next up is another new-to-me movie, and it’s one of the reasons I love doing this project so much. This is a movie I’ll be watching for years to come. For this project, I’m focusing on the story itself, including dialogue, character development, any subplots, how a story presents itself, the speed at which it moves, if it slows down unnecessarily, etc.

A Brief Summary

(Taken from D23)

A down-and-out racetrack driver, Jim Douglas, acquires a little Volkswagen, but doesn’t realize that the “bug” is almost human. The car helps Jim to win many races, but runs away, when it feels it is not appreciated, into the clutches of villainous rival Peter Thorndyke. With the help of his friends Tennessee and Carole, Jim changes his attitude, finds the “bug, ” and apologizes. They win another race—and Jim falls in love with Carole. Released on March 13, 1969.

What works

• The demolition derby scenes at the beginning of the movie (during the opening credits) is both entertaining to watch and also sets up our first meeting of Jim Douglas (his occupation and current state of mind which is that his pride is low, his confidence shot, all he can do right now is destroy cars through demolition derbies).
• Something I really liked is the intro scene for Thorndyke (David Tomlinson), Carole Bennett and Herbie. Douglas had gone into the dealership after bumping his head against the glass window (it’s a whole meet-cute scene with Carole that actually works well because it’s short and he gets distracted by the “Yellow Special” which is the current showroom display car at the dealership), and during the scene with Thorndyke, Carole and Herbie, we the audience get a taste of Thorndyke’s personality (which is perfect for the role and for this movie) and how Herbie comes to decide on Jim as its new owner. It’s also not a long scene, with it only lasting about 4 minutes (from the moment he walked by the dealership to when he left, and we see Herbie following him.
• I love the growth arc that Jim Douglas goes through, it was so well done. He spends the first half of the movie getting his self-respect back while also being in denial about Herbie. Then after some interference by Thorndyke, he spirals (a bit) and has to face the gnawing thought that it was Herbie winning the races not him. I love that it happened about at about the halfway mark in the movie because it gives him time to make up with Herbie and get his head back on straight. And having that time to work it all out properly is so important. Any less amount of time would have messed it all up.
• The pacing for this movie was perfect. So well-balanced, I have no complaints.
• Buddy Hackett’s character, Tennessee, is so important to the movie. Because Jim spends the first half of the movie denying Herbie’s awesomeness (as a sentient car) and Carole has not yet joined to the Herbie Fan Club, Tennessee is the first one. And he’s also the voice of reason through most of the movie when Jim does or says dumb things. Which I think is cool because he’s also portrayed as this zen, artistic character (who spent time in Tibet at a monastery), and it seems Jim doesn’t always listen to him because of that.
• From research I did, Benson Fong (who played Mr. Wu) taught Buddy Hackett some Chinese phrases phonetically, which I think is awesome.
  • Also Mr. Wu was such a good character, I loved him from the moment he appeared on the screen.

What may or may not work

• As much as I love Dean Jones in this movie (and it is one of his best Disney movies that I’ve seen so far), I’m still not a fan when he yells. That’s part of what makes him him in these movies and I get it. So despite the fact that I’m not the biggest fan, I also don’t dislike it.
  • It’s more that he was yelling early in the movie, after having to buy Herbie (after Herbie followed him, thus making Thorndyke and the police think that Jim had committed grand theft). Now, I get why he was yelling, but I was just like, Sir, it’s too early in the movie, calm down.
  • No, it was fine, just a little much. Later on, it worked much better with what was going on in the scene, but this scene, his volume was a little too high for me.

Honorable Mentions

• The opening credits sequence with all of the cars racing and crashing reminds me of the opening scenes/credits of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. CCBB had more races focusing around the specific car, where as here it was a demolition derby.
• Wally Boag does a cameo in this as “the flabbergasted driver” about 13 minutes into the movie when Herbie starts driving the wrong way on the freeway entrance (”What’s the matter, you from LA or something?!”)
• Surprise, surprise! Dean Jones also does an additional role in the movie where he is the bearded hippy in the van when Herbie takes Jim and Carole (under protest) to a drive-in diner. I didn’t know that during my first viewing of the movie, only after I read information about it on IMDB and when I watched the movie again for this project.
• The Love Bug theme that plays repeatedly throughout the movie is my new favorite thing. It’s got me dancing in my chair every time it starts playing
• Apparently, Volkswagen didn’t want their name included in the movie, so the only times their logo can be seen is when there’s a close shot of the brakes (and I think only 2 scenes show it as Jim tries to push down on the brakes to stop Herbie)
• So this movie was part of the Walt Disney Family Film Collection whose promo I grew up watching (we had both Pollyanna and Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier from that collection) and I was so excited to get to this one, since I finally got to see the scenes from this movie that were included in the promo. So satisfying.

Side Questions

• I know that Thorndyke (in a previous race scene) got called out by a race official for trying to touch or look into Herbie’s engine area, but how did none of the officials catch Havershaw (Thorndyke’s stooge)? He got away with a lot when Thorndyke didn’t get to do much of anything (since the official stopped him).
• I try not to think too much about it, but how did Herbie keep going once fully split in half at the end of the race?

Would I watch this movie again?

• Oh definitely, if only to listen to the Love Bug theme song again. No, but really though, I truly enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. As I mentioned at the top of the blog post, movies like this are why I love doing this project. Discovering new-to-me movies that I love keeps it fun.

If you’ve seen Third Man on the Mountain, what are some of your thoughts? Share in the comments below!

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