The Love Bug (1968)
Retro Review #50: A mechanical sports fantasy introducing Herbie, the VW with more personality than the two romantic leads combined.
The Love Bug (1968)
+ Feature film, 1h 48m
+ Based on literature (unpublished short story) “Car, Boy, Girl” (1961)❗🔜 by Gordon Buford
+ 1️⃣/6 movies in Herbie series ⭐
+ 1️⃣/5 films in Herbie series ⭐
A->
Grade: A-> (8.0) / HOF: 15
EQ 👍A- | 📖A 👥A- 📽️A 🎼B+
DW 😎😎10.4 | 🌚10 🌝11
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬇️2️⃣ 👀⬆️0️⃣ 🛐⬆️1️⃣
When I was young, the only movies I saw in the theaters were Disney movies. To be sure, these were drive-in theaters, because when a family had four kids under age seven, that’s how the parents did it—pile the tykes into the station wagon in their pajamas, cruise to the drive-in, find a spot and wait for sundown.
I remember a few of the films I saw back then, but by far my favorite was The Love Bug. This was the last live-action film produced by Walt Disney Productions in which Walt himself was personally involved. It was a commercial success, ending up as the second-highest grossing film of 1969, when it went into wide release. I think I saw it again later on television, probably shown on The Wonderful World of Disney.
The Love Bug, aka Herbie, is a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with a mind (and heart) of its own. A washed-up race car driver sticks up for Herbie at a car dealership, so Herbie follows him home and helps resurrect his career.
This film is similar in many ways to the subject of our last review, The Great Race. Obviously, both are about auto racing. Both are comedies utilizing a lot of slapstick humor and qualify as Pure Dark Whimsy. Both plots rely heavily on a rival villain, and both include a sub-plot involving a romantic interest along for the ride with the hero.
Which movie is better? Of course that depends on what you like in a film, so let’s look at how they differ.
The Great Race is one big long race, making that movie almost an hour longer. It delivers visual treats representing worldwide locations. The Love Bug is a series of quick races, culminating in a longer climactic race. It includes some great views of San Francisco and other locations in California, but the longer movie wins on visuals.
Maybe as much as ninety percent of the humor in The Great Race comes from slapstick antics. In the case of The Love Bug, it’s closer to just half, some of that provided by Herbie himself. Although The Great Race has some good satirical spoofing not found in The Love Bug, overall I found the latter movie, with more comedic variety, funnier. Your mileage may vary.
As for Herbie, even though he’s less verbal than R2-D2 of Star Wars fame, I find Herbie more lovable. He will drive off with your heart. The Great Race, without a sentient car to be found, has nothing comparable.
Herbie leads The Love Bug to a little more Whimsy than The Great Race has, but The Great Race has a little more Dark. The melodramatic villains in each film are written almost identically. But Jack Lemmon as Dr. Fate in The Great Race portrays the role with greater grinchly glee than does David Tomlinson, seen here spiking Herbie’s gas tank, as the nemesis of Herbie and his owner Jim (Dean Jones).
Buddy Hackett as Jim’s sidekick, Tennessee Steinmetz, is our Herbie interpreter who brings Herbie’s feelings to life for us (and for Jim). Hackett is funny and almost as lovable as Herbie, giving by far the best performance in the film.
Despite the title of the Herbie film, and the “Car, Boy, Girl” title of the story it’s based on, the romantic sub-plot of The Love Bug is nowhere near as well-done as the romance in The Great Race. I’d consider the latter movie to be a sports-related romcom, if only just. But not the former. Dean Jones and his romantic counterpart, Michele Lee, don’t seem to have much chemistry and frankly don’t give very good performances overall. To be fair, they aren’t given characters as well-written as Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood were given, but I still imagine that Curtis and Wood could have brought more life and feeling to those roles than Jones and Lee did.
In all honesty, to me, the acting performances are the biggest difference between the films and why I give The Great Race a significantly better overall grade. Lots of laughs, the performance of Buddy Hackett and the charm of Herbie himself save The Love Bug, but the rest of the characters are sub-par.
That said, The Love Bug is the better family movie of the two, with only a scene of drunkenness and a little innuendo and kissing requiring parental discretion for younger kids.
Bottom line: They’re both fun movies. Why choose one? Watch them both.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (~3) 2025-02-27, HDX7, 1.75, 1M
+ first viewed 1969, ThX, 1.75, 1
+ 👨👩👧👦🍌🚗🏆🏁💥🦄🧙🥸
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for older kids. | G
+ 😡+2 😵💫+1^ 🤬+3 🤭+1^ 🫣+2
+ 👀⬆️0️⃣ ➖(😍)
+ ✝️ +0 ➕(❤️)
+ ✡️ +0 ➕(🤍)
+ 🗽 +0
Last updated 2025-04-14
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