The Love Bug (1968) on Netflix
G19681h 48mComedyFamilyFantasy
Struggling driver Jim Douglas shares a San Francisco firehouse with mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz. A Beetle that seems to drive itself follows Jim home, and dealer Peter Thorndyke wants it back.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.5/1019,298 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes78%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jim Douglas was once a prominent race car driver, but he now competes in demolition derbies and lives in a converted San Francisco firehouse with Tennessee Steinmetz, his friend and an eccentric mechanic who builds sculptures out of discarded car parts. At a European car dealership, Jim meets mechanic and sales associate Carole Bennett and the British proprietor, Peter Thorndyke, and notices a Volkswagen Beetle that Thorndyke abuses. Jim cannot afford a car, so he leaves, but the Beetle follows him home, and when police accuse him of grand theft he agrees to a lease-purchase. The car avoids highways and steers Jim toward Carole; Tennessee, convinced it is sentient, names it Herbie. Jim enters Herbie in races under the number 53, and Thorndyke becomes his rival.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Love Bug (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Before casting Herbie, Disney held an audition for a dozen different cars, including several Toyotas, a TVR, some Volvos and an MG, and picked the pearl white Volkswagen Beetle because it was the only one the crew felt drawn to reach out and pet.
- Herbie's trademark "53" racing number was chosen by producer Bill Walsh, who was a fan of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Don Drysdale; Drysdale's jersey number, later retired by the team, was 53.
- Volkswagen was so uneasy about scenes showing Herbie falling apart or malfunctioning that it closely scrutinized the script and reportedly sent teams of lawyers to Disney's studio regularly to oversee production and protect the car's image.
- Peter Thorndyke's yellow "Special" is actually a 1965 Apollo GT, a rare sports car sold by International Motorcars of Oakland, California, with an Italian-built Intermeccanica body and chassis paired with a small-block Buick V8 installed in Oakland; the car exists today with a private collector, restored with its yellow paint and number 14 logo.
- The demolition derby footage that opens the film is not original but stock footage borrowed from the 1966 film Fireball 500, some of which also turned up in a 1966 Chevrolet dealer promotional film called Impact '66.
- Herbie received his own cast billing in the closing credits of The Love Bug, the only time in the entire Herbie film series that the car was credited that way.
- The Volkswagen brand name, logo or shield does not feature anywhere in the film, as the automaker did not permit Disney to use the name, though the only logos can be briefly seen in at least two places.
