In previous articles we’ve examined the first two ‘Herbie’ films, the Love Bug (in the Sept ‘95 issue), and Herbie Rides Again (June ‘96). Well, now it’s time to examine the third film in the series, Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo (1977)..

Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo (1977) 104 min, ***

One problem with the making of the film was the opening scene, where Herbie has his passport stamped. It’s illegal to fake a passport, so Al Williams, the property master at Disney, applied to the State Department in Los Angeles for one. But, the Department decided that since Herbie was a Volkswagen, he must be German. They suggested that the Disney Studios approach the German embassy for a German passport! Eventually Disney received a permit from the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalisation Service to re-enter the USA, despite not yet having left! After intervention from Washington DC no less, the Studios were finally granted a genuine US passport for Herbie.

You can spot it at the very start of the film, with Herbie identified with a photo. His vital statistics, which you can just see, show him to be 5 feet tall with sealed beam eyes, and a Sunroof for hair! (I’m not kidding - it’s true).

Lots of children are going to get fun from this Disney movie, which carries on with the adventures of Herbie, a Volkswagen, and its two human appendages, Dean Jones and Don Knotts.

In its next movie, Herbie is sure to start talking. In this one, it falls in love with a pretty little Lancia during a French car race.

Already showing at the Village centre were Oh God!, Freaky Friday, and The Gumball Rally. The GU centre in Pitt St had Smokey and the Bandit, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and the Island of Dr Moreau (the Burt Lancaster version). The Hoyts Entertainment Centre had Star Wars, the Spy Who Loved Me, New York New York, The Deep (Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt - fwoar!), Rocky, Annie Hall, and Butch Cassidy % the Sundance Kid.

Incidentally, in the same Sun-Herald there was a motoring article by Evan Green, who described the new HZ as "worth Holden onto.." Who said stupid puns are a recent thing?

Initially the State was the only theatre to show Herbie, but then on 5th January 1978 he also opened at the Chullora Twin Drive-In with The Hound Who Thought He Was A Raccoon. Herbie also began at Roselands cinema ("The Love Bug falls for a classy chassis - 5 sessions - 9,11,2,5,8"), as well as at the Village complexes at Parramatta and Blacktown, and at the old Chatswood and Ashfield Kings, and the Manly and Randwick Odeons.

Enough of the blurb then, let’s get on with the movie! After having his passport stamped, we see Herbie with Jim and Wheely driving through Paris. Note the aftermarket external fuel filler, in the same spot as the flap in ‘68 and later VWs. Herbie also has aftermarket seats with flattened inbuilt headrests, and cal-look side windows. When he squirts oil on the policeman, notice how it comes from in front of the rear tyre, near the torsion bars! The oil is again extraordinarily black.

We meet Bruno von Stickle, who is the arrogant driver of a Laser 917 GT Coupe. This kit car was originally put out by Elite Enterprises of Cokato, Minnesota, in the early 1970s. Designed to be mounted on a VW chassis, it looked quite like a Porsche 917 with its flowing lines and gullwing doors, but there was something lumpy and non-917ish about the tail. The one in the movie seems to have something more potent in it than a VW motor, and in some scenes it sounds like a V8. Who knows?

Herbie looks great pulling up at the entrance to the race gathering, but that blipping VW motor sounds far too stock to be taken seriously.

See how the aftermarket fuel filler comes in handy when the crooks drop the diamond into the fuel tank - love the way Herbie’s headlights roll back as if swallowing something too large. Incidentally, the diamond has a name and is called L’Etoile de Joie, or the Star of Joy.

When von Stickle sprays himself with water, you can almost see what sort of motor the 917 has - it has a Holley carb and round air cleaner, and you can just see a radiator hose in the bottom left of screen.

Herbie spots the Lancia, and falls for her. Note the caster wheel arrangement so that he can slip sideways. We wheelies off the line in classic style, and even changes to 2nd with the front wheels still in the air! This particular scene was done using counterweights.

Note Herbie’s deep sump as he chases the Lancia around the track. The reverse wheelie is a studio trick. Herbie’s wipers, bonnet and sunroof go crazy. Note the AM-only radio, and factory US-spec wiper knob with washer button.

Herbie again rolls about on his caster wheels, front and back, and you can just spot the mechanism at one point.

The blatant blocking by the Laser 917 and the DeTomaso would result in them both being black flagged in real life. Enjoy the rather good handbrake turn as Herbie zips up the dirt access road.

At the pre-race evening, Herbie turns up as a ‘65 model, with big windows. If you look very closely, though, you’ll see he also has a pre-’65 earlier model door on the passenger’s side!

On the street he’s back to normal. Stuck behind the truck he gets covered in diesel soot. I love the little toot to the pedestrian - look out!

Again he goes nuts with wipers, lights, sunroof and bonnet in motion. The mechanism has been covered by a black cloth in the front boot. Note the blue Golf in the background. As Herbie drives off, you can just spot the hidden driver mechanism underneath.

At the fountain he has a (loose!) late decklid, but once in the spray he turns into a pre-’58 oval window VW - you can tell by the windscreen shape. Then suddenly he’s not!

Try freeze-framing the video just after Herbie picks up the flowers. See how he has a late-model, flat bottomed engine lid, but with a 40hp rounded bottom tacked on! The pressing shapes don’t match. The 40hp number plate light is mounted far too high, and the licence plate (OFP-857) has no annual rego stickers attached and is thus illegal. You can see this clearly again just after he gives the flowers to the Lancia.

Herbie flashes his taillights, which are the usual Euro-spec lenses with orange blinkers. In the earlier films he had US-spec red blinkers. In this scene he has a correct ‘63 engine lid again, which then swaps back to the cut/shut one. It’s easy to see how many different VWs they used in the filming.

Now it’s the Lancia’s turn to qualify. It passes a Porsche 954 race car easily (?!) Herbie watches and sighs from the sidelines - he’s an oval again.

Now follows a typical Disney funny chase sequence. It ends with the baddies’ black Mercedes ramming into a concrete pipe. See how the bodywork is concertina’d backwards in amusing style - but somehow the front wheel, which sticks out further - is unaffected.

Jim goes to visit Diane’s, while outside Herbie reverts back to having big windows again. He also has no VW bonnet badge, which is perfectly consistent with earlier films. They stay with the ‘65 film car until the dopey French detective, Fontenoy, drives off with it.

Jim and Wheelie miss the start of the Trans France Race because Herbie hasn’t been released from police custody. They watch as all the other cars zoom away, but finally Fontenoy turns up with Herbie in a police truck. When he takes off after the other cars, this time he’s a V8-powered special with a cut-back rear end and a stripped interior. Have a good look by freeze-framing!

There are a number of delectable cars in the field, including several Porsche 911s, DeTomasos, a Lamborghini Muira, Lancia Stratos, Maseratis, Ferraris,... but we know that Herbie is going to catch them all and he does. Hooray! A bit of treachery results in Herbie going off the road and plunging into a lake. This scene is one of the cleverest in the film, with only Wheely’s head above water as Herbie drives along the bottom, invisible. This trick was done with an underwater cable and harness system (sorry to spoil the magic!). Herbie emerges from the lake full of water, which drains away when they open the doors. Poor old VW.

Herbie once again catches and passes the field, until he finds the Laser 917 in front of him. Disney makes an unfortunate technical mistake here - we see Herbie in von Stickle’s rear view mirror, and his ‘53’ is the right way around - it should be reversed of course. Tsk tsk!

The baddies divert Herbie off the road using the classic rotating arrow on a road sign. Now think for a moment - when was the last time you saw a road sign that you could change by spinning the arrow around? It’s an old gag that I remember from Road Runner and Wacky Races cartoons of years ago.

At the end of the dirt road Herbie’s in a movie studio - the scenery looks fake and there’s multiple shadows from the set lights. The baddies appear in a Renault from the other way. I always cringe when the rocks and dirt fall onto Herbie, especially since he has a sunroof, but after a moment the dirt residue turns into large woodchips. Herbie’s horm brings more avalanches down on the baddies - but he seems to have two horns, judging from the multiple horn tones.

Wheely reaches into the fuel filler to extract the diamond - his arm doesn’t go in far enough to actually reach the tank - he’s need an arm about 1½ metres long - so the diamond must have been stuck in the input pipe.

See the angle of Herbie’s foot pedals - a correctly adjusted cluster should be vertical. Herbie might keep rope in his front boot, but no spare tyre.

Just after Herbie pulls the Lancia out of the river (with no way of connecting!), he suddenly gets 4-bolt wheels like a late model. However, only for an instant. His starter motor doesn’t sound like a VW one to me. The door doesn’t close properly when Wheely gets back in (that’s normal for 40hp Beetles).

I just noted then that Herbie has a roll cage (I hadn’t noticed it earlier), but no seatbelts. Highly unlikely in a road race for sports cars.

There’s some excellent VW road driving on the tight streets of Monte Carlo, as Herbie gains on the Laser 917. Unfortunately, the tunnel sequence is complete rubbish because it defies the law of gravity! No matter how fast Herbie was going when he drove up onto the roof, he would inevitably describe a parabolic, downward curve onto the 917 below. And he’s upside down - what about oil supply to the motor?

I’ve always enjoyed the joke at the end with the Jap reporter. But if he’s American, why did he bow? And finally, Herbie blushes after being kissed by the museum director. As you know, blushing occurs when a nervous reaction causes an increased blood supply to the skin surface, causing a reddening that last several seconds. This is not possible with a VW bonnet made of white-painted steel!

Next time we’ll examine the execrable final Herbie movie, Herbie Goes Bananas.