Lionel Jeffries

A racing car, which is a composite of a 1914 Overland and a 1928 Ford Model A engine, had a successful career winning races across multiple years from 1907 onward in France, Germany and other nations. In the 1909, at the British Grand Prix, the said car swerves to avoid a dog and a little girl who was bending to pick it up, loses control, crashes, and catches fire, bringing its racing career to an end. In 1910, the car ends up in an old garage owned by Mr Coggins (Desmond Llewelyn), where two children, Jeremy (Adrian Hala) and Jemima Potts, (Heather Ripley) have grown fond of it as they play in it. The kids are told by the Junkman (Victor Maddern) that he intends to buy the car, to crush it and melt it down to liquid ore. The Junkman offers 15 Shillings, but Coggins demands 30 Shillings to part with the car. The Junkman agrees and offers to pick the car up the following day. The kids beseech Coggins, who agrees to sell the car to their father, if he can match the offer of 30 Shillings. While skipping school, the kids meet Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), a beautiful upper-class woman with her own motorcar. The kids ran on the street, and Truly swerves the car to avoid hitting them and ends up in the nearby pond. Truly brings them home to report their truancy to their father. Truly shows interest in Caractacus' odd inventions, but he is affronted by her attempts to tell him that his children should be in school. Caractacus believes that his kids are smart and that skipping school once in a while allows the other kids in class to catch up with them. The two children, who live with their widowed father Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke), implore him to buy the car before the Junkman does, but he is unable to due to having no money. Caractacus is an eccentric and unsuccessful inventor, and lives with his equally peculiar father Grandpa 'Bungy' Potts (Lionel Jeffries). Bungy roams around in full military gear and served in the British army in India. Caractacus keeps tinkering with new idea such as rockets tied behind his back to send him flying through the air. He even has an elaborate machine that cooks him breakfast with toast, eggs and sausages. Caractacus does not want to disappoint his kids but has no idea how he can get 30 Shillings at such short notice. That night, while going over his bizarre inventions, many of which seem to be similar in function and form to modern appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and televisions, Caractacus discovers that one of the sweets he has invented can be played like a flute, which makes it a musical hard candy whistle. The holes in the sweets were a mistake due to fixing the wrong boiling point for the candy. He tries to sell the "toot sweet" to Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson Justice), a major confection manufacturer. Lord Scrumptious would not even meet Caractacus, but then Caractacus and the kids run into Truly, who turns out to be Lord Scrumptious' daughter. She agrees to get Caractacus to meet her father. Lord Scrumptious is very dismissive, but Truly asks Caractacus to persist and demonstrate the Toot Sweet to her father. When the factory is overrun by dogs responding to the whistle, he is thrown out. Then he takes his automatic hair-cutting machine to a carnival to raise money, but it goes haywire. He "hides" from an angry customer named Cyril (Arthur Mullard) by joining a song-and-dance act, stealing the show and earning enough tips to pay for the car. Potts brings the car home and takes it in his garage to work on it for several weeks. Potts rebuilds the car, which he nicknames Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the noises its engine makes, and he and the children, accompanied by Truly, go for a picnic on the beach, where Truly becomes very fond of the Potts family and the other way around as well. Caractacus tells them a story about nasty Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe), the tyrant ruler of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and keep it all for himself: In the story, the quartet and the car are stranded by high tide, but Chitty suddenly deploys huge flotation devices, and they escape inland. The Baron sends two comical spies ashore to capture the car for him, but they briefly capture Lord Scrumptious by accident, and then kidnap Grandpa Potts, mistaking him for the inventor of Chitty. Caractacus, Truly, and the children see him being taken away by airship and give chase. When they accidentally drive off a cliff, Chitty sprouts wings and propellers and begins to fly. They follow the airship to Vulgaria, where the Baroness Bomburst (Anna Quayle) has ordered the imprisonment of all children, whom she abhors. Grandpa the "inventor" has been ordered by the baron to make another floating car and is bluffing to avoid being tortured. The Potts party is hidden by the local toy-maker (Benny Hill), who now works only for the baron. The Toymaker harbors Caractacus' group in his shop, and they disguise themselves as jack-in-the-boxes to hide in plain sight from Bomburst's Child Catcher (Robert Helpmann). Chitty is discovered and taken to the castle, while Caractacus and the Toymaker search for Grandpa, and Truly searches for food, the Child Catcher returns and traps Jeremy and Jemima. The toy-maker takes Truly and Caractacus to a grotto far beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children, and they concoct a scheme to free the children and the village from the baron. The toy-maker sneaks them into the castle disguised as life-size dolls, gifts for the baron's birthday. Caractacus snares the Baron and the town's children swarm the banquet hall. In the ensuing chaos, the baron, baroness, and Child Catcher are all captured. The family is freed and fly back with Truly to England. As Caractacus' story concludes, the children ask if the story ends with him and Truly getting married. Caractacus does not answer; later, he tries to apologize for his children when he drops Truly off at her manor, saying that the difference in their social status would make a relationship between them ridiculous, offending Truly. Returning glumly to his cottage, Caractacus is surprised to encounter Truly's father Lord Scrumptious, who is revealed to have been Grandpa Potts' former brigadier. Lord Scrumptious offers to buy Caractacus' failed candies and market them to the public as dog treats. Overjoyed that he has finally made a successful invention, Caractacus rushes off to tell Truly, but her house staff has already told her the news, and she meets him halfway. They confess their love for each other, and as they return home, Chitty flies up into the sky once again, this time without wings.

A vagabond Viking adventurer and a Moor both compete to find "The Mother of All Voices", a legendary golden bell near the Pillars of Hercules. There is a legend about a great bell called "The Mother of Voices," made of pure gold, three times the size of a man, made by monks many years ago... This is the story told in the marketplace by a Viking called Rolfe. This information finds its way to the Islamic ruler Aly Manush, who is obsessed with finding the bell. But Rolfe claims not to know where the bell is, and escapes back to his homeland, to convince his father and brother to give him a ship and crew to replace the one he lost--or to help him steal the Death Ship which belongs to the king--because he does know where the bell is.

When a contemporary spaceship lands on the moon, it's hailed as a new accomplishment before it becomes clear that a Victorian party completed the trek in 1899. This leads investigators to the earlier mission's last surviving crew member. In present day, an international team, to great worldwide fanfare in the accomplishment, has just landed on the moon, the first time humans have both landed and stepped foot on the satellite. The astronauts/cosmonauts, however, make an unusual discovery on the moon's surface: a Union Jack and a summons issued to a Katherine Callender of Dymchurch, England dated 1899. Upon investigation, the UN Space Agency does discover that a Katherine Callender of Dymchurch did exist, has since passed away, but married a Arnold Bedford who is still alive and residing in an area nursing home. At the nursing home, the matron states that Bedford is prone to delusions, but when the team speaks to Bedford directly, he tells them a story that may sound delusional to the uninformed but makes sense as to the moon finding. An aspiring playwright deep in debt at the time, Bedford tells of how he and Kate, not yet married, met their eccentric neighbor, scientist Joseph Cavor, and how that meeting led to the three of them making an expedition to the moon, complete with how they made it there. With their misadventures and his worries for the current expedition team as to his and his compatriots' experience, Bedford completes the story with what happened to Cavor at the time (with Kate's fate already known) and why the world never knew of their moon landing. —Huggo Based on the HG Wells story. The world is delighted when a space craft containing a crew made up of the world's astronauts lands on the moon, they think for the first time. But the delight turns to shock when the astronauts discover an old British flag and a document declaring that the moon is taken for Queen Victoria proving that the astronauts were not the first men on the moon. On Earth, an investigation team finds the last of the Victorian crew - a now aged Arnold Bedford and he tells them the story of how he and his girlfriend, Katherine Callender, meet up with an inventor, Joseph Cavor, in 1899. Cavor has invented Cavorite, a paste that will allow anything to deflect gravity and he created a sphere that will actually take them to the moon. Taking Arnold and accidentally taking Katherine they fly to the moon where, to their total amazement, they discover a bee-like insect population who take an unhealthy interest in their Earthly visitors... —Lee Horton <Leeh@tcp.co.uk> Going back in time to 1899, Arnold Bedford and his fiancée, Kate Callendar, learn that their neighbor, Joseph Cavor, has developed a substance he calls "cavorite," which counters gravity. They travel to the moon in a spherical vessel he has built, parts of which are coated with "cavorite." —Michael

1860 and Baron Frankenstein [Peter Cushing] is to be executed for the murders his creature committed. The Baron is taken from his prison cell to the guillotine but a scuffle is heard before the blade drops... In a bar, two drunk grave robbers Fritz [Lionel Jeffries] and Kurt [Michael Ripper] talk about a potential job. Kurt is reluctant at first but agrees when he hears the price. They open the grave of Baron Frankenstein but inside the coffin is the priest from the execution. Frankenstein appears, causing Fritz to suffer a fatal heart attack in shock. The Baron and his partially paralysed and deformed assistant Karl [Oscar Quitak] bury Fritz in the open grave. Three years later and Baron Frankenstein is now practising as a medical doctor called Dr. Stein in Carlsbruck but is not a member of the town's medical council. The council are not happy about this so they send a delegation to try to persuade him to join or to stop him practising. Stein is working in his overcrowded hospital ward full of sick patients when the council delegation arrives. He refuses to join them, saying the council only exists to eliminate competition and he has succeeded alone. Doctor Hans Kleve [Francis Matthews] is waiting for Stein when he returns to his office from the ward. He recognises Stein as Baron Frankenstein and negotiates to work with and learn from him in exchange for his silence about the Baron's former indiscretions. Stein agrees and takes Kleve to his laboratory and introduces him to Karl. In the laboratory are various body parts that Stein has removed from patients in his hospital ward. Stein demonstrates how disembodied eyes and a hand connected to a remote brain react to a flame. Also in the laboratory is a chimpanzee into which Stein has transplanted the brain of a orangutan. In another preservation tank, Stein shows Kleve a complete man [Michael Gwynn] constructed from various body parts. The only thing missing is a live brain. Karl helped Stein escape the guillotine and has agreed to donate his brain in return for the new body. Back at the hospital, Margaret [Eunice Gayson], the daughter of the president of the medical council, arrives at the ward to work with Stein and Kleve as a compromise to allow Stein to keep his hospital open. That night in the laboratory, Stein and Kleve perform the operation on Karl and transplant his brain into the new body. During the operation the creature becomes highly agitated and they have to subdue it until the brain becomes used to the new body. They move Karl to the hospital but are seen by the hospital porter who confides in Margaret about Stein's activities. The next day Margaret visits Karl and releases him from his straps because he is uncomfortable. The hospital assistant talks to Kleve about changes in animals. This prompts Kleve to start wondering if a brain may react differently in a different body. Kleve returns to the laboratory where he and Stein discuss the chimpanzee which has started eating meat since its brain transplant. Karl escapes from his room at the hospital via the window and returns to the laboratory that night after Stein and Kleve have left. He finds his old body and throws it into a furnace but is overheard by the janitor [George Woodbridge] who comes to investigate. At first the janitor thinks the chimpanzee is making the noise, but as Karl tries to leave he accidentally starts up lab equipment connected to another complete body in a glass tank. The janitor fights with Karl and although Karl is meek to start with he soon becomes angry and kills the janitor. Stein and Kleve go to Karl's room to find him gone. They rush back to the laboratory and find the janitor's body and the burnt remains of Karl's old body. Stein tells Kleve to return to the hospital and continue as normal. Margaret finds Karl hiding in her stables so goes to the hospital to fetch Kleve. Meanwhile, Karl is struggling to control his new body in the stable and when Margaret and Kleve return, Karl has gone. That night, Stein and Kleve search for Karl. Karl murders a girl as his cannibal tendencies start to develop. Stein and Kleve go to Margaret's house and the now disfigured Karl breaks in and implores Frankenstein to help him. One of the other house guests, Dr Molke [Arnold Diamond], sees this and reports Frankenstein to the medical council. Stein and Kleve attend the medical council where Stein denies he is Baron Frankenstein and suggests they obtain proof. The medical council open the Baron's grave again and find the priest's body. Back in the hospital ward, none of the patients want to be treated by the man they now believe to be Frankenstein. The patients all attack Frankenstein but before they kill him Kleve arrives and takes him to the laboratory to tend to his injuries. However, Frankenstein is mortally wounded so Kleve transplants his brain from his disfigured and mutilated body into a new one. A police inspector and the medical council members arrive at the laboratory to arrest Frankenstein but Kleve shows them Frankenstein's old body and they leave, believing Frankenstein to now be dead. Frankenstein and Kleve relocate to Harley Street in London where Frankenstein resumes practising medicine under the name Dr Franck.