• Title: The Love Bug
• Year: 1968
• Duration: 1h 48m
• Rating: 6,5
• Genres: Comedy, Sport, Family

Summary The Love Bug (1968)

A race car driver becomes a champion with a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own.

Meet Jim Douglas, a down-on-his-luck race car driver who lives in an old run-down fire house in San Francisco with his friend Tennessee Steinmetz, a occasional drunk mechanic. One day, Jim goes to a luxury car dealer and sees a strange Volkswagen Beetle with a unusual problem: it tends to drive on its own, as if it were sentient. The little Bug follows Jim home but Jim believes that the owner of the car dealership, Peter Thorndyke, is playing a trick on him. Jim decides to try out the car, and experiences its magical nature, fahrvergnügen, if you will, for himself. Jim repairs the little car and Tennessee names the him "Herbie". Behind the wheel of Herbie, Jim becomes more successful in racing. Thorndyke wants Herbie back, but Jim refuses and Thorndyke decides to race against him. Thorndyke sabotages Herbie before a big race known as the "El Dorado" - an obvious parody of the then-new "Baja 1000" race in Mexico. Jim and Tennessee along with Thorndyke's former assistant (and ex-girlfriend) Carol Bennett, repair Herbie before the El Dorado. The trio are determined to beat Thorndyke who will stop at nothing in order to gain a victory - and Herbie.

On a long losing streak, the down-and-out race car driver, Jim Douglas, is convinced that he only needs a big and strong car to start winning again. Unexpectedly, fortune will soon smile on him, when he discovers a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle while looking for a cheap car downtown, however, Jim will get more than he bargained for, as his new acquisition seems to have a mind of its own. Before long, "Herbie", Jim's temperamental race car, will start winning one race after another, driving crazy its previous owner, the snotty car salesman and seasoned race car driver, Peter Thorndyke, who will do anything in his power to find his rival's secret. Naturally, now Thorndyke wants his old car back, but Herbie and Jim have other plans, including winning the demanding El Dorado road race. Can this incredible duo thwart its opponent's plans?

In San Francisco, Jim Douglas is a has been as a professional driver, he only second rate at his peak as a track racer, and not much better in his recent sojourn as a demolition derby driver. While he is attracted to fast, sporty cars as are most professional drivers, he ends up, out of circumstance, reluctantly purchasing a Volkswagen Beetle. That reluctance is heightened when the car does things outside of his control, which makes him believe it defective. But what endures him to the car is the speed it exhibits in one of those out of control moments. Jim's friend, mechanic and roommate Tennessee Steinmetz, can see that Herbie, as he names the Beetle, does have a mind of its own and has emotions, it which helps those that are kind to it as Jim was in their initial encounter. Jim, with Tennessee by his side, does enter Herbie into races with success. In the process, Carole Bennett, the saleswoman at Thorndyke Import Motors, the upscale dealership where Jim bought the car, also comes to realize the magic that is Herbie. Who may or may not come to that realization - or arguably may not want to admit it - is Jim himself, who wants to believe that his recent racing success is all his own doing, he willing to get rid of Herbie for a more traditionally race appropriate vehicle. Who does not care what is behind Herbie being Herbie is Peter Thorndyke, Carole's snooty boss, a race car driver himself, who ends up being shown up time and time again by Herbie. As such, Thorndyke goes on a mission not only to beat Jim and Herbie, but, using whatever means possible, most underhanded, to destroy Herbie beyond repair.

Synopsis The Love Bug (1968)