Who Was the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

Many kids were traumatized by the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You might be surprised to learn about the actor behind that iconic villain.

A ballet dancer. Adored by the children he worked with in the movie. Movie appearances that included a role in The Red Shoes. A state funeral!

The Child Catcher: Traumatizing Generations of Kids

I grew up in a time when we had few TV channels. So when I was in elementary school, all kids pretty much watched the same shows and movies on TV. And the next morning, we’d talk about the shows we’d seen.

The morning after the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang played on prime time TV, kids talked about how much the Child Catcher scared them.

He freaked me out, too. I was annoyed because the movie didn’t match the original book — a novel by some guy named Ian Fleming. Yes, the guy who wrote the James Bond novels.

Even I knew better than to tell the other kids, “Well actually, the book was better, and the Child Catcher wasn’t in the book.”

And though he wasn’t in the book, the Child Catcher still freaked me out.

A Quick History of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Movie

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a popular movie musical. A gorgeous spectacle. It received good-to-mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert liked it. But Leonard Maltin called it “one big Edsel.”

This movie is also remembered for its troubled production. While it made about $8 million, it cost least $10 million to make. So it lost money.

There were other production issues. A difficult time for star Dick Van Dyke. A director (Ken Hughes) who thought it was a good idea to rewrite a script by author Roald Dahl. (Who does that?!)

We didn’t know this when we watched the movie as kids. Nor would we have cared. Hordes of children watched this movie over the years and came to love it.

The Child Catcher

But nobody likes the Child Catcher! We love to hate him. With a name like that, how could you not? That name alone made us shudder.

We first see him when he draws Jeremy and Jemima out by cheerfully offering candy and other treats. We were taught “Don’t take candy from strangers.” So we already knew something was wrong with this guy. Within seconds, the man with the treats turns into a notorious villain, imprisoning the children in his carriage. You can see this scene on YouTube.

How notorious is he? The Child Catcher was selected as #32 in an Entertainment Weekly list of 50 Most Vile Movie Villains. He beat out iconic villains like Harry Lime and Mr. Potter and Shere Khan. The Child Catcher even has his own Wikipedia page!. And a Villains Fandom page.

The Child Catcher continues to scare people to this day. Adults as well as children.

So who brought this performance to life? The answer may surprise and delight you.

Discovering the Man Behind the Villain

The actor who brought the Child Catcher to life is Robert Helpmann. This all started because I Googled the Child Catcher and fell into a rabbit hole when I decided to learn more about the actor.

That’s when I found out that Robert Helpmann was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, and choreographer. Not to mention a theater director. He worked with the renowned ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn.

My first thought was, “Ballet dancer?!” But that explains so much about his performance. His lean build, the way he moved, his grace and agility. (That makes him the anti-Anne.)

For a completely different view, watch this scene from The Red Shoes. Or this trailer here.

Then, I learned that Robert Helpmann was honored with a state funeral in Sydney on October 2, 1986, after his death at the age of 77. He had performed on stage up until May of that year.

A state funeral? My interest was piqued!

A Dangerous Production!

Earlier, I mentioned production troubles that involved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang director Ken Hughes. Some of the trivia items on IMDB highlight that Ken Hughes had trouble working with children. Dick Van Dyke also revealed that he didn’t get along with the director.

Both Dick Van Dyke and Robert Helpmann often had to tell the director to stop swearing in front of the children. All reports say that Robert Helpmann made his child costars laugh and helped them get through the tough experience of making the movie.

But worse, this movie nearly killed Robert Helpmann!

Remember the scene where the Child Catcher rode his horse and carriage through the village? During rehearsal, the carriage tipped over while Helpmann was driving it. As discussed in a brief video, Dick Van Dyke watched in horror, certain Helpmann was going to be killed. Instead, Helpmann swung out of the crashing vehicle and skipped across the carriage to safety. Dick Van Dyke said he’d never seen anything as graceful in his life.

Helpmann’s child co-star, Heather Ripley, said that he “was the least scariest person I have ever met in my life.” She also called him “a sweet and charming gentleman.”

In his lifetime, Helpmann received many honors, including a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1964 and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 1968.

A Stormy Relationship With Australia

Helpmann was openly gay at a time when that was rare. Naturally, he was met with homophobia. As mentioned by a birthday tribute to Robert Helpmann from The Wow Report, in the 1940s, Helpmann was attacked at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, by some homophobes who objected to his flamboyant appearance. (May they forever be terrorized by nightmares of the Child Catcher!)

As mentioned in this tribute to Robert Helpmann from the Queerplaces site, he also created controversy when he came to Australia in the 1960s to be a co-director of the Australian Ballet. In 1974, he reported issues with the Australian approach to culture and left the country, saying, “It has been made abundantly clear that I am not wanted in Australia.”

In 1983, Helpmann returned to Sydney, where he directed a Gounod opera (Roméo et Juliette) and appeared on the stage again. He even appeared in a couple of episodes of an Australian soap opera. It was clearly a different relationship with his native country.

After his death, he was honored with tributes from the Parliament of Australia and a state funeral at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney. Hundreds attended. Tributes poured in from all over the world.

A partnership called the Helpmann Academy was started in his honor.

Australia established the annual Helpmann Awards in his name in 2001. The Helpmann Awards website includes an informative short biography. There is another short biography here. And here.

There is also a Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in Mount Gambier, South Australia (the city where Helpmann was born). In 2016, the Robert Helpmann Theatre created a new tribute with a huge portrait of Helpmann on the exterior.

Tyler Coppin wrote a one-man play called LyreBird (Tales of Helpmann) as a tribute to Helpmann.

Postscript

Today, you don’t have to adjust the rabbit ear antennas to find out if the Child Catcher still terrifies you. You can rent the movie or watch it through some paid services. If you’re like me, you might have just decided to add the Blu-Ray to your wish list.

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