The troubling history behind the creation of The Child Catcher from ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’
Is it really Christmas if you don’t find yourself watching re-runs of classic childhood movies while recovering from gorging on too much food? Maybe it’s the universally loved The Wizard of Oz or a questionable Carry On film. Or perhaps it’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a slightly surreal two-and-a-half-hour musical featuring Dick Van Dyke, luckily abstaining from attempting a British accent.
Dyke plays single father Caractacus Potts, who invents a car that can turn into a boat and even sprout wings and fly. The movie sees Caractacus telling his children a bedtime story about Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria, who tries to steal the magic car. In his story, Vulgaria has outlawed children and a terrifying Child Catcher scouts the area for any potential kids to capture.
Once voted as the scariest children’s villain, the Child Catcher has inspired plenty of nightmares in kids across the world for decades. Played by Sir Robert Helpmann, the villain lures children into his cart by giving out free confectionary, shouting out, “Come along, kiddie-winkies! Here we are children, come and get your lollipops, lollipops, come along my little ones.”
Due to the fact that Helpmann was a ballet dancer, he was exceptionally light on his feet, embuing his character with an unnervingly peppy spring in his step. The Child Catcher successfully captures Jemima and Jeremy after advertising free treacle tarts and ice creams to them through a small window. The fact that he is framed from the perspective of the children, crouching down to the camera as though he is luring us, too, makes the scene all the more creepy.
Yet, there is an even darker history behind the creation of the Child Catcher that most people don’t realise. The character does not actually appear in Ian Fleming’s book, on which the film is based. The Child Catcher was invented for the purpose of the movie, which was penned by children’s author Roald Dahl and director Ken Hughes.
There is great debate surrounding who invented the character, with some sources adamant that it was Dahl, whereas Hughes has claimed it was actually himself, attempting to disregard all of Dahl’s contributions to the film. If it were Dahl that invented the character, then the strange allusions to Nazism and antisemitism evident in the portrayal of The Child Catcher would, sadly, make sense.
Dahl had a long history of antisemitism, once telling The New Statesman, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”
The Child Catcher bears many anti-Semitic stereotypes, most notably, his large prosthetic nose, which appears like a caricature. Antisemitic depictions of Jewish people have often included men wearing tophats, something that is also sported by The Child Catcher.
Within this odd subplot, The Child Catcher takes on a strange Nazi-esque role, hunting out children who are forced to hide because their presence is illegal. Thus, this part of the film can be interpreted as an allusion to Nazi Germany, with the children representing the Jewish people who hid from the Nazis. The Child Catcher becomes an evil Nazi figure, with the film seemingly equating villainy with Jewish stereotypes. It’s a bizarre part of the film, and it is hard not to see these parallels, which are emphasised by the fact that Dahl was a proud antisemite.
Of course, this aspect of the film remains up for debate, and it is unpleasant to think that a childhood classic might be hiding much darker themes. However, with a known antisemite partially penning a script that includes a character defined by harmful Jewish stereotypes, it is not far-fetched to consider that the true origins of The Child Catcher might be rooted in bigotry.
