Herbie Rides Again (1974)

Herbie Rides Again (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1974). 

Released 5 years after Walt Disney Productions' blockbuster The Love Bug (Robert Stevenson, 1969), this first sequel of the Herbie franchise reunited most of the creative team of the original movie. Disney Studios’ star director Robert Stevenson is once again at the helm, with production and screenwriting duties handled by Bill Walsh, from a story by Gordon Buford.

Following the events of The Love Bug, anthropomorphic VW Bug Herbie is now in the care of elderly Mrs Steinmetz (Helen Hayes). Her nephew, mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz, has left the car in his aunt's care while he visits Tibet. Former owner race driver Jim Douglas, meanwhile, is now competing on the European circuit. Sharing Steinmetz's ancient firehouse home is airline flight attendant Nicole (Stephanie Powers) and together with fledgling lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry) they must fight to stop the firehouse from falling into the hands of evil property tycoon Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn). Hawk will stop at nothing, legal or otherwise, to procure the land for his planned skyscraper Hawk Plaza, but meets his match when he comes up  against Herbie.

13 years after directing The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Robert Stevenson was an old hand at the Disney formula comedy and proves that there is still juice in the tank with this above average effort. Once again the action takes place in San Francisco, achieved with a combination of matte paintings and location footage. The cityscape is put to good use, especially in the many chase sequences, taking in areas such as Market Street and Fisherman's Wharf; the most inventive chase of all sees Herbie crossing the Golden Gate Bridge via its suspension cables! The pre-CGI special effects that allow the Bug to achieve this and other dizzying feats holds up well; landing the car, and those in his pursuit, in some hair-raising situations as thrilling as they are funny. 

With no returning cast members and little racing action, Herbie Rides Again has a distinctly different flavour to the original Love Bug. However, this is no bad thing. Especially considering the next movie in the series Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (Vincent McEveety, 1977) which did return the Bug to racing was a below par affair. While a sequel to a movie about a race car with no racing seems unlikely, it was probably the correct decision as the result is that this movie never feels overly derivative of the first.

Reprising his role from The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber (Robert Stevenson, 1963), Keenan Wynn gives a deliciously over the top performance as proto-Trumpian corrupt business man Alonzo Hawk. Nicely offsetting Wynn is the always reliable Helen Hayes’ turn as the sweet yet no nonsense grandma Steinmetz. Ken Berry and Stephanie Powers are attractive leads and handle both the chaste romance and the physical comedy with equal skill. However, the car is the star here and the best that anyone else can do is try to not be upstaged by the cute and personable VW. 

While Herbie Rides Again doesn’t quite live up to its near perfect predecessor, it is still a lot of fun. Lacking the subtler humour of the original, the movie still holds plenty of laugh of the broader, slapstick variety. Though not as big a hit as The Love Bug, the movie enjoyed a deservedly healthy run at the box office. Sophisticated it may not be, but its wining mix of laughs and thrills is hard to resist. It is also far superior to the sequels that followed.