Review of Herbie Rides Again (1974) by Edith N — 01 May 2009

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate Helen Hayes; I always do. Keenan Wynn reprising the role of Alonzo Hawk? Delightful. And it's not as though I'm a huge Buddy Hackett fan. It just seems weird, that's all; the man did about a dozen Disney movies, including coming back for [i]Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo[/i], but for some reason, he's not in this one. I can only assume it's some weird choice of the fine people at Disney. Apparently, they wanted a kindly old man at first and only later went with a kindly old woman instead. Just as well; I don't think it would work as well that way. And, at least in theory, Herbie is really the hero here. Everyone else is kind of window dressing, except the obligatory villain--at least David Tomlinson seemed to have a twirling-ready moustache!

Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry) is a bright, eager young lawyer coming to work for his Uncle Alonzo, who is planning to build the world's tallest office building. He is doing this in San Franciso because that's where Herbie lives, but it is assuredly a bad idea architecturally. At any rate, Uncle Alonzo sends Willoughby off to convince old Mrs. Steinmetz that she should sell her home, an old, decommissioned firehouse, and move into a retirement community owned by Mr. Hawk. She refuses, and her granddaughter, Nicole (Stefanie Powers), decks him a good one. Willoughby finds out that kindly Uncle Alonzo is not the picture of charity and generosity that Willoughby's mother painted him to be, and he quits, deciding to help old Mrs. Steinmetz keep her home. Aiding them in all this, of course, is the indefagitable Herbie.

I mean, what do you want me to say, here? It's a Herbie movie. He doesn't race any in this one, which as I recall is unique for the franchise. (But I don't remember [i]Herbie Goes Bananas[/i] very well, just that the kid keeps calling him "Ocho," which I heard as "Old Joe" until it was explained at the end of the movie.) There's a game of chicken at this vaguely tournament-y thing against Guy Who Looks Like David Tomlinson (Rod McCary). In fact, I think he's supposed to be David Tomlinson's character from the first movie, Thorndyke, thouroughly demoralized and beaten down by his losses against Herbie in the first movie. Mostly, he just drives around the Bay Area. Helen Hayes doesn't even bother steering, or even looking at the road. They ended up driving through a hotel restaurant at one point, and she doesn't know, because she's looking for something in her bag.

So how is Herbie such a matchmaker? I mean, let's leave aside the fact that he seems, in this movie, to have magical control over all the VW Beetles in San Francisco--and that should be a [i]lot[/i] more cars. Leave aside that he has the mystical ability to intimidate the hell out of Typical Live-Action Disney Villains. Apparently, all it takes to unite a couple is to lock them in a car and drive them around scenic San Francisco. I'm sure that's good for stalkers in the Bay Area. I mean, just lock the girl in the car and everything's fine, right? He can't talk. Is it just that he lucks out and gets the couples who already like each other and just need to talk it out? Even there, he can't make them talk. What are they going to do if they don't want to?

Herbie--the name is synonymous with Herbie movies. It's not like you go into one of these expecting anything unusual, right? I mean, yeah, that's also true of other live-action Disney movies. A lot of other movies, too. And it's hardly as though it's a surprise when Alonzo Hawk gets his comeuppance. It's Alonzo Hawk, right? The montage of blowing up buildings at the beginning is cute, but it's another one of those things where, if he had the right kind of moustache, he'd be twirling it. He seems to take positive glee out of the idea of personally blowing up a little old lady's house--he doesn't even care if the little old lady's out of it yet. This is what you get with these kinds of movies. It's Herbie. He rides again. What more is there to say?