Herbie Goes Bananas

Madcap misadventures with Herbie in Latin America

Jim Douglas’ nephew (Stephen W. Burns) inherits Herbie, but has to pick the car up in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with his mechanic friend (Charles Martin Smith) wherein they meet a mischievous little pickpocket that Herbie takes a liking to. John Vernon and Richard Jaeckel appear as dastardly villains while Harvey Korman plays a nutty cruise ship captain with Cloris Leachman & Elyssa Davalos on hand as passengers.

"Herbie Goes Bananas" (1980) is my favorite of the original four Herbie flicks. The amusing story is more compelling than the previous three and the star-studded cast is noteworthy with everyone giving it their all, especially Korman and Leachman. The cast were having a good time and it shows. A highlight is that this one shows Herbie talking, albeit cute car-language, not English.

Meanwhile Elyssa Davalos is the most beautiful female to be featured in the Herbie franchise up to this point, plus there are several beauties in the periphery.

The next film would be the rebooted TV movie “The Love Bug” (1997), which is my favorite of the series, followed by the excellent “Herbie Fully Loaded” (2005). I favor the 1997 one because it’s the most compelling plus features the Dark Herbie and Alexandra Wentworth.

The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes and was shot in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara & Tijuana), Panama (Panama Canal & Panama City) and the Los Angeles area (Ventura and Burbank).

GRADE: B

Couldn't they just have let poor old "Herbie" go get pampered in a motor museum somewhere? Plenty of Castrol GTX and some luxury screen wash? Nope - we had to drag him along to get involved in some dodgy Mexican counterfeit malarkey. He's been inherited by "Pete" (Stephen W. Burns) who is frankly a little disappointed that he's not a Ferrari. Together with his pal "D.J." (Charles Martin Smith) they soon discover that "Herbie" is a car with a mind of his own, and so determine to enter him in a race in Brazil. It's on their way that they get hustled by the hugely annoying "Paco" (Joaquin Garay III) and in trying to get their wallets back, discover they are now immersed in a crime ring led by "Prindle" (John Vernon) who is after a secret photograph the got pinched by the same urchin from his own wallet. The fleeing child takes refuge in "Herbie" who takes refuge on an ocean liner heading to Panama. This voyage gives "Aunt Louise" (Cloris Leachman) a chance to pair off handsome "Pete" with her bookish neice "Melissa" (Elyssa Davalos) and pretty soon we are all juggling way too many plates as this glorified edition of the "Dukes of Hazard" fails to get out of second gear. There are a few moments that raise a smile from the Bligh-esque ship's captain "Blythe" who has a hang 'em and flog 'em ethos that could have been usefully used on the writers of this banal and unnecessary outing for our VW that I found really struggled. It's peppered with the usual car chase and slapstick antics, but please now, no more....