Child Catcher

The Child Catcher is the supporting antagonist of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the later stage musical adaptation. The character did not appear in the original Ian Fleming book. The Child Catcher is employed by Baron Bomburst and Baroness Bomburst to snatch and imprison children on the streets of Vulgaria.

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• Child catcher from chitty chitty bang bang
• The child catcher
• References

In the 1968 film, he was played by ballet dancer Robert Helpmann. Whilst filming one of the scenes where the Child Catcher rides his horse and carriage out of the village, the Cage/Carriage uptilted with Helpmann on board. Dick Van Dyke recalls Helpmann being able to swing out of the carriage and literally skip across the crashing vehicle. According to Van Dyke, Helpmann did this with incredible grace and much like a dancer - which was Helpmann's original claim to fame.

In the theatrical version in London's West End, he was played by Richard O'Brien and Wayne Sleep (another ballet dancer), and on Broadway, he was played by Kevin Cahoon. In the Australian theatrical version, he was played by Tyler Coppin who wrote and performs a solo show about Robert Helpmann called LyreBird (Tales of Helpmann).

In 2005, the Child Catcher was voted "the scariest villain in children's books", despite not actually featuring in the original book.

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly called Helpmann's depiction of the Child Catcher one of the "50 Most Vile Movie Villains."