(Redirected from Baron Bombhurst)
'Baron Bomburst' is one of the main villains of the in the film
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Played by
Gert Fröbe, Bomburst rules the
Barony of
Vulgaria together with his wife,
Baroness Bomburst.
First appearing as a gentleman
pirate when the
Potts and
Truly Scrumptious are picnicking on the beach, he reveals a cruel and greedy streak by attempting to steal the enchanted car, and then, after failing, and seeing that the car is able to float and move like a
speedboat on the sea, he sabotages the Potts' home by air and kidnaps Grandfather Potts, mistaking him for the inventor of Chitty.
Later, when the Potts follow Bomburst's
airship to his native Vulgaria, they discover how cruelly the Baron treats his subjects. Although it is stated that "the Baroness hates children" and that it is the Baroness who sends for
the Childcatcher, it seems that the Baron has a hand in it as well, and his greed is evident all the more when it is revealed that all the toys made by Vulgaria's toymaker are for him.
His relationship with his wife appears to be twisted: when Grandfather Potts inadvertently ejects her out of the captured Chitty, Bomburst automatically opts for a gun as the best means to get her down, and there is a darkly comical sequence shortly afterwards where he alternately sings of his love for her and attempts to kill her.
Cruel though he is, there is a juvenile side to him as well. His envy for the Potts' car is more akin to a spoilt schoolboy than a
psychopathic killer, he sulks mightily when the toymaker has apparently made him a doll instead of a toy that a boy should have (his greed for toys, in itself, being fairly childish), and he sobs near the end when he loses his crown in fleeing from the children he so detests.
In short, he is one of the most loved and hated of all film
villains - in contrast to his
Child Catcher, who is one of the most feared.