Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo

Herbie, the Volkswagen Beetle with a personality of his own, is entered in a rally from Paris to Monte Carlo, with racing driver Jim Douglas at the wheel and his mechanic Wheely Applegate along for the trip. Jim aims to win, but Herbie becomes distracted by a light blue Lancia, and Jim takes an interest in its driver, Diane Darcy. Meanwhile, two thieves have hidden a stolen diamond in the car's fuel tank, and they set out to recover it before the race ends.

Released in 1977, the film was directed by Vincent McEveety and written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson, with Ron Miller producing for Walt Disney Productions. It was McEveety's third film, arriving between Gus and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again in the list of films he directed, and his first of three movies involving the character, with Herbie Goes Bananas following in 1980. Dean Jones returns as Jim Douglas, the role he had played in an earlier Herbie film, joined here by Don Knotts, Julie Sommars, Roy Kinnear, Bernard Fox and Jacques Marin. The credited cast runs to thirty-five names.

Audience reaction has been moderate. On IMDb the film holds 5.7 out of 10 from roughly 8,800 votes, and on TMDB it has 5.9 out of 10 from around 363 votes, a small but consistent result placing it as a middling entry in the series. Against a worldwide box office of 29 million US dollars, it performed respectably for a family comedy of its period.