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A Movie A Week: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) Follow that ostrich!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the next installment of A Movie A Week.
[For those who new to the column, A Movie A Week is just that, a dedicated way for me explore vintage cinema every week. I’ll review a movie every Monday and each one will be connected to the one before it via a common thread, either an actor, director, writer, producer or some other crew member. Each film, pulled from my DVD shelf or recorded on the home DVR (I heart TCM) will be one I haven’t seen.]
Another week another hole in my movie education filled. This one was a biggie, the Best Picture Winner of 1956: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS.
This flick is in the same category as IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD… but more British. And, dare I say, a better movie.
Think of this movie as the AVATAR of its day. Much like James Cameron, producer Michael Todd made this film as a grand exorcise to showcase new technology. Todd was a key figure in the Cinerama movement (which was discussed in depth in previous AMAW How The West Was Won), but was miffed by the necessity of 3 cameras and 3 projectors to display the widescreen format.
So, he invented the Todd-AO 70mm camera, a single camera/single projector widescreen system and wanted to do a giant movie to show it off even though he had never produced a feature film before.
What bigger project to tackle than Jules Verne’s globetrotting epic AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS?
From the opening frames showmanship is on full display. The movie starts with Edward R. Murrow sitting in a library talking to the audience about Jules Verne and the first film adaptation of a Verne story: Georges Melies’ 1902 silent film A TRIP TO THE MOON. The aspect ratio is typical of TV at the time and it stays that way with Murrow’s talking head opening, through a showing of A TRIP TO THE MOON and then quickly starts to widen out when we get back to Murrow.
Even on standard def DVD the photography is impressive, but you can see the curvature of the lens quite a bit, giving some shots a fishbowl look.
So, with that knowledge we enter into the actual story, which is quite simple. A stiff, rich English gentleman makes a wager with other even stiffer, rich Englishmen that he can travel around the world in 80 days. They say it’s impossible, he says it’s quite possible and tons of money is put into a pot and the game is on.
What follows is a combination travelogue, lovingly photographing different cultures and countries, and adventure as the comical pairing of David Niven and Cantinflas set about on their trip around the world.
Now, I love David Niven. He is straight up awesome, a class act with impeccable timing and a fantastic presence. He’s great in this movie, but I don’t think this is Niven’s movie. Yes, he’s in 98% of the film, he’s the main character and the top-billed actor, but to me Cantinflas and the young ‘n hot Shirley McClaine steal the movie from him.
CANTINFLAS RIDES AN OSTRICH! Does David Niven ride a fucking ostrich on camera? No. Case closed.
The Mexican star plays Niven’s man-servant, what was originally written as a Frenchman named Passepartout by Verne. I can’t imagine this movie without him. Cantinflas brings so much humor and the perfect amount of crazy to balance out Niven’s straight man.
Due to the length of the movie (3 hours) there’s a unique pacing. Instead of the filmmakers just showing iconic architecture of each continent we get to stop and soak in different cultures. For instance, when Niven and Cantinflas’ hot air balloon falls in Spain we don’t just get the bullfight scene. No sir, we also take in some local dancing, festivity and ladies.
That sounds like it could get boring over the course of a movie, but I found it very compelling. I liked that we don’t just get an establishing shot of a new location and found the ability to soak it in almost feels like a personal vacation. I feel it helps bring the audience along on the trip around the world, pulling us in from our couches or theater seats if you’re lucky enough to catch this on the big screen.
Niven ends up rescuing an Indian princess about to be burned alive with her now dead husband, a man she only met once when she was 8, we come to find out. That Indian princess is Shirley MacLaine… maybe not the best casting as she doesn’t look even remotely Indian, but damn is she gorgeous. She also injects another type of chemistry, a slight romance, into the group.
Also along for the ride is Robert Newton as a Scotland Yard officer who is convinced that Niven is a bank robber using this bet as a way to flaunt his escape to a country with no extradition treaty and desperately wants to arrest him; constantly trying (and failing) to delay Niven so that both he and the arrest warrant are in the same place at the same time.
He soon becomes part of the group as they leave British territory. He doesn’t have the authority to arrest Niven, but by Jesus he can sure stick with him so Niven doesn’t get away.
Michael Anderson (THE DAMBUSTERS) does a fantastic job directing, keeping a dozen plates going at once. I’m sure having Michael Todd as producer helped. From all accounts, Todd was a snake oil salesman of the highest order. He could talk anyone into anything.
Indeed, Todd coined the phrase “cameo” for this picture as a way to convince giant stars to take bit parts. He ended up casting the hell out of the picture. Pretty much everybody that’s ever been in a movie is here. Frank Sinatra plays a honky tonk piano player with no lines and there’s everybody from Marlene Dietrich to Peter Lorre in this picture.
Add on to that a final awesome Saul Bass closing title sequence and you have a movie that has lived for over five decades and will live on for many more. Victor Young’s score (for which he won a posthumous Oscar for) is booming and energetic, some of my favorite work of his, which is saying something considering the man scored THE QUIET MAN, SHANE and RIO GRANDE).
Final Thoughts: While there’s room to argue if the film deserved the Best Picture (it won over GIANT, THE KING AND I, FRIENDLY PERSUASION and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) I feel the film lived up to its reputation as a fun adventure story. Watching something this epic, spearheaded by a man like Michael Todd who really didn’t give a shit about anything other than making a huge spectacle, is a special kind of entertaining, something we don’t often see these days. There’s a carefree nature to this film that only helps continue its legend.
Upcoming A Movie A Week Titles:
Monday, September 28th: THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955)
You may have noticed that I didn’t add a new title to the line-up. The answer for that is simple… Starting October 1st I’m going to be switching gears to this year’s HMAD (Horror Movie A Day) which I started last year. That means 31 horror films, one a day from October 1st-31st. When I get to THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY I’ll publish the first week of HMAD titles. Gonna be fun… right now the gamut is run between Ingmar Bergman and Troma… it’s gonna be a blast!
Next week we jump to Alfred Hitchcock's THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY which marks the screen debut of Shirley MacLaine. See you folks then!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Previous AMAWs:
April 27th: How To Marry a Millionaire
May 4th: Phone Call From A Stranger
May 11th: Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
May 18th: Too Late The Hero
May 25th: The Best Man
June 1st: The Catered Affair
June 8th: The Quiet Man
June 15th: Rio Grande
June 22nd: The Getaway
June 29th: The Mackintosh Man
July 6th: The Long, Hot Summer
July 13th: Journey Into Fear
July 20th: How The West Was Won
August 3rd: Call Northside 777
August 14th: Rope
August 17th: The Seventh Cross
August 24th: Track of the Cat
August 31st: The Public Enemy
September 7th: The Mayor of Hell
September 14th: Midnight Mary
Click here for the full 215 movie run of A Movie A Day!
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And Cantinflas still strikes me as what I remember this movie the most. Sadly this international carreer did not work so well.
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You don't really think the term meaning a bit part in a movie originated in 1375 do you? You know... a good 500+ years before cinema was invented?That time period is when the term of the gem engraving is thought to have originated if I'm not mistaken.I didn't pull that tidbit of trivia out of my hat, you know. It is all over the commentary and the documentary about Michael Todd on the DVD. He said something like instead of an engraving on a gem the actor is the beautiful addition (engraving) that enhances the movie (gem). Hence the term cameo to denote a bit part appearance by a celebrity.
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nice Quint, well played well playedgood movie too...has there ever been a proper FRENCH Passepartout? Cantinflas-Mexican...Idle-British...Chan-Chinese
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... of the best five films of this year approaching the collective awesomeness of Around the World in 80 Days, Giant, The King and I, Friendly Persuasion, and The Ten Commandments? Didn't think so.
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They don't make 'em like this anymore.
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...and it just didn't do much for me. It was okay, but hardly justified a best picture oscar(over Giant?). Actually thought it a little boring. I figured you'd hate this, so I was shocked that you'd say this was better than IAMMMMW. I think IAMMMMW is one of my all time favorite comedies and when there's a cameo in it, it's usually pretty funny. The cameos in Around the World? Ehh, they're just there. So it disappointed me, but glad you liked it, maybe I'll have to give it another chance sometime.
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will probably have alot of fun posts."The Trouble With Harry is, he's behind on posting New Release DVDs.""The Trouble with Harry is, his website doesn't have an edit feature.""The Trouble with Harry is..."
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There were a couple of excellent old-time radio adaptations of "Around the World in 80 Day." Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater did one in 1938 (just a week before they convinced the nation we were being invaded by Martians.) Welles is really good as Fogg. In the early 1950s, Ronald Coleman did a fantastic job playing Fogg in an adaptation done on a show called "Favorite Story." http://comicsradio.blogspot.com/search/label/Around%20the%20World%20in%20Eighty%20Days
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I have to buy the DVD of it soon.
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If you can understand Spanish watch his movies. CLASSICS!
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Sep 22, 2009 10:38:56 AM CDT
But does it have Jackie Chan and Arnold??
by kevin_costners_recycled_piss
This was on of my favourite films when I watched it as a kid. I loved the ending aswell where they have the guy just say "This is the end".
I remember there also used to be a childrens cartoon of this except Phileas Fogg was a lion. -
And I have it in my Zip (=netflix) queue to watch again, since I haven't in more than ten years.But please watch what you say, because I agree with your sentiment but actually reading the words "didn't give a shit about anything other than making a huge spectacle" made me think of nothing so much as the soulless CGI inferno that was Transformers 2.
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You're really stupid for trying to correct that, it was obvious he didn't make it up.
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That film was a product of its day--made for audiences with little opportunity to travel, and providing a 3-hour window on cultures around the world. Completely fails as a film; characters are mere sketches and not even faithful to the original source material (Cantinflas as Passepartout? *Shirley MacLaine* as an Indian princess??!). It obviously impressed people "back in the day", but judged by any reasonable standard this is one of the most boring and incoherent films ever made. Three *hours* long...with only a wisp of a plot and cyphers for characters, and imagery that completely fails to impress the jaded eyes of a modern audience that is able to catch more interesting and exotic visuals in a half hour of "Man vs. Wild", this thing should be relegated to a museum someplace and given a footnote in Oscar history, then we should all move on.
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Was just involved in a local theatre production of this story, and the new version with Chan was on tv the other night. Haven't ever seen this version. It is funny how they keep changing the nationality of Passepartout for these adaptations.
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Have not read the review in its entirety yet, but to compare it to It's a mad mad mad mad world, POSITIVELY? Around the World is a mediocre film that should never have been remade. It's not in the same league as Mad World.
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So many mugging faces in that trying to be funny. Maybe i was led to believe this is a comedy, because if it is not then forgive these comments. It's A Mad Mad World poops all over this in the great race genre. There's a scene where the train stops for some reason, and then smiling mummy David Niven gets out, and his ugly looking sidekick they mutter something, then they fix it and they get back in. I loved that scene because of the zanyness you know? I'm guesing this movie was solely made for old rich people from England to sit around on red padded chairs while munching on cake and sipping tiny tea cups while politely laughing at it.
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If ever a film needed an intermission it's this one. I just found the film poorly paced. When you throw everything into a film from jungle adventure to western (and even a rip-off of a Marx Bro. joke on the Atlantic tirp) you better have all of your ducks in a row and the director does an admirable job. It's just all too much and too episodic for me. Naturally the saloon scene is one of the great all time movie moments, but only if you don't know what's coming up.
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"Indeed, Todd coined the phrase “cameo” for this picture as a way to convince giant stars to take bit parts."
Ace, read carefully. "coined the phrase... for this picture..." Does not mean created the word "cameo", instead talks about applying the word in the context of motion pictures. Which means Quint is right and you are not. -
Nice work, Quint. I enjoy each of these AMAD/AMAW/HMAD/etc. very much.
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C'mon--you have Ronald Colman, Melville Cooper, Allen Mowbray, Niven, all these classic lions of the British cinema. Colman esp was a great one. So it's cameos and travelogue, what, pray tell, was Youse expectorating? I have this very dvd and break it out from time to time. Check out the rowdy NY crowd at that racetrack Walter Cronkite's been sent to hype this movie with. Very, very weird scene there. I liked it about as much as Mad Mad World, from same basic era, gobs of cameos etc. That's a fun one too.
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The movie was a bit too long but Cantinflas really enjoyable in this. Catching Buster Keaton in a cameo is always a cool thing, too.
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From the Shubert (Academy) Theater in Minneapolis! They moved it ten years ago to save it from being demolished for a redevelopment, but it's still not re-opened. Suck.
Anyway, here's a neat thing about them moving it -- it's the largest building ever moved! http://tinyurl.com/nxu3u9 -
Internationally, he's up there with the greats like Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin. Not only that, but he's the only one who survived into the Sound Era. Only Lloyd had a decent sound career, but retired early.
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I hated this movie.
To me this movie represents the beginning of era of the big, bloated, over-produced Hollywood movies. Sure they didn't really take off until after 1963, but Dr. Doolittle and Hello, Dolly! would not exist if it wasn't for this movie.
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