Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

James Poe (screenplay) &
John Farrow (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1958 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Romance | Western

Tagline:

See everything in the World worth seeing! Do everything in the World worth doing!

Plot:

Adaptation of Jules Verne's novel about a Victorian Englishman who bets that with the new steamships and railways he can do what the title says.

Plot Keywords:

Bet | England | Travel | Spain | Princess

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Cantinflas	...	Passepartout
Finlay Currie	...	Andrew Stuart
Robert Morley	...	Gauthier Ralph
Ronald Squire	...	Reform Club Member
Basil Sydney	...	Reform Club Member
Noel Coward	...	Hesketh-Baggott
John Gielgud	...	Fosdyke (as Sir John Gielgud)
Trevor Howard	...	Denis Fallentin
Harcourt Williams	...	Hinshaw
David Niven	...	Phileas Fogg
Martine Carol	...	Tourist
Fernandel	...	French Coachman
Charles Boyer	...	Monsieur Gasse
Evelyn Keyes	...	The Flirt
Jose Greco and Troupe	...	Flamenco Dancers

Also Known As:

Around the World in 80 Days (USA) (alternative spelling)
Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

167 min (35 mm version) | 183 min (with overture and exit music) | UK:135 min (25 fps) (video version) | USA:175 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Mag-optical) (35 mm prints) (1956) | Mono (optical) (35 mm prints) (re-release prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System) | 4-Track Stereo (Perspecta Sound encoding) (35 mm magnetic prints) (1956)

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Norway:A | West Germany:6 (f) | New Zealand:G | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:Approved | USA:G (1983)

Filming Locations:

5 Lower Grosvenor Place, Westminster, London, England, UK

Company:

Michael Todd Company

Trivia:

Victor Young's fabulous Oscar winning music score was recorded in July, 1956 at the former Charlie Chaplin Studio on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. At the time, Charles Chaplin had sold it to an independent outfit that had renamed it Kling Studios. Michael Todd was leasing space there during production. A sound stage normally used for filming was specially converted into a music scoring stage. Six Neumann U-47 condenser microphones were placed over the orchestra which were all fed to a 35mm magnetic six-track recorder. The entire set up was only used once for this film and was later torn down and the stage reverted back to filming.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the beginning of the movie, in London, carriages are shown driving on the right side and driving around roundabouts in a counter-clockwise direction. The opposite of British driving.

Quotes:

Col. Proctor Stamp: Thanks. You're still a foreigner, but you're true blue.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Simpsons: My Fair Laddy (#17.12)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Rule Britannia

Cantinflas Saves This Trip Around The World

This is a bit dated by now, but still not a bad film to watch. It seems like more of a travelogue than anything else, at this point. Frankly, at three hours and being a mid-50s film, I thought it might be too slow in too many spots but that was not the case. Only the bullfighting scene went on too long. The rest kept my interest.

David Niven gets top billing but the real star of the show is "Cantinflas," a Spanish actor who, to my knowledge, only made it big in this movie.....at least in this country. He is very likable and entertaining. The only thing is he is not always easy to understand. I used English subtitles a few times when he spoke.

Niven played his normal stiff-neck Brit role. Thank goodness we don't see those, "I say, old bean" characters from GB anymore. However, I have always appreciated the British vocabulary, so much more refined than here in North America. Shirley MacLaine was so young I didn't recognize her. Of course, she made it difficult to spot her playing a brown-skinned Indian princess.

In all, decent entertainment but one that might bore a lot of people today, which is probably why they did a re-make. I haven't seen the re-make, but I'll bet it isn't as good as this movie.