Mark's Movie of the Week #5: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days 

 

(The Michael Todd Company; United Artists; October 17, 1956; 182 minutes)

Screenplay by James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman 

Based on the 1873 book by Jules Verne 

Produced by Michael Todd

Directed by Michael Anderson 

Around the World in 80 Days is a 1956 American epic adventure-comedy film starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton and Shirley MacLaine.  The film's six-minutes-long animated title sequence, shown at the end of the film, was created by award winning designer Saul Bass.  Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow presents an onscreen prologue, featuring footage from A Trip to the Moon (1902) by George Amelie, explaining that it is based loosely on the book From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne.  Also included is the launching of an unmanned rocket and footage of the earth receding.  In 1872, an English gentleman, Phileas Fogg, claims he can circumnavigate the world in eighty days.  Fogg met four fellow members of the Reform Club stating that he can make the journey and arrive back at the club in eighty days at exactly 8:45 pm that evening.  Together with his resourceful French

valet, Passepartout, Fogg goes hopscotching around the globe generously spending money to encourage others to help him get to his destination faster so he can accommodate tight steamship schedules.  Having reached Paris they learn that a tunnel under the Alps is blocked. Thomas Cook , an agent who assists them, offers to hire or sell them his hot air balloon.  Fogg buys it and they fly over the Alps drinking champagne.  Blown off course, the two accidentally end up in Spain, where we see a table-top flamenco sequence performed in a bar.  Later Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight.  Next, they go to Brindisl in Italy.  Meanwhile, back in London, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen 55,000 pounds from the Bank of England so police inspector Fix is sent out by Scotland Yard to trail him (starting in Sue's restaurant) but must keep waiting for a warrant to arrive so he can arrest Fogg in the British

controlled ports they visit.  In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue a beautiful young widow, Aouda, from being forced into a funeral pyre with her late husband.  The three then travel to Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, and the Wild West (including the Sioux Nation).  Reaching New York, they arrange their passage on a cargo steamship traveling to Venezuela.  Fogg bribes the Captain to go to England.  Alas, they run out of coal mid-ocean and the ship stops.  Fogg buys the ship and then instructs the crew to take everything that burns, including lifeboats to provide fuel!  They arrive in Liverpool where, still with just enough time left to travel to London and win his wager, Fogg is promptly arrested by the diligent yet misguided inspector Fix.  Detaining Fogg at the police station, the humiliated Fox discovers that the real culprit has already been apprehended by police in Brighton.

  Although Fogg is exculpated and free to go he now has insufficient time to reach London before his deadline, and so has lost everything but the enduring love of the winsome Aouda.  Upon returning to London, Fogg asks Passepartout to arrange a church wedding for the next day, Monday.  Salvation comes when Passepartout is shocked to be informed that the next day is actually Sunday.  Fogg then realizes that by traveling east towards the rising sun and crossing the International Date Line, he has gained a day.  Thus, there is still just enough time to reach the Reform Club and win the bet.  Fogg rushes to the club, arriving just before the 8:45 pm chime. Passepartout and Aouda then arrive behind him, shocking everyone, as no woman has ever entered the Reform Club before.  Around the World in 80 Days has celebrity cameo appearances by Edward R. Murrow, A.E. Matthews, Ronald Squire, Ronald Adams, Walter Fitzgerald, Findlay Currie, Robert Morley, Fredrick Leister, Basil Sydney, Noel Coward, Sir John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Harcourt Williams, Martine Carol, Fernandel, Charles Boyer, Evelyn Keyes, Jose Greco, Luis Miguel Dominguin, Gilbert Roland, Cesar Romero, Alan Mowbray, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Melville Cooper, Reginald Denny, Ronald Colman, Robert Cabal, Charles Coburn, Peter Lorre, Mike Mazurki, George Raft, Red Skeleton, Marlene Dietrich, John Carradine, Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton, Col. Tim McCoy, Joe E. Brown, Andy Devine, Edmund Love, Victor Mclaglen, Jack Oakie, Beatrice Lillie, John Mills, Glynis Johns and Hermione Gingold.  Around the World in 80 Days was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture (Michael Todd), Best Screenplay-Adapted (James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman), Best Cinematography-Color (Lionel Lindon), Best Film Editing (Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax), and Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Victor Young).  The film was originally distributed by United Artists in two Todd-AO 70 mm versions, one for Todd-AO 70 mm release at 30 frames per second reduced to 35 mm for general release.  The original Todd-AO 70 mm running time without the extra music was 179 minutes.  The 70 mm print shown at the Rivoli Theater in NYC was including removing most of the prologue with Edward R. Murrow remained and the entire "Trip to the Moon" clips were cut.  The intermission was also cut for the 1968 re-release which included the freeze frame of the ship and fade into the second half.  Around 1976, after its last network television broadcast on CBS, UA lost control of the film to Elizabeth Taylor, who was the widow of producer Michael Todd and had inherited a portion of Todd's estate.  In 1983, Warner Bros acquired the rights to the film from Taylor, and reissued the film theatrically in a re-edited 143-minute version (this version would subsequently air only once on Turner Classic Movies, this was before any restoration on the movie was announced).  In the years that followed, a pan-and-scan transfer of the alternative 24 frame/s version was shown on cable television.  In 2004, WB issued a digitally restored version of the 24 frame/s incarnation on DVD, also at its full 183 minute length, but also including the original intermission, Entr'acte and exit music segments that were a part of the original 1956 theatrical release, and for the first time on home video at its original 2.2:1 aspect widescreen ratio.  This restored version was reconstructed from the best available elements of the 24 frame/s edition WB could find, and was subsequently shown on Turner Classic Movies. With its all-star cast and dozens of locations Around the World in 80 Days was the film of the 1950s.