Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Around the World in 80 Days is an adaptation of Jules Verne's novel about a Victorian Englishman, Phileas Fogg, who bets that with steamships, railways, hot air balloons and rickshaws he can... well make it around the world in eighty days. His companion is his valet Passepartout.  On their journey, they rescue a princess from India who is almost killed for sacrificial purposes.  They continue their way around making it to the wild West of America and back to England again.  

While a very long film, it actually is better than I thought it would be.  Fogg and his valet make a great team, and Passepartout, played by Mexican actor/comedian Cantinflas, was pretty funny.  It was quite an extravagant film with tons of sets, locations, and animals.  Even though the plot is pretty thin, the settings were rich enough to make the movie stand out.  It seemed like a Cecil B. Demille film with all the sets and cameos, but ya know...  actually good.  Some of my favorite cameos include: Frank Sinatra (a piano player), Marlene Dietrich (a slewy saloon owner) and the great Buster Keaton (train ticket taker).  So Shirley MacLaine's in this movie.  And she's fine.  But she played the princess that they rescue from India.  I don't know if you can recall MacLaine... but she doesn't really even kind of look Indian.  She just has brown hair.... that's it.  It was kind of strange.  And both Tim and I are pretty sure she wasn't even speaking.  We think her voice was dubbed over... and THAT person wasn't Indian either.  What?? It just seems so strange to me. Anyways... the ending seemed long and abrupt at the same time.  And the credits which showed every single cameo and actor in the film (aside from extras). That was pretty cute and unique.  Not my favorite but a solid film.  

Katie and I agree that this is the film that The Greatest Show on Earth should have been. Like that film, Around the World in 80 Days is a spectacle-filled event film with marvelous colors, sets and costumes except that a humorous tour around many countries of the world is much more interesting than a traveling circus and a ludicrous train crash. The title of the film is basically the entire plot- there’s really not a lot to it outside of their various multicultural adventures. The true highlights of the film are the gorgeously diverse and vast number of locations that the filmmakers were able to secure for the time period. A possible romance between Phileas and Princess Auoda is hinted at but it never really comes to fruition. The musical score is almost always playing in this film, and it takes the audience on a tour also as it includes just about every traditional English folk song and musical styles from whatever place they are located. After about the 300^th iteration of “Rule Brittania,” however Katie and I were over it. We get it, they’re British. If we had made a drinking game out of it, we would have died before intermission. Several fun cameos are in store for the viewer- personal favorites of mine include Peter Lorre and Frank Sinatra. More a film that I will appreciate than love, Around the World in 80 Days is worth your time at least once… if you can withstand “Rule Brittania.” 

The film used 140 sets built at six Hollywood studios, as well as in England, Hong Kong and Japan.

• 74,685 costumes were designed, made or rented for use in the film.
• The cast and crew flew over 4,000,000 miles.
• 68,894 extras were used while shooting the film in 13 countries.
• 90 animal handlers managed the record 8,552 animals used (3,800 sheep, 2,448 buffalo, 950 donkeys, 800 horses, 512 monkeys, 17 bulls, 15 elephants, 6 skunks, and 4 ostriches).

Princess Aouda: Mr. Fogg, why must you be so... so British?