Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

jacobs-greenwood Using Jules Verne's novel about modern transportation and the resultant "shrinking globe", James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman won an Oscar for their adapted screenplay. Producer (and Elizabeth Taylor's third husband) Michael Todd, whose film technique Todd-AO was used for only the second time in this movie, won his only Oscar (he was killed less than a year later in a plane crash).In addition to winning Best Picture, the comedy adventure won three other Oscars and was nominated for three more, including for its director Michael Anderson (his only nomination from the Academy).David Niven plays the adventurous perfectionist Phileas Fogg and Cantinflas plays his newly hired, multi-talented and resourceful manservant Passepartout. British gentleman Fogg bets fellow members of his club (Finlay Currie, Robert Morley, Noel Coward, and Trevor Howard) that he can circle the globe in 80 days.Robert Newton is Mr. Fix, who knows nothing of the bet but is intent on catching and/or stopping Fogg because he believes that the adventurer is a thief. Shirley MacLaine plays a princess from India - that Fogg and Passepartout rescue from death - who travels with them for most of their trip.Among those that Todd was able to convince to appear in the film were Sir John Gielgud as a manservant, Charles Boyer as a travel agent, Jose Greco as a flamenco dancer (now there's a stretch), Cesar Romero as MacLaine's would-be executioner, Alan Mowbray as a government official, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Melville Cooper, Reginald Denny, Ronald Colman as a railway official, Charles Coburn as a steamship clerk, Peter Lorre as a steward, George Raft as a saloon bouncer, Red Skelton as a drunk that enjoys the saloon's free food with Cantinflas, Marlene Dietrich as the saloon's hostess that Raft loves to protect, John Carradine as a blowhard Kentucky Colonel, Frank Sinatra as the saloon's pianist, Buster Keaton as a train conductor, Joe E. Brown as the station master, Andy Devine, Victor McLaglen and Jack Oakie as shipmates, John Mills as a carriage driver, Glynis Johns and Hermione Gingold as sporting ladies, and Edward R. Murrow as himself.

petra_ste Everyone enjoys taking a cheap shot at the Academy Awards, and this movie offers a great chance to do just that - Around the World in Eighty Days won Best Picture, while in the same year John Ford's The Searchers, one of the most iconic classics in the history of American cinema, didn't receive a single nomination.Around the World is three hours long, and feels like it. Every few minutes the movie stops to gawk at its exotic locations and smugly chuckle at its endless celebrity cameos ("Look, isn't it funny that the saloon pianist is Frank Sinatra?"). It has certainly aged badly. I remember enjoying it as a kid thirty years ago; rewatching it recently, I was surprised by how overlong it feels. I had a similar reaction to another on-the-road adventure/comedy of the same era, The Great Race, except the latter is propelled even today by Jack Lemmon's villainous glee as Professor Fate and by the sight of the adorable Natalie Wood in her lingerie. Around the World features also-adorable Shirley MacLaine - but, distractingly, she is unlikely cast as an Indian princess.Overall, though, this Jules Verne adaptation isn't a bad movie - a mildly entertaining travelogue with luscious vistas and a tone-perfect David Niven as a British gentleman so prim and fastidious that, if you tossed a couple of eggs in his luggage, two minutes later he would produce from it still immaculate clothes and a perfectly cooked omelet on a silver platter. In fact, Around the World is at its best when it focuses on Niven's Phileas Fogg dryly dealing with annoyances, obstacles and threats, and at its worst when it pauses to showcase the physical skills of co-star Cantinflas as Passepartout - so we have a dancing number, a bullfighting number, a circus number, and so on.The result is drawn-out; we complain that Peter Jackson added at least a whole hour of bloat in each Hobbit movie, but Hollywood was already doing that sixty years ago.6/10

weezeralfalfa I clearly remember when this was released. The exotic locales and numerous frustrating impediments to achieving the goal of circumnavigating the world in 80 days, in 1872, by various conventional and unconventional means, climaxed by the unexpected ending, provided a generally exciting drama for a kid of those times. The cameo appearances of various very well known or somewhat familiar actors added to the appeal, as did the very memorable theme song. You have to remember that nearly all TVs were B&W then, and travelogue programs weren't that numerous.This film was the baby of the innovative, compulsive gambling, Mike Todd: his only conventional feature film that he produced, which needed to be a big financial success to wipe out his massive debts from gambling and lavish lifestyle. Having previously financed a stage version of the subject, which was a big financial flop, he nearly went bankrupt before finishing this promising version. Having previously been involved in the commercialization of the 3-camera Cinerama film process, Todd had joined with American Optical Company to develop a single camera wide angle version, which included 6 sound tracts, dubbed Todd-AO, which was first used in the production of the spectacularly successful musical "Oklahoma". It's second use was for the present film. We can readily see the influence of Todd's experience with Cinerama in the splendid travelogue visuals. In recent times, TCM has shown this film occasionally. I stopped to rewatch it in it's entirety. David Niven was, of course, perfect for the role of the unbelievably stiff, robotic, Fogg, who represents an extreme version of the time, speed, and money-obsessed modern man. Inexplicably, he hires his virtual opposite in the happy-go-lucky Latino Passepartout(Cantinflas) as his valet and traveling companion., who provides a window into various adventures in various exotic lands that the ever robotic Fogg couldn't provide....Robert Newton has a typical villain role, as a detective, who is sure Fogg was the mastermind behind a large Bank of London heist, the day before Fogg left on the journey. This clearly non-aristocratic sleuth is bent on foiling Fogg's attempt to circle the globe on time to win the prize, as well as arresting him at a convenient time. By forcing Fogg to spend a night in jail in London at the terminus of the journey, before learning that he was not the guilty party, Newton's Mr. Fix is finally clearly fingered as the chief villain of the tale, saved only by Cantinflas's subsequent discovery that it's a day earlier than Fogg assumed. This was Newton's last film role, after establishing himself as the archetypical pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, in several pirate films. It was clear that his liver wouldn't hold out much longer. Too bad, as he was such a charismatic heavy.As she later admitted, Shirley MacLaine was miscast as the very young Indian widow rescued by Fogg from being forced to burn to death atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. She didn't look or speak anything like a typical Indian, and she contributed virtually nothing to the interest of the film, after her rescue by Continflas. True, her part was underwritten. The suggestion of a marriage with Fogg , at the end, looks problematic. She is grateful for his? rescue and addition to the traveling group. He seems agreeable, perhaps out of pity. I just wonder if a middle-aged man of his extreme type could alter his persona sufficiently to make an appealing mate, aside from his obvious wealth(of undetermined origin). Just what he normally did with his time is left unexplored.Like the subsequent "Moon River", the theme song "Around the World" is a very memorable soothing inspirational waltz, which was played ad nauseam throughout the film as background, including multiple arrangements during the intermission. Unlike "Moon River", it very surprisingly wasn't nominated for Best Original Film Song. I suspect this is partly because no lyrics were sung during the film, although they soon appeared in various single recordings released. However, Victor Young did receive the Oscar for best original score in a non-musical, and since this was the only original song in the film, this serves as sort of a consolation award for the song. I consider it more addictive than "Moon River", and I'm sure it added significantly to the case for voting this as the best film of the year.The section where the party is trying to make their way across the western US comes across as sort of a western, including several encounters with Native Americans while on a train, a loudmouthed trigger-happy pest in John Carridine, a near train wreck while crossing a rickety trestle being destroyed by flood waters, and an improvised sail--powered(supposedly) rail maintenance hand car, when no train was available in the near term. Incidentally, sail-powered rail cars were tried in the early days of rails, but proved impractical. Fogg's bunch presumably lucked out in having a steady prairie wind in the desired direction. Incidentally, the aristocratic Reform Club, of which Fogg was a member, and which was the initiator of the prize for achieving his goal, is based upon a real London club, whose original purpose was to promote reform of the House of Commons, later to become a bastion of the Liberal Party.

SnoopyStyle From the Jules Verne book, Englishman Phileas Fogg (David Niven) accepts a bet from his fellow Reform Club members to travel around the world in 80 days putting up £20k. Passepartout (Cantinflas) comes looking for a job and becomes his valet for the trip. The Bank of England has been robbed of £55k. Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) believes that Fogg had stolen the money and follows him in pursuit. It's a wild ride across the globe. On the way, they rescue Indian Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine) who joins them on their quest.Without a doubt, this is a grand movie with lots of footage from all around the world. It was probably quite an eye opener for its time. With the exception of these exotic footage, the movie is a slow, prodding, unfunny affair. The trip is monotonous. A lot of it is wild, some are insane while others border on racist. I guess people actually believed that ostriches pulled carts in HongKong back in the day. However one must admire the daring it took to make such an impossible film.