Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Directed by Michael Anderson. Starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Newton, Robert Morley, Basil Sydney, Ronald Squire, A. E. Matthews, Finlay Currie, Trevor Howard, Harcourt Williams. [G]

Jules Verne story becomes a vehicle for shallow showmanship, a big, expensive travelogue that has all the spectacle money can buy, but nothing underneath to make it all move. Member of the English Reform Club, Phileas Fogg (Niven), wagers that he’s able to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days, proceeds to tour the sights of Spain, India, Hong Kong, etc. with his valet (Cantinflas). Scenery, sets, costuming, and music are all of a high pedigree, but for such an intrepid undertaking, its draggy pace, clunking comic relief, and lack of excitement make for a long, winding trip that’ll inspire cries of, “Are we there yet?” every ten or fifteen minutes. Considering how frivolous and bloated this “light adventure” is, Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax getting Oscars for editing has to be one of the most inexplicable decisions ever made in handing out that award; its Best Picture triumph isn’t much more reasonable, even in the weak field in which it competed (The King and I, Giant, Friendly Persuasion, The Ten Commandments). Overloaded with “guest star” walk-ons (Ronald Colman, Victor McLaglen, Buster Keaton, Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Edward R. Murrow, etc.); Newton’s final film. Remade in 2004.

40/100