Around the World in 80 Days

Another of those movies that I had actually never seen before even though it was a studio-era Best Picture Oscar winner and all that was Around the World in 80 Days. It aired recently on TCM, I think for George Raft's turn as Star of the Month since he's got a cameo in it, and it's airing again as part of 31 Days of Oscar, tomorrow (Feb. 15) at 4:45 PM.

It's based on the novel by Jules Verne, and I would assume that most people know the basic story. Phineas Fogg, played in the movie by David Niven, is the sort of quintessential Victorian-era British gentleman that in the invertening years has become a spoofed character type. Fogg is wealthy but of unknown (and I think never explained) means, and notoriously specific in his desires, having dismissed his previous valet for serving toast two degrees too cold. This causes him to look for a new valet, selecting the Frenchman Passepartout (Mexican comic actor Cantinflas), who is a jack of all trades who's never actually worked as a valet before.

Anyhow, at the gentlemen's club, Fogg tells some of the other memebers that he's been doing a bit of calculation, and figured out that with the current-day (1872) advancements in technology, it should be possible to complete a voyage around the world in eighty days, at least with enough lag time built in for connections since timetables were still not exactly precise in those days. So some of the other members bet it can't be done. Fogg has £20,000 in an account at Barings Bank and puts that up, with four of the memebers wagering against him eaching putting up £5,000. The wager becomes a cause célèbre and news story around the world as Fogg and Passepartout set out on the voyage. You may already know how the wager plays out.

One major plot line that is in both the book and the movie is the character of Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine). She's a princess in one of the Raj states where the princes tried to curry the favor of the British empire, except that her husband has just died. In that state, the custom is that then the prince dies, there's suttee, in which the widow is also sacrificed at the state. Aouda most definitely doesn't want to die, so Fogg and Passepartout rescue her and take her on the rest of the journey around the world since she can't go home again.

A good portion of the movie, however, is not really in the book. I knew from a fairly young age that a good proportion of the promotion surrounding the movie involved a balloon flight, but reading the book that's not in the book at all. Producer Michael Todd wanted a big spectacle, and also situated the camera in many scenes to serve as a sort of travelogue: think cameras on the front of the train as location shooting has the train going down a track. The balloon ride over France is an excellent example of this, as is a subsequent bullfight. Apparently in the book, although I don't remember it since I was a kid when I read the book, is the Scotland Yard detective Fix (Robert Newton). Just before Fogg set off on the voyage there was a heist at the Bank of England, and Fogg vaguely looks like the description of the bank robber. So Fix follows Fogg around the world, trying to come up with a reason to arrest him.

Around the World in 80 Days is, as I said, an excuse for producer Michael Todd to make a spectacle of the sort that TV couldn't do, in color and wide screen, and bringing as many stars to that screen as possible. As a result, there's a ridiculous number of cameo appearances, and no opening credits to clue you in beforehand of who the cameos are. There's also a pre-plot scene of reporter Edward R. Murrow (in 4:3) talking about advances in technology and Jules Verne discussing that in his books, with a bit of help from clips of the Georges Meliès silent A Voyage to the Moon.

This version of Around the World in 80 Days doesn't really work as a plotted story, in that it goes on much too long and has some plot holes. One thing that only struck me watching now all these years later is Passepartout's leaving the gas in his room on inadvertently. This eats up the £500 he earns for the voyage, but that would come out to £6/5/- a day on gas, which seems obscenely high. In any case, all the cameos keep everything interesting, and the location cinematography is nice, if at times in stark contrast to studio sets. However, I definitely don't think it was deserving of its Best Picture Oscar.