The best movie adaptations of Jules Verne's novels are without a doubt Disney's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Michael Todd's production of Around the World in 80 Days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The three are perfect, no one will ever do better, and there is many reasons for that. First, the perfection of the cast - just try to play Captain Nemo better than James Mason or Phileas Fogg better than David Niven! Then, there is the era when these films were shot, the stories in Jules Verne novels were supposed to happen less than a century from the 1950's, so the 19th century was not that far and you could still find people who lived it. Also, although you could surely shoot adaptations technically superior if they were filmed today, both movies have something that all the best visual effects of our 21st Century can't reproduce: the innocence of the era. No one does anymore films like these as what makes their essence has disappeared, very unfortunately.
Around the World in 80 Days is a 1956 epic adventure-comedy starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine and Robert Newton, and was directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Mike Todd - who was Elizabeth Taylor husband at that time - with Kevin McClory and William Cameron Menzies as associate producers. The fantastic music score was composed by Victor Young, and the Todd-AO 70 mm cinematography (shot in Technicolor) was by Lionel Lindon. The film's six-minute-long animated title sequence, shown at the end of the film, was created by legendary title sequence designer Saul Bass - don't miss it! The film won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and you better open your eyes as dozens of famous actors appear in cameos all along the movie!
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow presents an onscreen prologue, featuring footage from A Trip to the Moon (1902) by Georges Méliès, 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.
Around the World in 80 Days tells the story of an English gentleman Phileas Fogg ( wonderfully played by David Niven ) who, in 1872, claims he can circumnavigate the world in eighty days. He makes a £20,000 wager ( £1.8 million in 2019 ) with four sceptical fellow members of the Reform Club ( each contributing £5,000 to the bet ) that he can arrive back eighty days from exactly 8:45 pm that evening. Together with his resourceful valet, Passepartout ( played by Cantinflas, who was immensely famous at that time and considered as Mexico's Charlie Chaplin ), Fogg goes hopscotching around the globe generously spending money to encourage others to help him get to his destinations faster so he can accommodate tight steamship schedules.
And now a good news as you can watch the FULL movie right now, right HERE, just push the sound volume at the maximum, and it's a perfect movie for a Christmas day !
Enjoy the show and, below, some still pictures and lobby cards of Around the World in 80 Days.
The French poster for Around the World in 80 Days.
Around the World in 80 Days also had many theatrical adaptations all along the years, below a poster for a theatrical version at Paris famous theatre, the Chatelet.
Hope you'll enjoy the movie as much as i did, it's truly a perfect adaptation of Jules Verne classic novel!
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