AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956)

Looking over the list of the top ticket-selling films of all time, I counted that within the Top 50 I had seen all but 5 films.  So now I'm going to watch them.  This is # 2 of 5.  Ticket Sales: 64,615,400  It ranks #46 on the list just ahead of Bambi and just behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

This film is big.  It used the brand new wide-screen Cinerama format and ran in some New York theaters for 3 years?  Bigger than that.  The internets claim that the 1000+ credited extras are only for the scenes shot in Hollywood, and that all the international extras are uncredited, leading some estimates to climb as high as 65000+ people!  Holy shit!  In one movie?  Well I guess way back in 1956 the world was still pretty exotic and strange to Americans, cursed as they were with only three television channels, so a three-hour slap-stick comedy semi-educational travelogue bursting with 40+ cameos from fading/shining stars and 8000+ animals of all shapes and sizes means a little something for everybody.  If you have to find something for the whole family to enjoy, and it happens to be 55 years ago, this is the ticket.

My favorite part about this film is Cantinflas!  Cantinflas Cantinflas!  It's fun to say.  He is so effortlessly funny and charming that the tradition of Passepartout being the bigger role than Fogg carried over into the abysmal 2004 remake with Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan.  Born Mario Alfonso Fortino Moreno Reyes, Cantinflas was the #1 star of the Spanish-seeking world, a silent comedian who made the difficult transition into sound, and was hailed by no less an expert then Charlie Chaplin as "the world's greatest clown."  Cantinflas! 

His stage persona is slightly similar to Chaplin's lovable Tramp, the low-class oddball in ill-fitting upper-class clothing, and by this stage in his career he had it down so perfectly that this film functions as an enormous showcase for him: he rides a penny-farthing in circles around pretty ladies, he leaps up onto his hands at a moments notice when his previous career as a gymnastics instructor is mentioned, he dances with beautiful women across several continents, he fights a bull with equal parts fear and terror whilst thousands cheer him on, he rides horses and ostriches and elephants, he saves a woman from burning alive and then is later saved form burning alive himself, he does acrobatics in a Japanese circus, and when overjoyed he kisses a Vicar on the face.  Cantinflas!

Mega-producer Michael Todd and director Michael Anderson were concerned that potentially bigoted audiences in America wouldn't accept a Latin leading-man, so they decided to trick the dumb bastards.  Even though David Niven as Phileas Fogg clearly plays second banana to Cantinflas's non-stop comedy extravaganza, Niven was billed above Cantinflas in the USA (only) and since Cantinflas is the gentleman's gentleman Passepartout and therefore addresses his employer Fogg unfailingly as 'Master', there was no fear that lily-white audiences would realize they were enjoying antics from someone slightly different from them.  "No no Bev, it's alright, that little funny swarthy fella works for the pale skinny fruitcake."  Cantinflas!

It's not a great conspiracy or anything; Passepartout is supposedly Parisian, but it comes as no surprise that Fogg calls on his services as a translator when their balloon crash lands in rural Spain.  Cantinflas certainly embodies more than a few Latin stereotypes in his performance.  He's an inveterate ladies man, but more in the puppy dog tradition, blindly following any pretty girl he sees walking down the streets.  He's also a little too hardworking and a little too trusting of people, but everyone in the movie seems to embody simplified stereotypes.  Cantinflas!

Most of the English on hand are tight-fisted, prim, pretentious, proper, "I say!" saying, effete 'stiff upper lip' caricatures who complain about new-fangled inventions like ice cubes, bicycles, and house-cats.  Fogg enjoys talking about Whist, and no other topics.  When he gets engaged, he and his betrothed celebrate not with a kiss but with a quick hug.  His dry wit is the perfect compliment to Cantinflas, like the scene where Fogg hands Passepartout a bag of money and instructs him to guard it 'like a woman.'  When Cantinflas starts to stare dreamily into the open flaps of the bag (hmm) Fogg scolds him 'don't make love to it, just watch it.'  Cantinflas!

The Spaniards are peasants and bull-fighting fans, which leads to a side trip to the arena where Cantinflas demonstrates his skill at comedic bull-fighting which sounds like the most dangerous thing in the world especially when you consider that he didn't use a stunt double.  The Indians are mostly strangle-happy cult members who want to immolate a princess once her husband has died; this was back when if you needed an Indian Princess in a movie you cast Shirley MacLaine and everybody said 'sure'.  Every American from San Francisco to New York seems to be a gun-toting knife-throwing cowboy, a feather-clad show-girl, or a vengeful Native American.  For the most part the movie exists in a cartoon world of gentle satire.  Cantinflas!

So how much shit is in the movie?

~ You can see these stars in small sometimes wordless parts: A.E. Matthews, Alan Mowbray, Andy Devine, Basil Sydney, Beatrice Lillie, Buster Keaton, Cesar Romero, Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn, Tim McCoy, Edmund Lowe, Edward R. Murrow, Evelyn Keyes, Fernandel, Finlay Currie, Frank Sinatra, George Raft, Gilbert Roland, Glynis Johns, Harcourt Williams, Hermione Gingold, Jack Oakie, Joe E. Brown, John Carradine, John Mills, José Greco, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Martine Carol, Marlene Dietrich, Melville Cooper, Mike Mazurki, Noel Coward, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Reginald Denny, Richard Wattis, Robert Morley, Ronald Colman, Ronald Squire, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard and Victor McLaglen

~ 3,800 sheep, 2,448 buffalo, 950 donkeys, 800 horses, 512 monkeys, 17 bulls, 15 elephants, 6 skunks, and 4 ostriches make appearances as scenery or transportation.

~ At the time there were only nine cameras capable of shooting in the format of this film and every single one of them was used in this production.

~ It begins with a six and a half minute history lesson from journalist legend Edward R. Murrow that also shows up then state-of-the-art rocket photography of the planet Earth.  Murrow smokes the whole time.

~ It ends with a six and a half minute animated credit sequence from design legend Saul Bass which was the longest ever at the time.

~ Filming included 140 sets at 6 different studio back-lots with second unit photography at over 100 locations in all 13 countries depicted in the film voyage.

~ The budget was originally 3 million dollars although it ballooned to at least double (see above) by the time it was complete.  About a year and half after the release, producer Michael Todd died in a plane crash; the film had already grossed over 30 million dollars at this point.

~ Todd's widow Elizabeth Taylor gained control of the film from United Artists in 1976; she eventually sold the rights to Warner Brothers in 1983.

If you've got three hours to spare, give it a whirl.

Cantinflas!