AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS

David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, Cantinflas

Warner Bros., Directed by Michael Anderson

Rated G; 178 minutes; 1956

Producer Michael Todd's world famous extravaganza is available again after more than three decades. This extraordinary movie experience, based on Jules Verne's novel, was a mammoth, legendary, and unmatched undertaking, utilizing the finest talents of the day and capped by Todd's formidable showmanship and sense of grandeur.

Reviews

"With a moviemaking concept worthy of Jules Verne himself, Michael Todd's AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS . . . has not met its spectacular match in the years since it first astounded viewers with its splendors in recounting the journey of Phileas Fogg (David Niven at his most delightful), the very proper English gentleman who set out to circle the globe to win a bet back in 19872. The film—which is one of the reasons movies were invented—won Oscars for best film, best screenplay, its Victor Young score, its color cinematography and its editing. AROUND THE WORLD is an exquisite travelogue, a true thriller—and a delight."

- Judith Christ, TV GUIDE

"Niven takes to his role like duck soup, milking just about every comic and likable quirk out of the Fogg characterization. Some of the more vaudeville aspects of the show are handled by Cantinflas, a sort of Latin-American Chaplin who does all his own stunt work, including bull-fighting, capering atop a moving train and sliding down a high wire. The man is a genuinely talented actor as well as a comedian. Michael Anderson's direction has found new possibilities for the "bug-eye" lens, and there should be no end of praise for the literately humorous touches provided by S.J. Perlman."

- Hollis Alpert, SATURDAY REVIEW