Around The World In Eighty Days

I’ve just seen my first stinker. Around The World in 80 Days won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1957. After watching this bloated, noisy excuse for a film, I assumed 1957 was just a bad year for film. This isn’t the case. Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza’s wonderful book, The Greatest Movies Ever includes three classic films from 1957: Funny Face, Paths of Glory, and Wild Strawberries. Not surprisingly, Around the World in 80 Days doesn’t make the cut. That same year, Giant was also nominated for Best Picture. Giant is one of my favorite films and is a far superior film by all accounts. How it lost out to this is anyone’s guess, but if I had to make one, I would say that this film won because pretty much everyone in Hollywood makes a cameo appearance. Around the World apparently coined the phrase cameo. The film features guest appearances from Shirley McClaine, Peter Lorre, Red Buttons, Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton, and Ceasar Romero amongst others. I assume that since everyone that votes for the Oscars had a role in the film, this must be why it won. The film has great production value and was obviously very expensive to make, but the acting is amateurish and the plot is razor thin. My biggest problem with the film is it’s flat out racism. Each country that is visited during the trip around the world depicts the “natives” as broad stereotypes right down to the costumes. It is as if the entire film was shot at Epcot Center. This film was supposedly a comedy, but I laughed exactly one time in the film. The dialogue is paraphrased below:
Fogg: I want you to guard this bag with your life
Servant: I shall treat it as if it is a beautiful woman.
Fogg : (deadpans) Don’t make love to it, just watch it.
Other than that, the film consists of the same scene repeated over and over again against the back drop of a different country. I am really disappointed that I spent what felt like an eternity watching this useless movie. Not even David Niven could save it and he spend most of the film looking appropriately embarrassed.