Around the World in Eighty Days 1956

This leisurely adaptation of one of Jules Verne’s most extraordinary voyages sends us on a breakneck race to circumnavigate the globe in a then-unthinkable two and a half months. As more than eight decades had already passed since the book's publication, the filmed version takes some liberties with the source material, but most deviations are for the better. The famous flight in a hot air balloon, for example, was culled from a different Verne novel and has since become one of the tale’s most enduring images. The protagonist's French butler has seen his ethnicity swapped to suit the latin star Cantinflas, a popular foreign comedian whose unique brand of energetic charisma breathes life into a number of floundering scenes.

As travel and culture are essential themes, we’re treated to a great number of panoramic vistas and unique set designs. The route doesn’t make a lot of sense, given the urgency of the trip, but I’m willing to forgive that in the name of a little extra international flavor. Each destination gets its chance to shine, with a heavy emphasis placed on costume and set design, and the constant cultural crash courses feel earnest and celebratory despite a bit of common western bias. Worst of those offenses: casting lily-white Shirley MacLaine as an Indian princess (she studied for a semester in London, we’re told). But that kind of thing is to be expected of 1950s Hollywood.

Verne novels aren’t really regarded for their depth, and in that respect the film is completely loyal. This is just a flowery concept that’s thumped and beaten for every ounce of superficial value, offering no more insight or meaning than a travel agency brochure. It’s a voyage, after all, not a character piece, and despite a literal cast of thousands, loaded with cameos, the finished product can’t quite support its own weight. Without the top-notch production design, it would’ve been a total bore.