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(out of 5)
Thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of Jules Verne’s popular adventure novel is highlighted by gorgeous photography and numerous celebrity cameos. British gentleman Phileas Fogg (a delightfully dapper David Niven) makes a bet with a friend that he can traverse the entire globe in exactly eighty days, then proceeds to do so. Along the way he picks up numerous travelling companions, one of them a beautiful Indian girl (Shirley MacLaine in pancake makeup) whom he saves from her husband’s funeral pyre. This film, produced by Mike Todd not too long before his tragic death, successfully captures the light air of folly featured in Verne’s equally enjoyable novel.
Directed by Michael Anderson
Screenplay by James Poe, John Farrow, S.J. Perelman, based on the book by Jules Verne
Cinematography by Lionel Lindon
Produced by Michael Todd
Music by Victor Young
Production Design by Ken Adam
Costume Design by Miles White
Film Editing by Howard Epstein, Gene Ruggiero
Cast Tags: A.E. Matthews,Alan Mowbray, Andy Devine, Basil Sydney,Beatrice Lillie, Buster Keaton, Cantinflas, Cedric Hardwicke, Cesar Romero, Charles Boyer,Charles Coburn, David Niven, Edmund Lowe,Edward R. Murrow, Evelyn Keyes, Fernandel, Finlay Currie, Frank Royde,Frank Sinatra, George Raft,Gilbert Roland, Glynis Johns, Harcourt Williams,Hermione Gingold, Jack Oakie, Joe E. Brown, John Carradine, John Gielgud, John Mills, José Greco, Luis Miguel Dominguín,Marlene Dietrich, Martine Carol, Melville Cooper, Mike Mazurki, Noel Coward, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Reginald Denny,Robert Cabal, Robert Morley, Robert Newton,Ronald Adam, Ronald Colman, Ronald Squire, Shirley MacLaine, Tim McCoy,Trevor Howard, Victor McLaglen, Walter Fitzgerald
Academy Awards
Best Cinematography (Colour) (Lionel Lindon)
Best Film Editing (Gene Ruggiero, Paul Weatherwax)
Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) (Victor Young)
Best Motion Picture (Michael Todd, producer)
Best Writing (Screenplay–Adapted) (James Poe, John Farrow, S.J. Perelman)
Nominations
Best Art Direction (Colour) (art direction: James W. Sullivan, Ken Adam; set decoration: Ross J. Dowd)
Best Costume Design (Colour) (Miles White)
Best Directing (Michael Anderson)
Golden Globe Awards
Best Motion Picture-Drama
Best Performance By An Actor in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical (Cantinflas)
Nomination
Best Director (Michael Anderson)
New York Film Critics Awards
Best Film
Best Screenplay (S.J. Perelman)
National Board Of Review Award
Best Film
Writers Guild Award
Best Written American Comedy
Directors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Motion Pictures (Michael Anderson)
