Genre Guesstimation – Around the World in 80 Days (1956) – Encore Review

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s genre has been chosen by Rebecca of Almost Ginger and we will be reviewing our favorite Travel Film.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Apr by sending them to travellingrebecca@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Rebecca!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Travel Film……

“I’ll be darned if I understand you city folks. Always rushing, rushing, rushing. Always thinking about the future. No wonder you have stomach trouble.” – Stationmaster

Number of Times Seen – 3 Times (2 Sep 2000, 14 Oct 2013 and 7 Apr 2021)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – An eccentric British academic makes a bet that he can traverse the world in less than 80 days.

My Take on it – Such a fun film that stays entertaining the whole way through.

The fact that this film created the concept of cameo appearances in films is so fascinating especially given the number of familiar actors and actresses who pop up in this story.

David Niven is great in the lead role and makes us truly believe the eccentricities of his character the whole way through.

The various adventures that Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout experience along their journey are great but the fact that even at 3 hours this film feels too short is what hurts things too much.

The novel this is based on is rich with so much detail about their various encounters along the way, but due to their being so many vignettes that they wish to present here, it all seems far too truncated and rushed which is such a shame.

I would love to see a 6 hour version of this film with the same actors because it would be able to properly tell us each of their adventures along the way.

This film won 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing and Original Score.

There is constantly an epic and international feel for this film which helped open the flood gate for these kind of films in the future.

Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This movie featured the longest closing credits sequence at the time, at six minutes and twenty-one seconds. All of the credits are shown at the end. The title is the last credit. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Comes extremely close, but as great as this film is, there is too much ground for them to cover in just 3 hours and it all seems far too rushed.

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10) (upgrade from original review)