Honestly, if you mention Around the World in 80 Days to someone under the age of thirty, they probably picture Jackie Chan doing martial arts or Steve Coogan looking flustered. That's fine. It's a fun movie. But it isn't the around the world in 80 days original movie that literally reshaped how Hollywood defines a "blockbuster." When Mike Todd produced the 1956 version, he wasn't just making a film; he was staging an international event that nearly bankrupted him and everyone involved.
It was massive.
The scale of this thing is hard to grasp in the era of CGI green screens. We are talking about a production that utilized 140 sets across 13 different countries. They used 68,894 extras. Not digital copies—real people standing in real dirt. The 1956 film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it did so by being the loudest, most colorful, and most expensive-looking thing anyone had ever seen on a screen.
The Gamble That Changed Cinema
Mike Todd was a Broadway showman, not a traditional film mogul, which is probably why he thought he could pull this off. He mortgaged everything. He used a brand-new wide-screen process called Todd-AO, which used 70mm film to create an immersive experience that 1950s television simply couldn't touch. This was the era where cinema was terrified of the "small box" in people's living rooms. Todd’s answer was to go so big that people had no choice but to show up.
David Niven was cast as Phileas Fogg. It's arguably the most perfect casting in the history of Victorian-era adaptations. Niven had this specific brand of effortless, stiff-upper-lip elegance that made the absurd wager of the plot feel almost reasonable. He's a man who would rather lose his life than be late for dinner, and Niven plays it with a twinkle in his eye that suggests he knows exactly how ridiculous he's being.
Then you have Cantinflas.
In the United States, people sometimes forget how huge of a deal it was to have Mario Moreno (Cantinflas) as Passepartout. He was the biggest star in the Spanish-speaking world. By putting him side-by-side with Niven, Todd ensured the around the world in 80 days original movie would have a global box office pull. It worked. The chemistry between the rigid Englishman and the chaotic, expressive valet provides the heartbeat of a film that could have easily felt like a dry travelogue.
The Cameo Revolution
You know how every Marvel movie now has a dozen secret appearances? You can thank Mike Todd for that. He basically invented the modern "cameo." He didn't just hire actors; he hired legends to show up for thirty seconds.
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Frank Sinatra plays a piano player in a saloon. Marlene Dietrich is a hostess. Buster Keaton is a train conductor. Shirley MacLaine—in one of her earliest roles—plays the Indian Princess Aouda. While the casting of a Caucasian woman as an Indian princess is a glaring historical "yikes" by today's standards, at the time, it was seen as just another piece of star-studded candy for the audience. Todd actually coined the term "cameo" in this context, telling his famous friends that if they appeared for just a moment, it wouldn't be a "bit part," but a sparkling gem in a larger setting.
Real Locations vs. Soundstages
Most movies in 1956 were shot on the backlots of Burbank or Culver City. Todd refused. He took the cameras to the actual streets of Paris, the vistas of Spain, and the jungles of Thailand. This created a logistical nightmare that would make a modern line producer quit on day one.
When they filmed the bullfighting sequence in Spain, they didn't just rent a ring; they involved thousands of spectators and utilized Cantinflas’s actual real-life skill as a bullfighter. There’s a specific grit to the 1956 film that is missing from the 2004 remake or the recent TV series. You can feel the dust. You can see the actual wind whipping through the sails of the Henrietta as they cross the Atlantic.
There's a famous story about the balloon. Everyone associates Phileas Fogg with a hot air balloon. It’s on the posters. It’s in the theme park rides. But here's the kicker: there is no balloon in Jules Verne’s original 1873 novel.
None.
The balloon was Mike Todd’s idea for the around the world in 80 days original movie. He felt the transit from Paris to Italy needed more visual "pop," so he added it. It became so iconic that it rewrote the public's memory of the book itself. Now, you can't find a copy of the novel that doesn't feature a balloon on the cover. That is the power of a dominant piece of media.
Why It Still Holds Up (And Why It Doesn't)
If you sit down to watch it today, be prepared: it is long. The "prologue" alone features Edward R. Murrow talking about Jules Verne and showing clips from A Trip to the Moon for about ten minutes before the movie even starts. It’s a slow burn. The pacing reflects a time when a night at the theater was an "event" with an intermission.
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However, the practical effects are still stunning.
When the train crosses the rickety bridge in the American West, that’s a real train on a real bridge. When they burn the ship for fuel at the end of the movie, the fire is real. There is a weight to the objects in this film that modern digital cinema struggles to replicate. Everything feels heavy. Everything feels dangerous.
Cultural Context and Criticism
We have to talk about the way the film treats the world. It’s very much a mid-century Western perspective. It views "the Orient" and the "Wild West" as exotic playgrounds for an English gentleman. It’s a postcard version of reality. While it celebrates travel, it does so through a colonial lens that can be uncomfortable for a modern viewer.
But as a historical artifact? It's fascinating. It shows exactly what the world looked like through the eyes of Hollywood in 1956. It captures the optimism of the post-war era, the belief that technology (and a lot of money) could conquer any distance.
Technical Mastery in the 1950s
The cinematography by Lionel Lindon is spectacular. The use of the 70mm frame allowed for deep-focus shots that make the background characters just as interesting as the leads. You can pause almost any frame in the Spanish sequence or the London Reform Club and find details in the costumes and set dressings that are historically accurate to the 1870s.
Victor Young’s score is another heavy hitter. The main theme is one of those melodies that stays stuck in your head for decades. It managed to win the Oscar posthumously, as Young passed away shortly after the film was completed. It’s sweeping, romantic, and perfectly captures the "hurry up and wait" energy of Victorian travel.
How to Watch the Original Today
If you want to experience the around the world in 80 days original movie the right way, you have to find a high-definition restoration. Watching a compressed, standard-definition version on a phone does this film a massive disservice. It was built for the biggest screen possible.
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The 1956 version is currently available on most major VOD platforms like Amazon and Apple TV, and it occasionally rotates through TCM (Turner Classic Movies). If you can find the Blu-ray, the special features actually detail the chaotic production, including the fact that they almost ran out of film stock in the middle of the Indian jungle.
Actionable Takeaways for Movie Buffs
If you're planning to dive into this classic, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Watch for the Cameos: See if you can spot Peter Lorre as a Japanese steward or Red Skelton as a drunk in a saloon. It’s like a 1950s version of "Where's Waldo?"
- Ignore the Clock: Don't try to rush through it. It’s three hours long. Treat it like a mini-series and take a break during the "Intermission" card.
- Compare the Balloon: Look at how the balloon sequence is shot. Notice how the camera stays wide to show the actual French countryside.
- Focus on Cantinflas: Pay attention to his physical comedy. He was a master of "mimesis" and his performance is the reason the movie has any soul at all.
The 1956 version of Around the World in 80 Days isn't just a movie; it’s a monument to a specific kind of ambition. It represents the moment Hollywood decided that "big" wasn't enough—it had to be "global." Even with its dated elements, it remains a testament to what humans can do with 70mm film, a few thousand extras, and a producer who refused to take "no" for an answer.
Next time you’re scrolling through a streaming service and see a sleek, 90-minute remake, keep scrolling until you find the three-hour epic with the painted titles and the booming orchestra. It’s worth the trip.
Next Steps for the Interested Viewer:
To truly appreciate the scope of this production, look for the documentary Around the World with Mike Todd. It provides behind-the-scenes footage of the 13-country shoot and details how the "Todd-AO" lens was developed specifically to compete with the rise of television. If you enjoy the 1950s "Epic" style, your next logical watches are Ben-Hur (1959) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962), both of which took the wide-screen lessons learned by Mike Todd and pushed them even further.