1956 was a year when Hollywood won a lot. The five Oscar-nominated films were all luxuriously produced. This film uses the newly developed widescreen system Todd AO system to present sceneries from all over the world on the screen. It won five awards including the 29th Oscar for Best Picture. It looks more like a global tourist scene today. This is just an excuse for the film to attract the audience. The focus is on the special scenery and adventures that Fogg saw along the way around the world. The film also made a sharp and interesting satire on the so-called gentleman of the British Empire, and it was a sarcasm. Democratic politics in the United States. In addition to sightseeing, some interesting cultural features are added. In addition to the scenery in the film, there are 44 big names appearing as dragon characters.
The 1950s were a year of severe trials for the film industry. The emerging television industry, with its close-to-life and pervasive characteristics, quickly squeezed people's amateur life and swallowed the market and box office of movies in large quantities. In order to resist this offensive, the film industry has done everything possible. Hollywood filmed a large number of epics and spectacle films during this period to prove that "some things you can only see in the cinema". At the same time, wide-screen and stereo technologies have matured rapidly, providing a strong technical backing for this "jedi counterattack."
Mike Todd and Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
The 2-hour "Around the Earth in Eighty Days" came into being in this environment. What is different is that in all the records and introductions about this film, the name of the producer Mike Todd is much better than that of Michael Anderson, who appeared as a "director". To this day, in the DVD footage of this double D9 set, Mike Todd's name is still mentioned repeatedly. The highlights include a 50-minute documentary "Mike Todd Across the Earth", which details Todd's journey from a child of a Jewish civilian family to one of Hollywood's most famous filmmakers. In addition to historical data, there is also a large statement by Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor in front of the camera, telling about her and Todd's legendary marriage, the sudden success, and the final tragic ending.
Mike Todd represents the American spirit that we often read from books, the kind of "pioneer" character who always moves forward and never gives up. He has been involved in gambling, smuggling of smuggling alcohol, musical drama creation, horse racing, and many other professions of different nature. For most of his life, he has risen and fallen between the peak and the bottom of his life. "Around the Earth in Eighty Days" has not yet finished filming, but Todd has already spent the last penny on the book. Fortunately, at this time, investors gave charity in the snow. A sum of US$1 million rescued the crew and achieved one of the greatest miracles in film history.
Mike Todd created the "All-Star" approach for the first time in this film. Among the 68,894 supporting roles, as long as there was dialogue or close-up in a certain episode, Mike Todd did not hesitate to invite the most famous star at the time to play. You see a small bar on the screen. The whole scene may not exceed 10 minutes, but the musician who plays the piano is Frank Sinatra, the American pop music star, and the girl wearing a wig and leaning on the table is Marlene Dietrich, an internationally renowned German movie star with "Blue Angel". They may appear on the screen for a few seconds, but Mike Todd himself does not lower his demands on these "big names". He once cancelled his contract with Gregory Parker on the grounds that he was "too careless" when playing an officer.
It is hard to imagine that such a film only cost 6 million US dollars. Even if inflation is taken into consideration, this amount of money is only equivalent to a medium investment in Hollywood today, while the film’s final box office harvest was four times that. The DVD behind-the-scenes disc contained the live video program "Around the Earth in 90 Minutes" produced by CBS TV at the time. The host described it as "comparable to Caesar's feast for all Romans."
At the 1957 Oscars ceremony, "Around the Earth in Eighty Days" won 5 awards including best film. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts rarely awards awards to a purely entertainment film, and this is one of the few exceptions. Today’s people may feel a little boring watching this film. There are many ten-minute-long landscape depictions and exotic customs, such as flamenco dancing, bullfighting, Japanese vaudeville, Indian cremation, etc., or it will let us Drowsy in front of the screen. But don't forget that it was half a century ago when the screen had just been widened to the same era as human perspective. Our parents and grandfathers have indeed been amazed by such a spectacle.
Mike Todd died in an airplane accident the following year. In the following half a century, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor has experienced 5 failed marriages, while the film industry has been constantly challenged by television, MTV and video games, and it is still trekking today. Audiences in the 21st century are not accustomed to admiring natural and humanistic wonders that have not been processed by computers in movie theaters. But fortunately, the Warner Home Audiovisual company has meticulously restored this film, supplemented by BBC senior film historian Brian Shelbury's rich content and well-reviewed commentary soundtrack. In addition, before the feature film of the film, the film historian Robert Osborn also arranged a section of " Le voyage dans la lune " by Gerry Love as a "warm up". This 11-minute black and white silent film may seem as naive as a juggling today, but it is the first fantasy and spectacle film in human history. What is symbolic is that it is exactly half a century away from Mike Todd's time.
