Hello MoPoers Oscar time is
great...provides plenty to discuss and debate...i subscribe to
Premier Magazine and you would expect the issue published at
oscar time to analyze every last detail...compare this to
that etc....well i wasn't disappointed and as usual found one
thing that bothered me..unfortunately i left the magazine at work
and can't refer to it as i write this...but as i remember
it they list 10 worst wniners for best picture over the years
and 10 times when the academy got it right...the one that got me
going was 1956's winner around the world in 80 days, which was
included in their list of mistakes...the competition that year was
Giant, the Ten commandments, the King and I and Freindly
persuasion...now i'm not going to debate whether around the world
was the best choice, but what got to me (and again i don't have
the article in front of me) is they intimated the movie had no
redeeming values particularly they mentioned it wasn't funny...now
i was 3 yrs old in 1956 and while i doubt my mother took me to the
film that year( she loved to go to the movies and shlepped me
along all the time) i 'm sure i saw it as an early 60's
re-release...and friends i've watched the movie many times since
then and i think it is very funny...what could be funnier
than pairing Cantinflas and David Niven..in my mind the
original odd couple...the bullfighting scene just to name
one was a bit lengthy but very funny imho...as regard other
aspects of the film it introduced me to david niven and shirley
maclaine and i became a life long fan of their movies..i also
think the subplot of wether fogg stole the money from the bank
of england and his persuit by mr Fix was just perfect
againt the travelouge an adventures portayed in the movie. Finally
and perhaps subtle as summerized by john Vogel in the imdb
plot summary...Mr. Fogg has to cope with the fact that he seems to
have lost the bet..but gained something he never seemed to
have:emotion
