Around the World in 80 Days
Starring: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton
Director: Michael Anderson
The film: Around the World in 80 Days took two years to reach Hong Kong, where it was keenly anticipated and warmly received. More than two months before the film - already an Oscar winner for best picture - finally arrived, The China Mail gave a front page headline to the news that, while the film was on its way, it would not be screened in its original and spectacular Todd-AO widescreen format, but in standard Cinemascope (itself still something of a novelty here at the time). No local theatres, it seems, were prepared to install the massive curved screens that were required for the projected format that was developed by the film's famously showman-like producer Mike Todd.
Around the World in 80 Days had two charity gala premieres in Hong Kong on December 29, 1958 - one at the Star Theatre in Tsim Sha Tsui and a grander affair at the newer Metropole in North Point, with the Commander of the British Armed Forces in Hong Kong Sir Edric Bastyan as guest of honour. Even without the special Todd-AO curved screen, Around the World in 80 Days made for a fine spectacle, with six-channel sound and extra-wide-angle shots bringing a unique immediacy to the action. With 140 foreign locations and studio sets and around 50 cameo appearances (a term first coined by Todd), Hong Kong movie-goers were treated not just to a film but to a three-hour, star-studded trip around the globe, with striking point-of-view shots from a hot-air balloon, an elephant's back, the deck of a ship, the front of a steam train, and more.
Transferred to DVD - the experience is less impressive - but on larger widescreen TVs still quite engaging. Hong Kong gets about 15 minutes of screen time, although aside from one waterfront shot, all the action takes place on Hollywood sets. As noted by The China Mail, cultural authenticity is further compromised as 'the conventional mode of travel is to ride on the backs of ostriches according to the film'. But local audiences weren't deterred by such details. After Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Around the World in 80 Days came second on the list of Hong Kong box office earners for 1959.