Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

This is a nostalgic movie for me personally, it's the first classic movie that I ever saw on the big screen. I was in 8th grade, not yet in High School. I saw it at The Gateway Theater in Chicago in the spring of 1990 with my family, and it was a pretty awesome experience.  April 22, 1990.

This was the period in my life when I started to fall in love with old movies.

I was about 14 years old at the time.

I remember it being a huge, long epic, with lavish location photography, sets and costumes. The music by Victor Young was great too, enjoyable. The opening scenes with Passepartou (Cantinflas) riding the penny-farthing bicycle and meeting David Niven, I'll never forget those scenes. And then they go on their adventure, all over the world, and eventually to America. I remember the young princess in the movie and my mom whispering to me that this is Shirley MacClaine. I had only known her for her 1980s movie up to that point.

And I didn't recognize all the cameo stars, but I did know Frank Sinatra.

Also, there was an actual intermission, and it was a nice break. And the end credits; I was in awe. I love animation and seeing that on the big screen was so cool.

Alot of people criticize the film nowadays and don't think it should have won the Best Picture Oscar. For me, this film was awe-inspiring and impressed me like none other I had seen up until that point.

Another think I really like about 80 Days is the intro with Edward R Murrow when he talks about how travel has evolved. Watching that sequence with the hindsight we now have 50+ years later is really interesting.

Cameos: Charles Boyer, Joe E Brown, Noel Coward, Buster Keaton, Robert Morley, and Marlene Dietrich. Directed by Michael Anderson and Kevin McClory.

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For more about this film:

Gerald has shared some memories of seeing this film when it was first released.

Read the post here at his blog, Laszlos On Lex

Separate Tables (1958)

In the opening shot of the film: a young woman (Deborah Kerr, who is wonderful in this film) walks out of a hotel and sits on a park bench down the street. She appears lonely as if expecting to meet someone - or escape from somewhere. Her doting mother (Gladys Cooper, a permanent resident of the hotel) disapproves her associating with David Niven's character, also a resident of the hotel. Miss Cooper also disapproves of Burt Lancaster, another guest, and calls him "boorish". Meanwhile a pair of young guests (Rod Taylor and Audrey Dalton) keep their distance from the older folks.

I like when Rita Hayworth arrives at the hotel. She plays an actress and a "woman of the world". Guests of the hotel can't help but stare at her as she walks in dressed in her fur coat. It turns out she has an interesting history with Burt's character.

Wendy Hiller plays the manager of the hotel, Miss Cooper.

When the dinner bell sounds, all of the guests come down to eat, but sit at separate, assigned tables.

A good movie, filled with great performances by legendary actors. Directed by Delbert Mann (Marty).

I feel this is a movie that could be remade today. Maybe with a more diverse cast as well.

Shortest Oscar-nominated Performances

The briefest performances ever nominated for an Oscar. The screen times provided were gathered from other sources and have not been independently verified:

02:32 Hermione Baddeley ("Room at the Top," 1959) for best supporting actress
05:00 Claire Trevor ("Dead End", 1937) for best supporting actress
05:40 Beatrice Straight ("Network," 1976) for best supporting actress WON
06:00 Ned Beatty ("Network," 1976) for best supporting actor
06:00 Sylvia Miles ("Midnight Cowboy," 1969) for best supporting actress
06:05 Carolyn Jones ("The Bachelor Party," 1957) for best supporting actress
06:10 Diane Cilento ("Tom Jones," 1963) for best supporting actress
06:50 Thelma Ritter ("Pillow Talk," 1959) for best supporting actress
07:10 Geraldine Page ("The Pope of Greenwich Village," 1984) for best supporting actress
07:30 Maximilian Schell ("Julia," 1977) for best supporting actor
08:00 Jane Alexander ("All the President's Men," 1976) for best supporting actress
08:00 Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love," 1998) for best supporting actress WON
08:00 Charles Durning ("The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," 1982) for best supporting actor
08:00 John Lithgow ("Terms of Endearment," 1983) for best supporting actor
08:00 Sylvia Miles ("Farewell, My Lovely," 1975) for best supporting actress
08:00 Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road," 2008) for best supporting actor
08:30 Gladys Cooper ("My Fair Lady," 1964) for best supporting actress
08:30 Anthony Quinn ("Lust for Life," 1956) for best supporting actor WON
09:00 William Hurt ("A History of Violence," 2006) for best supporting actor
09:50 Piper Laurie ("Children of a Lesser God," 1986) for best supporting actress
10:00 Ruby Dee ("American Gangster," 2007) for best supporting actress
12:00 Viola Davis ("Doubt," 2008) for best supporting actress
14:00 Ed Harris ("The Hours," 2002) for best supporting actor
15:38 David Niven ("Separate Tables", 1958) for Best Actor WON
16:00 Anthony Hopkins ("The Silence of the Lambs," 1991) for best actor WON