Together with his resourceful French valet, Passepartout, Fogg goes hopscotching around the globe generously spending money to encourage others to help him get to his destinations faster so he can accommodate tight steamship schedules.

In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue beautiful young widow Aouda from being forced into a funeral pyre with her late husband.

They arrive in Liverpool, where, still with just enough time left to travel to London and win his wager, Fogg is promptly arrested by the diligent yet misguided Inspector Fix.

Although Fogg is exculpated and free to go, he now has insufficient time to reach London before his deadline, and so has lost everything but the enduring love of the winsome Aouda.

Fogg is the classic Victorian upper-class English gentleman, well-dressed, well-spoken, and extremely punctual, whereas his servant Passepartout (who has an eye for the ladies) provides much of the comic relief as a "jack of all trades" for the film in contrast to his master's strict formality.

Joining them are Shirley MacLaine as the beautiful Indian Princess Aouda and Robert Newton as the determined but hapless Detective Fix, in his last role.

[6] Others who tested for the role were Sylvia Lewis, Lisa Davis, Audrey Conti, Eleanore Tanin, Eugenia Paul, Joan Elan, and Jaqueline Park.

The role of Passepartout was greatly expanded from the novel to accommodate Cantinflas, the most famous Latin-American comedian at the time, and he winds up stealing the film.

While Passepartout describes himself as a Parisian in the novel, this is unclear in the film – he has a French name, but speaks fluent Spanish when he and his master arrive in Spain by balloon.

[7] According to the guidebook, this was done because of an obstacle Todd faced in casting Cantinflas, who had never previously appeared in an American movie and had turned down numerous offers to do so.

More than 40 famous performers make brief cameo appearances, including John Gielgud, Charles Boyer, Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Colman, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Charles Coburn, Noël Coward, Buster Keaton, George Raft, Cesar Romero, Red Skelton and Frank Sinatra.

"[9] Promotional material released at the time quoted a Screen Actors Guild representative looking at the shooting call sheet and crying: "Good heavens Todd, you've made extras out of all the stars in Hollywood!

Around the World in 80 Days was produced by Broadway showman Michael Todd, based on a musical by Orson Welles[12] and Jules Verne's adventure novel.

In his 1971 autobiographical book The Moon's a Balloon, actor David Niven discussed his meeting with Todd and the subsequent events that led to the film being produced.

He also described the first meeting between Todd and Robert Newton (who had drinking problems) when the latter was offered the role of the detective, Fix; Niven alleged that Newton was offered the part on condition that he did not drink any alcohol during the filming, and that his celebration following the completion of his role led to his untimely demise (he did not live to see the film released).

[1] Todd said he and the crew visited every country portrayed in the picture, including England, France, India, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh),[14] Spain, Thailand, and Japan.

[citation needed] According to Time magazine's review of the film,[1] the cast, including extras, totaled 68,894 people; it also featured 7,959 animals, "including four ostriches, six skunks, 15 elephants, 17 fighting bulls, 512 rhesus monkeys, 800 horses, 950 burros, 2,448 American buffalo, 3,800 Rocky Mountain sheep and a sacred cow that eats flowers on cue".

In his memoirs, Niven described the whole thing as being dangerously unstable (though stability improved as it was dismantled as though to feed it into its own furnaces as the plot required).

Because the film was made in Todd-AO, the sequence was expressly created to show off the locations seen on the flight, as projected on the giant curved screen used for the process.

Bosley Crowther called the film a "sprawling conglomeration of refined English comedy, giant-screen travel panoramics and slam-bang Keystone burlesque" and wrote that Todd and the film's crew "commandeered the giant screen and stereophonic sound as though they were Olsen and Johnson turned loose in a cosmic cutting-room, with a pipe organ in one corner and all the movies ever made to toss around".

[18] Time magazine called it "brassy, extravagant, long-winded and funny" and the "Polyphemus of productions", writing "as a travelogue, Around the World is at least as spectacular as anything Cinerama has slapped together".

Time highlighted the performance of "the famous Mexican comic, Cantinflas [who in] his first U.S. movie ... gives delightful evidence that he may well be, as Charles Chaplin once said he was, ‘the world's greatest clown’.

"[1] Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 43 reviews and gave the film an aggregate score of 72%, with an average rating of 6/10, with the site's consensus stating: "It's undeniably shallow, but its cheerful lack of pretense -- as well as its grand scale and star-stuffed cast -- help make Around the World in 80 Days charmingly light-hearted entertainment.

"[13] The event, featured on a 90-minute CBS telecast, could boast of "a colossal hodgepodge of bagpipers, folk dancers, Philadelphia Mummers, Russian wolfhounds, oxen, Siamese cats, elephants, clowns, a fire engine, and a symphony orchestra.

However, some uncut 179-minute 35mm Technicolor prints were struck too which meant at least some theatres played the Roadshow version even though the vast majority showed the shorter cut.

As a publicity stunt, Todd Jr. called the press when he removed a 70mm copy from a bank vault claiming it had been stored there since 1956 for safe keeping and was being shown at a theatre again.

Warner Bros. retained Andy Pratt Film Labs who in conjunction with Eastman Kodak developed a method to remove the cracked and faded-to-brown, clear lacquer from the original 65 mm Technicolor negative.

Mike Todd had limited 35 mm anamorphic prints made with a non-standard compression ratio to provide a 2.21:1 viewing experience.

[citation needed] The DVDs for Around the World in 80 Days include four hours of supplemental material, in addition to the restored three-hour wide-screen presentation.

[citation needed] Alton Towers theme park in England had a dark boat ride based on the film operating between 1981-1993.