The one and only time I saw a movie at Radio City Music Hall was in 1957.
Our seats were in the first row — not great for watching a movie on a huge screen — off to the right facing the screen.
The movie we saw was perfect for a massive screen — 1957 Best Picture winner “Around the World in 80 Days.” Te epic story of Phileas Fogg to win a bet that amount amount to several million dollars in 2023 currency.
I saw it two or three times in the 1950s and ’60s, and I have watched it on my DVD player several times in recent years. Amazingly, I never caught a major plot flaw until recently.
Mike, be careful …
Oh, all right, even though the whole idea of having to do this for a movie that has been out for more than 65 years seems ridiculous …
SPOILER ALERT
Fogg has 80 days to circumnavigate the globe. He departs from London at 8:45 in the evening and travels across Europe to the Suez Canal to India to Hong Kong to Yokohama to San Francisco to New York and back to the north of England, arriving before noon on the 80th day.
All he has to do is take a train to London and he will arrive with hours to spare.
Shockingly, he is wrongly arrested and held in custody till his deadline is past, losing his wager.
Or so he thinks.
What he doesn’t realize is that in traveling west to east along his entire route, he gained a day crossing the International Date Line. He learns this fact with minutes to spare and hurries to the starting point — now the finish line — and wins his bet.
Pretty great, huh?
Not exactly.
The crisis point in the plot comes when delays crossing America from San Francisco to New York make Fogg and his party several hours late for their trans-Atlantic connection, It’s a devastating blow and there won’t be another ship for three or four days. Fogg is forced to charter the Henrietta, a cargo ship that has never made an ocean crossing.
Of course they succeed, only to be thwarted — or so they think — by the wrongful arrest.
So what’s the flaw in the plot?
Well, they crossed the International Date Line.
Sure, sure. That’s why they still had time to win.
What about New York?
What about it? It’s a great city, one that never sleeps.
<sigh>
They crossed the Date Line when crossing the Pacific Ocean on the General Grant. By the time they arrived in America, they had already gained a day.
Ohhhhhh.
So when they arrived too late in the day in New York, they actually arrived the day before their ship to England was scheduled to sail.
The whole drama of getting there on the Henrietta was never necessary.
I was stunned to realize that not only had I overlooked the flaw, I had never read anywhere that anyone else had mentioned it.
Well, it was 1957. Maybe they were too worried about Sputniks and too busy watching the Mickey Mouse Club.
At any rate, it’s a problem that could have been fixed fairly easily. although it would have resulted in the cutting of the humorous/suspenseful subplot involving the Henrietta.
Consider this:
Fogg and his party get to New York in time to catch their steamship. They’re surprised but pleased to make it. The ship gets to its port in England at noon on the 79th day, although Fogg thinks it is the 80th. He is arrested, kept in jail till late that evening and thinks he has lost his wager.
Then go back to the regular ending.
It’s flawed. It requires Fogg being preoccupied enough that he never learns what day it is. As precise a man as he is, that’s hard to believe. But it does eliminated the problem of missing a ship that isn’t supposed to sail till the next day.
That’s worth a small suspension of disbelief.