The interior of the club became ‘Claridges Hotel’ for Oliver Parker’s 1999 version of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, the palace of the Viceroy of India for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, a tearoom in Keep The Aspidistra Flying and even suffered the indignity of being a greasy spoon for Julian Simpson’s 1999 The Criminal.
Founded as the United Service Club (and known as The Senior) catering to the upper echelons of the military – it was the Duke of Wellington’s favourite club – it slowly fizzled out after merging with several other clubs and losing its distinct identity before being taken over by the Institute of Directors. The exterior of the club seen in the film is that of the Institute of Directors Club, 116 Pall Mall. In Jules Verne’s book, Fogg accepts the challenge to travel around the world at the Reform Club, 104 Pall Mall, SW1, a real London club and still going strong, though its interior, along with that of ‘Baggott’s Employment Office’ and ‘Lloyd’s of London’, was recreated in the studio at Elstree in Hertfordshire.Īround The World In 80 Days location: Phileas Fogg accepts the bet at the 'Reform Club': Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London SW1 Fogg’s home now houses the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The intimidatingly grand houses bristle with security devices and many sport grandiose embassy plaques. The home of globetrotting hero Phileas Fogg ( David Niven) is 17 Belgrave Square, in the heart of posh Belgravia, a central London district of barely distinguishable cream streets and squares.
So that’s a widescreen Todd-AO camera hidden in a street stall on the Guards’ parade ground, then? Hmm…
The scene was supposedly filmed clandestinely with a camera hidden in a vegetable stall. The parade of the Scots Guard was filmed at Wellington Barracks on the south side of Birdcage Walk in Westminster. The opening scenes were naturally shot in London, beginning with posh Victorians strolling on Rotten Row, the riding path running along the southern perimeter of Hyde Park.Īround The World In 80 Days location: parade of the Scots Guard: Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London SW1 The ambitious plan originally was to employ a director from the relevant country to direct each sequence, but Brit director Michael Anderson, who kicked off with an efficient if uninspired job in London was handed the whole assignment by producer-showman Mike Todd.Īssociate Producer William Cameron Menzies, the brilliant production designer who storyboarded Gone With The Wind, was given responsibility for the exterior locations in Europe, Colorado and Oklahoma.Īs it turned out, a great deal of the film was made in the studios (you’re not going to fly all those guest stars halfway round the world for a one-minute cameo).
#Around the world in 80 days map plus
First, the statistics, so beloved of publicity departments: 50 guest stars, 68,894 people on screen (don’t trust me, count’em), eight different countries four million air-passenger miles travelled, 112 exterior locations, 140 sets in six Hollywood studios plus studios in England, Hong Kong and Japan, 34 species of animal and 33 assistant directors (interesting juxtaposition). This book has everything – travelling, stunning locations, the sense of wanderlust, languages and books of course.Ah, the great old days before digital imagery, when all those extras and sets existed in the physical world. Travel whether through books or for real and with booktrails – both! Passepartout means ‘ go everywhere’ in French and that’s been my mantra ever since. Reading this book made me want to learn more.
Passepartout is still as magical as ever although I didn’t stop at one language. I have copies in many languages, many styles and various editions bought from everywhere I’ve been. When my dad died when I was five, this was the book I remember him by – and the excitement and sense of wonderment I remember when he read it, doing the voices, the actions and creating the world for me from the pages. Long before I could read for myself, I knew this story inside out. This book taught me how magical books could be, how the sense of adventure was instilled in me long before I could travel myself. One of the first I remember my dad reading to me and since the age of four or five, all I wanted to do was travel and speak French like Passepartout. Susan say I love this novel is an understatement.
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