Journal of Film Preservation N° 56 - FIAF

However, deciding who would play the role of the Indian princess
Aouda proved more troublesome. The Library’s collection includes some
of the last tests for the role, in late September, 1955. These include
Jacqueline Park, a former Miss Ceylon inexperienced in acting, and two
actresses, Suzanne Alexander and Marla English. Only after deciding
against all of these was Shirley MacLaine brought in to portray Aouda; at
that time she had only appeared in two movies.
In addition, Todd fast-talked dozens of headliners into appropriate roles
as cameo stars, agreeing to alphabetical credits, which placed Charles
Boyer first on the list. There were countless others impeccably cast in
bits, such as Philip Ahn and Keye Luke, although
strangely they only appeared on secondary lists of
cameos. For once, a movie designed to feature a host
of cameo stars and overseas locations had the ideal
plot to integrate so many disparate elements, a fact
Verne himself had realized in the medium of his own
day when collaborating on the 1874 theatrical production
of his story.
Probably of greatest interest is the discovery of material
that was cut before the final release. This includes
two songs by Eddie Fisher, a close friend of the Todds
who would marry Miss Taylor after Todd’s death.
More significant was a modern prologue that was
shot but not included in the final movie. Fogg and
Passepartout board an airliner, with Charles Boyer
arranging for their tickets, just as he suggests their
balloon flight in the movie. Many of the other passengers
boarding the plane are the “cameo” stars who
will later appear in the movie during Fogg’s travels,
such as Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Cesar
Romero, Reginald Denny, Melville Cooper, Tim
McCoy, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and Frank
Sinatra. George Raft and Marlene Dietrich portray a
quarreling couple, a part they will also play together
in the San Francisco sequence. After boarding,
Passepartout walks about the airplane cabin, noticing
his fellow passengers, exchanging a wary glance with
Peter Lorre. Fogg takes his seat, talks to a stewardess,
and takes out a large blue-covered folio book to read, probably ‘Around
the World in 80 Days’. This planned modern-day opening to the story,
apparently to provide a framing device, is especially notable given that
other films have updated the journey to modern times by descendants of
Phileas Fogg, from the serial Around the World in 18 Days (1922-23) to
The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963).
Despite the logistical problem that Todd doubtless had uniting so many
of his cameo stars at one time, after their various roles throughout the
production, the contemporary prologue was dropped in favor of a nonfiction
introduction. In this prologue, eliminated in some reissues,
21 Journal of Film Preservation / 56 / 1998
Around the World in 80 Days