MovieChat Forums > Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) Discussion > What happened in the last scene? (confus...

What happened in the last scene? (confused)

posted 19 years ago by Arnkell
7 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie a while back and I got confused in the end.

Fogg returns to his gentlemens' club and reports the race over, the chairman of the place is happy, then Fogg's wife/girlfriend enters the room, uninformed of the law against women in the club, Fogg turns around to shoo her out or explain to her what could happen if she entered the club, then the chairman says something like "That is already too late!" and then the movie ends.

So what "happened"? Did the leader(s) just close down the place now that it had been tainted by a female presence? Or did Fogg get expelled from the club, undoing the whole purpose of the movie?

Anyone?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Arnkell 19 years ago

Thanks for the reply and the explanation, Sir Postdog.

Strange of them to call themselves the "Reform Club" when they so obviously want to embrace the traditions and standards of the leading layer of the british empire. Maybe I've forgotten something about the basis of the mission Fogg was sent out on, was it in any way "reforming" or controversial, wasn't it just a vain project over a bet of money? Like between the two elderly millionaires in "Trading Places"?

Anyway, your nice explanation of the last scene begs some more questions. Why add that last scene at all? What prompted the writer and director to incorporate an element of the gender debate at that time? And where did the makers' loyalties lie, so to speak?

Either the uninvited woman is showed in a sort of scapegoat manner, being part of the "fault" for the failure of the british empire (their annexation of India being too much to handle) or it was the opposite way and this was actually one of the first emancipating and self-scrutinizing movie gestures of the time?

I'm willing to put stock in the thought that the makers of the film wanted to show the rich and mighty men of the club in a sort of obsolete light, trapped in a nostalgic bubble where they were in control of everything.

I remember from memory one of the first scenes in the movie, where Fogg proclaims himself a tolerant and flexible man but that accepting an already-used newspaper was altogether too much. That scene can't possibly have wanted to glorify or excuse their decadent ways, no? :)

[–] jasonbourneagain 19 years ago

The ending just left it to the viewer's interpretation because for a story that was well drawn out, it ends quite suddenly. Part of is supposed to be humorous, but I can't completely agree with your interpretation. That kind of social emancipation didn't reach its pinnacle until later even though the struggle was ongoing. Even today, there are men's only clubs in England as been for a hundred years. Women are allowed now, but they still have to be escorted in by a male member (pun intended).

My take was everyone in the club lost a lot of money. That's a gut wrenching experience especially when its your own money that you are putting out. I would agree with you about a statement showing the rich and mighty men of this exclusive club being taken down a notch or two. Having a woman in their club added to their indignity.

Put Dirty Harry in the IMDB top 250!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066999/ratings

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rsgre 18 years ago

I just took it to be an intended "gag & humorous ending". All through the movie, David Niven plays the staid and proper Englishman to the hilt (almost as a parody in fact. Remember the "stiff upper lip" they are supposed to be famous for?). Whether you thought it was funny or not, they were just poking some fun at the staid English manner, and an excuse for the final line: "This is the end"!
Regards,

Steve

[–] neverthereever 8 years ago

1956 IS considered by many to have signaled the end of the British Empire.

The combined British and French invasion of Suez through a false flag plot with Israel, unravelled because of American disaproval. The subsequent climbdown by the British govenment was viewed by many as the humiliating loss of their ability to act as an independent power in world affairs.

However the Suez Crisis, as it beccame known, began about 2 weeks after the movie's release.

While the movie was under production tensions were running high in the Middle East with pressure mounting on Britain to close its base in Suez and culminating in Egypt nationalising the Suez canal.

At the time this was viewed in a similar way to the conflict with Saddam Hussain. it the start of this century.

Perhaps the film makers wanted to lighten the mood of what was an overly colonial themed story, set in the past. Something they didn't want to be seen as promoting in the present.

Creating a flag waving movie about the British Empire during an escalting diplomatic crisis might have been damaging in front of an American audience. That line may even have secured an Oscar that might otherwise be seen as contraversial.

[–] daveyh (581) 2 years ago

I find the last few minutes of the film to be really annoying. It's a shame because they did such a great job of following the format of the book (the balloon aside), if they'd just done it for that final scene it would have been amazing.
Basically, cut out all the bits between the fake "out" of Fogg and Auoda agreeing to get married and the guys in the reform club getting ready to celebrate their win. It makes Fogg's arrival seem like a work of magic.
Also in the book, there's a crowd gathered outside the reform club (to see if Fogg makes it), and so the guys inside fear the worst when they hear a commotion outside with a few seconds to go - they'd made it clear throughout the film, with all the newspaper stories and betting, that Fogg's journey was big news, so it's a pity they didn't follow through on this and have a crowd, including journalists, waiting outside the Reform Club to see who'd win.

OK, they'd have to have a bit of exposition at the end - David Niven telling them in the reform club about it, and therefore filling the audience in on the story, would have been enough.

Instead the ending was....well, that. A bad 50's British comedy farce that no-one finds funny even a few years later. Way to ruin an until then brilliant movie.