The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson, an Administrative Assistant at the Packard Campus.
Brian Taves, Library of Congress archivist and author of the recently released Hollywood Presents Jules Verne, introduces three features adapted from Verne novels.
Thursday, July 23 (7:30 p.m.)
The Southern Star (Columbia, 1969)
In French West Africa in 1912, a business entrepreneur pays a penniless American geologist, several other experts and fortune hunters to uncover a large diamond, known as the southern star. The geologist, along with his companion, finds the diamond and takes it back to the entrepreneur. A search ensues when both the diamond and the companion disappear. George Segal, Ursula Andress and Orson Welles star in this British-French, comedy-crime adventure based on the novel “The Vanished Diamond” by Jules Verne.
Friday, July 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Around the World in 80 Days (United Artists, 1956)
Michael Todd’s epic production of Jules Verne’s novel recounts the adventures of Englishman Phileas Fogg (David Niven), who takes on a seemingly impossible wager: traveling around the world with his butler, Passepartout (Cantinflas), in just 80 days. The whirlwind journey takes the pair on adventures to India, Hong Kong and the United States. The film’s star-studded cast includes Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, George Raft, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Colman and many others. Around the World in Eighty Days won the 1956 Academy Award for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing and Music Score.
Saturday, July 25 (2 p.m.)
In Search of the Castaways (Disney/Buena Vista, 1962)
In this fantasy-adventure tale set in 19th-century England, French scientist Prof. Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) finds a floating bottle containing a note that he believes was written by the missing sea Captain Grant. The professor and the Captain’s children, Mary (Haley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere), embark on a dangerous quest to find their father who vanished years before, somewhere along the Chilean coast. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley based upon Jules Verne’s 1868 adventure novel “Captain Grant’s Children.”
For more information on our programs, please visit the web site at www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.