Highly Overrated But Still Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Five Weeks in a Balloon is a genuinely warm family film that remains an entertaining watch more than fifty years after its first release.Jules Verne's story is brought to life as a relatively modest studio production with plenty of painted backdrops, back projection, a gondola lifted by a crane and some very dubious miniature work. That aside, Irwin Allen concocts a story with varied locations and amusing characters brought to life by a cast clearly sympathetic to the material.It is that cast that a viewer remembers long after seeing the film. Their work includes well modulated performances from Cedric Hardwicke (in a less than flattering wig), Richard Haydn selling divine prissiness with an acid tongue and precise comic timing, Peter Lorre clearly more engaged than in some of his latter day parts and from Red Buttons who overacts but to grand comic effect. Irwin Allen clearly liked Buttons as he used him again in a comic turn in When Time Ran Out (1980) nearly two decades later.Even the smaller parts are worth watching out for with the likes of Herbert Marshall as the British Prime Minister, the always taciturn Henry Daniell as an incongruous sheik (given the character lives in what must be sub-Saharan Africa) and Mike Mazurki lending his considerable villainous presence to the near-silent role of the slave trader.Carrying a theme from Fox's earlier Verne success, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), the travellers are required to be accompanied by a cute animal companion - in this case a monkey. Thankfully the monkey does not get a huge amount of screen time.The film straddles some interesting issues relating to race and empire. On the one hand it is clearly set during the Victorian era when the United Kingdom was spreading its empire across Africa, yet it also features a British government fighting to prevent slave trading in the continent. This is contrasted with the presentation of the African characters, most of whom are played by anglocentric actors in blackface. It is not helpful either that most of these characters are presented purely as comedic villains and speak dubious made-up languages that do little for their dignity.With that noted this film is clearly not seeking to make any cogent political points and plays as a fun adventure romp. With that perspective foremost it is a fun indulgence and well worth the viewer's time.The title song is also very catchy, easily hummed and will stay in the mind long after first listening.

Jules Verne wrote the book that this film is based on in 1863, when Africa was not yet fully explored, the British Empire sought to rule the world, and "White Man's Burden" was the accepted philosophy of the age. That such a film could be made in 1962 and contain so many stupid, ugly stereotypes shows you how far the movie industry still had to go.This film has it all- the obviously white (but dark haired and tanned) native girl who speaks perfectly good, though halting, English ("Me Makia. Who You?"), the "Arabs" waving Scimitars and mistaking the white explorers for "Gods" because they come out of the sky in their amazing, technologically advanced balloon, the white blonde (Barbara Eden) who must be rescued from being ravaged by the drooling Muslim traders, the "Sultans" who look like they stepped right out of Alladin, with their pointy slippers and jeweled turbans and all-white harems, the Africans with painted bodies, feathers in their hair and necklaces of bones around their necks, waving spears and shouting gibberish....I could go on and on.Should I even bother to mention the bizarre travel route taken by explorers who are in a hurry to get to a specific place- flying across central Africa from East to West, then finding themselves in the Sub-Saharan grasslands, then in a Saharan sandstorm, then back over the jungle? So they are in a race against time, but they take the All-Chiche' route anyway?? I recommend this film to any film history teacher who wants to discuss racism in Hollywood. If you decide to show it to your children, at least make it an educational experience- pause from time to time to discuss the use of revolting stereotypes and why it's demeaning, to both the people being stereotyped and the viewers.

This film is right in line with some of the better soft science adventures from the 50s and 60s that hark back to 19th or early 20th centuries; Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days; and touches on the humor and silliness at times of Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies and The Daring Young Men in their Flyings Machines or even How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes and The Great Race. Trying to take full advantage of CinemaScope and the new technologies in Deluxe color, the filmmakers concocted a fun and funny adventure that looks big and beautiful. Not for everyone, I suppose, at times dry and at other times over-silly and contrived, but always fun, and with the added bonus or a memorable theme song performed by The Brothers Four.

Before he gathered hordes of Hollywood A, B and C-list stars in overturned luxury liners and sky-high burning buildings, Irwin Allen gave the world a couple of colorful, simplistic, adventure films with casts full of name stars, past and present. This one concerns Hardwicke and his attempts to take his experimental hot air balloon to the edge of Africa and claim the territory for Great Britain before slave traders can do it first. Along for the ride are perky assistant Fabian, calamity-plagued reporter Buttons and uptight military man Haydn. They are soon joined by runaway slave Luna and shady slave trader Lorre and one of his recent captives Eden. Together, they brave various dangers such as outraged natives, drunken sheiks, sandstorms and waterfalls (nearly every Allen film ever made includes some type of natural threat.) The film is simple-minded, non-think entertainment made watchable by it's pallet of stars and it's varying locales. Hardwicke, wearing a fluffy wig and with his pants up near his nipples, is a long way off from "The Ten Commandments" and other, greater roles. Seeing him paired with Fabian (!) is about the most unexpected teaming imaginable. Fabian, with his adorable 5-inch-high pompadour, looks cute throughout, but is saddled with a hilariously awkward title song that he sings more than once. Apparently his accordion lessons only got him that far. Another surprising pair is that of Buttons and Eden. He is a charming character actor, but has no business headlining an adventure film! That's what an early Oscar win can do for (or to!) a career, though. He acquits himself fairly well, however. Eden is free of the overstated qualities that she brought to "I Dream of Jeannie" and is refreshingly subdued and attractive. Haydn gives a very stylized, mannered performance that may baffle those more familiar with his chummy Uncle Max character from "The Sound of Music". His inflection does begin to grate after a while. Lorre manages to toss off a few dry witticisms in one of his last roles. Luna, trotting around in an abbreviated costume and a teased hairdo, is mere decoration. In case all these people weren't wacky enough, there's a female chimpanzee on board! Several famed actors pop up in cameo roles. An ill-looking Marshall has a bit as The Prime Minister and legendarily tart Daniell has a role as a Sheik. Most of the Arabian characters are portrayed by white men in make-up, which was customary at the time. Logistical oddities and camp factors abound. The balloon can barely get off the ground with just four men at the beginning (half the luggage gets tossed), yet before long there's seven passengers and a monkey on it! Watch for the screamingly funny scene in which Eden, running across a perfectly flat, open field, manages to trip over the lone branch that has fallen in the way. All those oranges gone to waste! The humor is pretty lame and the situations are hardly realistic, yet somehow the cornball movie winds up being fairly entertaining.