Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

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.

No real arguments here that Five Weeks in a Balloon is infantile, poorly directed and scripted, wasteful of its acting talents, and a general wash in terms of meaningful content. That is all very accurate, yet the film is fun and entertaining. The Jules Verne novel does come to life in stunning color, a cast of notables throughout with the likes of Billy Gilbert, Henry Daniell(both of these men woefully out of place playing Arabs - but still fun to see), beautiful Barbara Eden(not doing much more than looking lovely),Herbert Marshall in one of his last screen roles,the stunning Barbara Luna in a loincloth most of the time, madly overacting Red Buttons, every affable and witty Peter Lorre playing a pseudo-villain, Fabian being Fabian, and the two key and most fun performances to Cedric Harwicke as the leader of the expedition and Richard Hayden as a rival scientist doubting all his finding but eventually coming round. Basically Hayden is playing the same role he played in Lost World, another Irwin Allen picture, when Claude Rains played the scientific renegade out to prove the world wrong. And that is part of the main problem with this film, the script is devoid of any depth, full of flat characterizations, unfunny lines meant to be taken as humour, and animals obviously trained living in the middle of the untamed jungle forest. All are trademarks of Allen's work - just watch Lost in Space sometime. Yet, as I said, it is fun. It's almost camp in a way and never tries taking itself seriously and that helps the sell work for me at least. As soon as you sit down to watch the movie, this incredibly melodic tune sung by the Brothers Four resounds over and over again and I tell you something true - lingers on with you - days later. You know by that thematic tune that you are not about to sit down to Heart of Darkness or The Lion in Winter - you are watching something that is meant to be fun. Five Weeks in a Balloon is just that. - Flawed and Fun.

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.

Easily the most enjoyable film version of a Jules Verne story "Five Weeks in a Balloon" never slows down it's pace. Awash with color, humor, adventure, exotic sets, and a balloon that looks like it came from the designer of the "Swiss Family Robinson" treehouse, the film keeps up a brisk pace, tells a simple story, and wraps things up in a timely manner. Other reviews mention the rich cast and still manage to miss major performances by Red Buttons and Peter Lorre (that tells you something about the cast). Irwin Allen at his best.