Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days (1956) is Michael Anderson's globe-trotting adventure comedy, adapted from Jules Verne, and you can watch online on iFILM. A buttoned-up London gentleman wagers a fortune that he can circle the Earth in under three months.

David Niven stars as Phileas Fogg, a man who runs his life by the minute hand and stuns his stuffy Reform Club by betting everything on the trip. With his quick-witted valet Passepartout — Mexican comic Cantinflas — he races through France, India, Hong Kong and the American frontier. Along the way they rescue an Indian princess, Aouda (Shirley MacLaine), while a detective trails Fogg, convinced he's chasing a bank robber.

The picture swept five Oscars, the Best Picture trophy among them. It runs three hours and packs in star cameos by the dozen: spot Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton and Peter Lorre as they flicker past. It's a leisurely, good-natured spectacle of a kind nobody really makes anymore — easy company for a family movie night. Stream Around the World in 80 Days (1956) online on iFILM.