Donovan's Reef

Donovan's Reef (1963) is John Ford's breezy adventure comedy with John Wayne, free to watch online for its tropical mood and the kind of bar brawls only old Hollywood could throw. Three war veterans have settled on a Pacific island and live without a care, until a proper visitor from Boston upsets their paradise.

Former shipmates Donovan, played by John Wayne, and Gilhooley, played by Lee Marvin, share a birthday and mark it every year with an enormous fistfight — it's tradition by now. Then prim Amelia arrives to track down the father she has never met and to judge whether he deserves a family inheritance. What follows is good-natured mayhem: a French island governor, the local doctor's mixed-race children, boat races and a guest slowly thawing under the southern sun.

This is late, relaxed Ford — not a hard-edged western but an almost domestic story about friendship, a chosen home and prejudices that quietly melt away. Made for fans of classic Hollywood and the Wayne–Marvin pairing. Stream Donovan's Reef (1963) online on iFILM.