Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) is a Jules Verne fantasy adventure you can watch online on iFILM. An Edinburgh geology professor spots something impossible in a chunk of lava: signs that prehistoric life may still survive far beneath the surface.

James Mason plays Professor Lindenbrook, who assembles a small party and climbs down the crater of a dormant Icelandic volcano. With him are eager student Alec, played by Pat Boone, a quiet Icelandic strongman named Hans and his pet goose, and the widowed Carla, played by Arlene Dahl, who takes up the cause after the professor's rival dies. Below ground they cross a vast hidden ocean, glowing caverns, forests of giant mushrooms, lumbering prehistoric reptiles and the drowned ruins of Atlantis, while a saboteur trails them hoping to bury the expedition for good.

Director Henry Levin shot it in wide CinemaScope, using the real Carlsbad Caverns and a thundering Bernard Herrmann score, and it earned an Academy Award nomination for its special effects. If you love the patient pacing and hand-built wonder of classic studio science fiction, this one is the gold standard. Stream Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) online on iFILM.