Master of the World (1961)

★ 5.9 1h 42m IMDb

Sci-Fi Adventure

A mad genius tries to bomb the world into peace.

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Cast

Vincent Price as Captain Robur Died 1993 · Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including fi...

Charles Bronson as John Strock Died 2003 · Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "gr...

Mary Webster as Dorothy Prudent Died 2017 · Chicago, Illinois, USA Mary Webster is a British actress best known for her 45 appearances as Sarah Onedin in the BBC nautical drama The Onedin Line (1971-79). Webster's first television appearance was in The Man from the...

Henry Hull as Prudent Died 1977 · Louisville, Kentucky, USA From Wikipedia Henry Watterson Hull (October 3, 1890 – March 8, 1977) was an American character actor most noted for playing the lead in Universal Pictures's Werewolf of London (1935). The film flop...

David Frankham as Phillip Evans Age 100 · Kent, England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. David Frankham (born 16 February 1926) is a film and television actor. After serving in India and Malaya in WWII, Frankham worked first as a news reader, and...

Director William Witney

Cast Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Mary Webster, Henry Hull, David Frankham, Wally Campo, Vito Scotti, Richard Harrison, Ken Terrell, Steve Masino

Wuchak 4/10 Oct 07, 2024

**_Ranks with the least of the classic Jules Verne flicks_**

In 1868, a scientist and his team are exploring a volcanic crater in the Appalachians when their hot air ballon is shot down and they become “guests” on an amazing airship, part zeppelin and part helicopter. The captain of the vessel (Vincent Price) is at war with war and intends to obtain peace on Earth by destroying military targets.

“Master of the World” (1961) was based on two books by Verne, Robur the Conqueror from 1886 and its sequel from 1904, the latter of which shares the name of this film. The character of Robur is basically Captain Nemo in the skies, but Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” had ten times the budget while the contemporaneous “Mysterious Island” had twice the budget. Except for the model used for the airship, the special effects are dubious and so are the sets, costumes and score.

The writing is on the wall in the opening scene, after an entertaining prologue featuring historical attempts at functioning aircraft: The mountains in the background of the fictional town in Pennsylvania look fake and nothing like the Appalachians, particular the volcano. Then Price’s voice is heard via an early loudspeaker, which is just as cringeworthy.

Vincent is his usual entertaining self and it’s interesting to see Charles Bronson when he was so young (38 during shooting). Speaking of which, Price was known to make friends with his costars, but he said it was impossible to do so with Bronson. On the feminine side of things, there’s winsome Mary Webster.

A similar film is “Captain Nemo and the Underwater City” from seven years later. It had a slightly bigger budget (yet not that much bigger, considering inflation) and takes the same basic concepts for an all-around superior viewing experience, very colorful and awe-inspiring. It just exchanges Robur with Nemo, the skies with the depths of the ocean, and the airship with a magnificent underwater city. On top of all this, it has Luciana Paluzzi and Nanette Newman.

The movie runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, with location work (outside the studio sets) shot in Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, in east-central California. Archival footage from “The Four Feathers” (1939) was extensively used.

GRADE: C-