A sense of déjà vu hangs like a propeller-driven baguette over “Master of the World” (1961).
Like Jules Verne’s other revolutionary “pacificist,” Captain Nemo, Robur the Conqueror understands that in order to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some oeufs. He spouts Bible passages while hammering everyone else’s swords into plowshares, dropping bombs from his heavier-than-air craft, forged in an apparent “volcano” outside a small Appalachian town in Pennsylvania. (We meet several of the principal characters in Philadelphia.)
At least, that’s the spin we get from American International Pictures, for whom Verne’s miraculous conquest of the skies is not enough, so Robur’s motives are twisted and the “Albatross” is reimagined as a “Nautilus” of the air. And while they’re at it, why not attempt to emulate the breezy romance of Michael Todd’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” so popular and acclaimed (the recipient of five Academy Awards, including that for Best Picture) when it was released only five years earlier? Trouble is, AIP had neither the budget to replicate that film’s scope nor it’s star-studded cameos.
“Master of the World” has everything you would expect from an American International Picture – Vincent Price, abundant stock footage, and a nowhere music score by Les Baxter. Even so, this was AIP’s most expensive film produced up until that time.
Of added interest is the fact that the screenplay is by sci-fi and horror legend, Richard Matheson, whose stories formed the basis of innumerable classic movies and television shows. Matheson also provided the screenplays for AIP’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle, also starring Price.
Je ne sais quoi teeters into WTF, as the film’s schizophrenic tone careens from suspenseful adventure to slapstick comedy (what’s the deal with the beleaguered French chef?) to out-of-left field romance (a title song trying too hard to recall the success of Victor Young’s “Around the World”). Phileas Fogg may have traversed the globe in 80 days, but Robur boasts he can make the trip in three weeks! Mon Dieu! What he would have made of the Concorde is anyone’s guess…
I hope you’ll join Roy and me as we discuss the family-friendly (?) “Master of the World,” co-starring Charles Bronson, in his first leading role, and David Frankham.
Incidentally, Frankham will be our guest for a livestreamed interview from Trekonderoga, in Ticonderoga, New York, on Sunday, September 26, at 1:30 pm EDT! For more information about this three-day event, visit https://www.startrektour.com/
What Price peace? Why, Vincent Price, of course! Drop your bombs in the comments section, as we discuss “Master of the World.” We’ll be donning our propeller hats, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!
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