Master of the World (1961)

 

Jules Verne was a popular go-to source for action films in the Fifties and Sixties. The likes of Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the sea did their best to interpret Verne’s vivid stories albeit with budgets that were not always large enough and cinematic effects not fully developed to be convincing. Yet you can’t beat a good idea and these movies were not always adaptations intended to necessarily match Verne’s vision but designed to make a lot of money from ground breaking special effects and heroic action. Released in 1961, Master of the World puts together two of the author’s books for a story with an interesting moral dilemma.

 

This is a curious film whose crowded, melodramatic promotional poster of the time makes it appear more dynamic than it turns out to be. Despite a high budget, an interesting concept and the star power of Vincent Price matters struggle to become as interesting as they should. It’s one of those old films where you feel that what the filmmakers wanted to do was out of reach for the time yet it is entertaining enough in its way.

The story kicks off when a volcano appears to speak to a small town in Nebraska which brings a government agent John Strock together with flying enthusiast and weapons manufacturer Prudent, his daughter Dorothy and her fiancé Philip Evans who owns a balloon to investigate. They are shot down and find themselves prisoners of the enigmatic inventor Robur on his pioneering airship the Albatross. Though free to wander around the airship, the quartet are divided as to how to respond to the situation complicated when Dorothy begins to fall for Strock much to Evans’ anger.

It’s based on two of Jules Verne’s books,  Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World in which a mysterious figure known only as Robur has created an incredible flying machine. The first book presents Robur as just an inventor, it’s in the second that he has become more powerful and develops an agenda. Much of the material in the film comes from the first book with the character of John Strock a government agent added from the second. The airship name of Albatross is kept whereas in the second book a vessel called the Terror featured. The idea of Robur’s global idealism was added to the film; in the book he only bombs one specific target.

We still learn very little more about Robur- neither where he comes from nor just how he managed to obtain the funds and resources to build his craft or even pay for matching uniforms for his crew. His aim is to force world governments to put down their weapons and end warfare though his method- threatening them with attack- does not seem to concur with those aims. 

The name Robur is derived from the Latin word for strength. I suspect the film was meant to be more allegorical playing with the concept of a super power forcing nations to bow to their demands. In this case, as one character says, it’s easy to agree with Robur’s aims but not his methods. Watching in 2025 it’s striking how we currently have a US President declaring he wants peace `but if you don’t make peace, we’ll attack you`. Maybe he is a fan of this film?

The director is William Witney, already a veteran of action film and tv who manages to lend his experience to make Master of the World a pacy affair using the interesting set design to good effect. Rocking a naval cap and white coat, Vincent Price is great as Robur managing to be menacing in his aims yet also convivial to his prisoners. He conveys Robur’s strongly held aims with conviction  and definitely does not engage in any Greek dancing as the promo poster suggests!

Veteran Henry Hull, too, really gets into the part, his acting set on `indignant` mode throughout but he knows how to play this sort of role. Conversely Charles Bronson plays it too stoic and serious as the government agent expressing neither surprise or even a raise eyebrow as events unfold. No wonder David Frankham’s Evans looks so frustrated that his bride to be and potential action hero status are being taken from under his nose. I still reckon he would have been better in the Strock role to give it some life. David Frankham said later regarding Vincent Price, whom he also worked with in Return of the Fly, that the star had recommended him for the role when another actor dropped out. He and his wife even gave him some furniture for his new house with Price driving- “the most generous of men.”

In the fourth of only five films she made during four years, tv actress Mary Webster enjoys an unexpectedly strong female role for this time period even if her main storyline is falling in love with Strock. Had she led the attempt to escape it might have been more interesting. There’s also some light comedy in the form of chef Topage played with clownish dexterity by Vito Scotti.

One does wonder why the crew are so loyal to their boss. At the end when the Albatross is crashing, he orders them all to abandon ship but its clear the will remain but narrative never explores the reason for this loyalty. Do they share his belief that this is the way to end wars? There is an earlier scene where the chef mentions some of the rumours as to who Robur is but not why he has such a hold on the crew. I wonder if the idea is they are former criminals keen to make amends for earlier misdemeanours and Robur persuaded them with talk of world peace and matching stripy jumpers.

Given the subject matter it might have been worthwhile for the script to mount a more intellectual challenge from Prudent to Robur though there is one interesting scene where he offers the inventor ten million dollars to shut up shop. It’s a neat nod to the way money can be as powerful as weapons though Robur doesn’t agree to it. I’d hoped there would be more interaction between the two but there isn’t.

Ultimately nobody watches this sort of film for a lot of character development; they stand and fall on the visuals and this is something of a mixed bag. The Albatross airship’s exterior with its whirring propellors and grey countenance looks great. Inside too it is given a look resembling though not slavishly copying a Victorian ship’s décor. In the odd triangular shaped corridors, it even has a little bit of a sci fi feel to it. The lamps on the walls wobble to convey the ship is in flight- at first I thought this was a blooper but then noticed they all do it. However, once the airship does start moving around it becomes apparent that technology of the time could not satisfactorily blend it in with the backdrops which in turn betrays its size as a model. The colours and grain of the latter are too different from the model itself.

There are some ambitious ideas- we see the view from a bay window showing the clouds or the sea. Another sequence has characters dangling from a rope below the vessel. Yet they are constantly let down not by the model work but by the resolution of this work and the backdrop. The film also uses some stock footage from older films to lend it a more epic feel, not an uncommon idea back then. These can be obvious though none more so than one battle the Albatross flies over which is in black and white! Ultimately neither Robur nor the filmmakers quite achieve their ambitions but its an interesting journey along the way.