Il padrone del mondo

Being a huge Vincent Price fan, I must said that "Master of the World" is not on my top 5 movies of his American International period. The film lacks real excitement, the low budget is clear, and the combination of two different stories by Jules Verne didn't work properly (the comedy touches are completely out of place, and are NOT part of the original novels) But once again, the man is in complete control of his character and delivers a solid performance. Is also good to see Henry Hull (the first werewolf of Hollywood) and a young but convincing Charles Bronson. No matter what, the film deserves a DVD rendition, as many other Vincent Price films like "Shock", "Diary of a Madman" and "The Mad Magician", to name a few.

Set in the Victorian era, a mad genius named Robur (Vincent Price) has devised a futuristic flying ship for a devious, slightly contradictory, though possibly admirable purpose. He travels halfway around the world with an imprisoned quartet and a crew of "air sailors".

Although there are some problems with this film primarily due to its budget, and some viewers might be put off by the obvious similarities to Disney's version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954), I enjoyed this somewhat wacky sci-fi/fantasy/adventure film quite a bit, and gave it a 9 out of 10.

The film actually opens with a brief but clever, tongue-in-cheek black & white documentary about the history of flying machines. Abruptly, at the narrative line "Master of the World", the documentary ends. Then we change to color as we're taken to a sumptuously fantastic Pennsylvania town, complete with towering mountains and a seeming volcano.

I have to admit that director William Whitney already had me in the palm of his hand at that moment. I'm all for weird transitions, surrealism and beautifully saturated color cinematography. To make things even better, just as a character tells us how boring the town is, a booming voice (obviously Price's), quoting a doom-laden passage from scripture, emanates from the vicinity of the mountain.

I was also easily sold on the film because I'm a big Vincent Price fan. Price is great, even though the context of the role is a bit unusual for him. There is a lot of comic relief throughout most of the film, and the genre wasn't his norm. However, he comes across as menacingly demented yet suave as always. The rest of the principle cast was marvelous, too, with Charles Bronson playing an early version of Harrison Ford (maybe he always did that), Mary Webster as an appealing love triangle target, and some very fun and appropriate overacting from Henry Hull doing an early obnoxious "I'm an American" shtick and David Frankham as the perpetually irascible Victorian sap.

It's a blast noting all of the future tech elements from past eras' perspectives, and the set design and special effects are actually admirable given that this was a low-budget film for its ambitions. Even the stock footage and footage from the 1944 Henry V (the shots of London that look like a medieval town), although at times obvious, are incorporated well. On the other hand, there is some similarity between the set design and that of a particular era and class of television show--say the Adam West Batman, the original Star Trek, or even the Tom Baker Doctor Who--which all have a fairly low-budget look, but I have to admit that I love those shows, too.

There isn't much of an easily discernible subtext in the film, but of course that's because Master of the World wears its messages proudly on its sleeve. I won't state them explicitly here, as in my view that would be a spoiler, but it's notable, like many other aspects of the film, for its similarity to 20,000 Leagues, including its moral ambiguity. This would actually be a good film, as would 20,000 Leagues, to show a freshman-level ethics class as an exemplification of and discussion launching pad for both utilitarianism and deontology.

Although it's not exactly the most original film to come down the pike (but primarily just because of 20,000 Leagues), and it's not a faithful adaptation of author Jules Verne's work, I don't subtract points for either of those characteristics. Master Of The World has an engaging, solid story that is both thought provoking and a lot of fun.

This film is a mish-mash of two Jules Verne novels (none of which, I have read), and I think it is a fairly good adventure.

It's interesting to see Charles Bronson in an early role (before he hooked up with Mr. Winner and went-all bitter vigilante'), he turns in a good performance. And the late-great Vincent Price is just right as Robur, Captain of the flying ship "The Albatross", in one of his trademark not-strictly evil genius roles - more like, men who usually have good or honourable intentions, but are driven to madness and the use of terrible means to acheive them. The rest of the cast are all of a fairly good standard, except the character of Mr. Prudent, I find him extremely annoying and the acting is also quite poor.

The effects are alright (you have to take into account it's the early 60's) and the set of the ship itself looks good and is well crafted. But the parts where the ship is supposed to be over land (some country- or-other), are almost funny because you can clearly see that the ship is super-imposed on to a completely different piece of film.

Overall Good, with an important message (discussed and challenged in the movie), that is more relevant, today, than ever.

A sleepy Pennsylvania town is awakened in 1868 when Captain Robur (Vincent Price) comes sailing in on his airship. A few of the city locals join him, curious about this new way to fly, and eager to stop him when they think he has had a bit too much power for his own good.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely loved the prologue, which was perfect for this film. The montage of various flying devices that did not work. Some of this footage has become classic, but it fit the theme perfectly here: a world where the only way to fly is with balloons suddenly seeing a new method in disbelief.

Vincent Price is great as Captain Robur, but when is he not? He would go on to declare this one of his favorite roles. Charles Bronson plays the other lead, John Strock, and may surprise fans of Bronson. (Some have said he was miscast, but I do not see any problem with it.) We also have Henry Hull as Prudent, more or less representing the "old ways" (which are quite old by now, given the story takes place just after the Civil War).

David Frankham is also great, and interestingly came on board thanks to Vincent Price. His role was already filled by AIP regular Mark Damon, but Damon skipped out to film another project. Price suggested Frankham because they had worked on "Return of the Fly" together. Frankham is not as well known as Damon, but he is a valuable resource because he has provided multiple commentaries in recent years.

Richard Matheson wrote the script, based on two Jules Verne stories. Matheson has consistently been a great writer, particularly in conjunction with Vincent Price and AIP. Jules Verne is not a source used often enough -- beyond "Around the World in 80 Days" and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", his work remains largely untouched. This film proves that more can be done -- and also that you can get around the world in ten days.

Interestingly, the plot revolves around a man who thinks he can end war by using the threat of invincibility. While the idea of having a war on war is admirable, one has to wonder if Matheson had in mind the nuclear bomb when writing the script -- surely the bomb's creation was thought to end war as we knew it, but only encouraged others to acquire nuclear bombs. Likewise, one assumes that governments would push to build Robur-style airships.

Vincent Price (or Charles Bronson) fans should check this one out. It is not a horror film, not by any means. It is typically classified as science fiction, though I would put it more in fantasy. Price still has a bit of the villain inside him here, but it is not the murderous, insane type... it is a misunderstood, misguided antihero.

As always, the definitive edition is on Scream Factory's Vincent Price Collection (Volume 3). We have an incredible audio commentary with David Frankham and a moderator named Jonathan -- Frankham is very knowledgeable about Les Baxter, and even offers a slight diversion to discuss "Werewolf of London". Few people alive today know the AIP of the 1960s like Frankham. The disc also includes the full-length documentary "Richard Matheson: Storyteller", which is priceless and will be covered in its own review.

This is a fun movie to watch, full of charm and thinking characters in entertaining action, debate and introspection. With Vincent Price in the lead as Robur(who has declared war on warfare with his flying machine the Albatross) and Charles Bronson as his unlikely heroic nemesis Strock(almost an early era anti-hero), how can one not be intrigued? But also there's grand adventure, costumes and an 18th Century setting to boot. Also the main theme of the need to end warfare remains a very strong one and the film never loses sight of this. Just great stuff to watch.