Le Maître du monde

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.

Exciting and thrilling sci-fi adventure movie dealing with a flying machine captained by Robur masterfully played by Vincent Price . Magnificent rendition based on Jules Verne's fantasy-adventure novel with interesting screenplay by Richard Matheson , including good cast and extraordinary scenarios . This first take on for cinema based on the two famous stories by Jules Verne , filmed in Cinemascope widescreen with agreeable casting and an awesome Vincent Price as self-proclaimed god to save the world . The film talks about the known story from Verne novel and previously never rendered in cinema and it's brought excitingly to screen . In the late 19th century , World is no longer safe . A scientist , arms manufacturer ( Henry Hull) and his team ( his daughter Mary Webster, David Frankham and Charles Bronson who is miscasting) are held as guests of Robur on his airship, a cross between a ship , helicopter and Zeppelin as he wants to use to ensure peace on earth. Robur tries to stop war from his ingenious machine even if he has to bomb military targets all over the world . When the group aboard a gas Balloom are suddenly gunned down and thrown into a volcano .They are captured and get thoroughly involved with power-hungry captain Robur and take extraordinary adventures on ceiling in an advanced aircraft. Prisoners at first, they are now treated as guests to view the world and to hunt under the skies. Meanwhile Robur who deplores the modern methods and technical weapons attempts to end wars by means of the giant airship armed to the teeth.

This fantastic movie displays sensational adventures, drama, intrigue, marvelous scenarios by Daniel Haller , lots of fun and is pretty enjoyable. Fascinating aerial movie blends action, , disaster spectacle, hokey fun ,suspense and emotional happenings . Our heroes incarnated by a throughly believable casting of the first-rate character players get stuck in the flying machine before it explodes , undergoing numerous adventures and suffering innumerable perils . Surprise-filled entertainment and plenty of action on grand scale with passable special effects and some ships and machine by maquette or scale model or matte-painting . The aerial scenes , explosions , pyrotechnics , flamboyant FX , all of them are spectacular and the film is another exceptional Hollywood product but of B-series. Memorable and great cast as Vincent Price plays a serious revenger Robur ; Henry Hull plays perfectly as intelligent scientific and Charles Bronson as John Strock , a Ned Land role-alike, as an obstinate , stubborn adventurer who spends most of their time devising intelligent ways for escape . Atmospheric and vivid score by Lex Baxter . Colorful cinematography by Warrenton in Cinemascope and Technicolor reflecting wonderfully aerial scenes . This acceptable picture was produced in average budget by American International Pictures with its usual producers , James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff.

This classic as well as traditional movie was marvelously directed by William Witney , containing some vigorous scenes . Witney was a good craftsman who directed 140 titles from the 30s . Oklahoma-born William began his long screen career as a studio messenger in silent days joining Republic Pictures shortly after . By 1936 , he was already script supervisor on serials and his own directorial career started the following year . Witney graduated to director at 21, he was Hollywood's youngest , and he teamed with director John English on many of the period's best serials . He realized many of the era's best serials , most of them highlighted by kinetic fight and chase scenes that helped change the face of action movie-making and from 1956 , he transferred these stirring energies to TV Westerns with prolific and enjoyable results . The favorite shooting was the 1939 serial ¨Zorro's fighting legion¨ . As his pictures were mainly serials , after WWII service with US Marines , he moved on to Roy Rogers Westerns , inserting into them a new tough backbone that offended some Rogers purists . In 1954 he made one of the best films ¨The outcast¨ with John Derek , besides his television work which includes some quite exciting episodes of such series as ¨High Chaparral¨, ¨Bonanza¨, ¨Laramie¨, ¨Zorro¨, ¨The Virginian¨ and ¨Wagon train¨ and he followed to work for cinema and was capable of making large-scale movies as ¨Santa Fe Passage¨ involving a wagon train against Indians , ¨The Bonnie Parker story¨about the famous gun-moll , and specially ¨Master of the world¨ . The motion picture will appeal to fantasy-adventure buffs ; it's an agreeable popcorn story plenty of spectacular scenes , thrills , colorful exteriors and many other things . It's a wonderful popcorn story for kids , teens and old people . Rating : Better than average , the mightiest motion picture of them all , it's a real winner.

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.

I caught this one on cable recently, seeing it for the first time as an adult. I must admit to a slight bias toward this film: when I was growing up in the dreaded BC (before cable) days, it was standard Saturday afternoon TV fare on our local indie channels. I was surprised at how well it's held up after all this time.

Master of the World is actually based on two little-remembered Jules Verne novels. Price is his usual hammy self as the standard Verne not-quite-villain, Robur (read: Nemo in the air) who, like Nemo, seeks to end war through technology. The young Bronson, as a sympathizer who then rebels against Robur's violent methods, is far less wooden than in his later years. But the real star of this movie is its production design. The rendering of what an aircraft might have looked like in Victorian days (had such a thing been possible) is dead-on, and the special effects are pretty impressive for 1961. The script, by Richard Matheson, is a little overwrought, but true to Verne's spirit while eliminating the blatant racism of the original stories. This time around though, I found the sweeping, melodramatic score to be a bit overpowering.

In short, not a perfect film or even a great film, but Master of the World remains a well made, entertaining action fantasy. I'm surprised it isn't better remembered by fans of the genre.

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.