The Master of the World

Master of the World is a 1961 science fiction film based upon the Jules Verne novels Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World. The movie stars Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, and Henry Hull, was written by Richard Matheson, and directed by William Witney. The film was an attempt by low-budget American International Pictures to create a prestigious epic adventure along the lines of 1956's Around the World in 80 Days. While it boasted a larger cast and more location work than was then the norm for AIP, it still betrayed its budget, particularly in the use of stock footage. It's anachronistic reuse of the opening miniature shot of Elizabethan London from Laurence Olivier's Henry V as a stand-in for Victorian London has become legendary. But it offered Vincent Price an excellent role as the dangerously idealistic Captain Robur, who travels the globe in his "cloud clipper," destroying the minions of war in order to force peace on the world.