Book-To-Movie Review: Jules Verne’s ‘Master of the World’

Credit: Pixabay.com

It’s the third weekend of the month and so it’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation.

In the 1960s, American International Pictures (AIP) was the company responsible for producing and distributing many B, or low budget, sci fi and horror book-to-movie adaptations. Most of the literary works that were adapted were by Edgar Allen Poe but a few were by other authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Jules Verne. While many of these movies didn’t stay as faithful to the books as many avid readers would probably have liked, they usually kept the basic plots. This is the case with 1961’s “Master of the World” based on Jules Verne’s 1904 novel of the same name and starring Vincent Price. This movie glosses over the novel’s story yet keeps the filming style that is distinctive of AIP’s many other films, especially those that star Price.

(Warning: Potential spoilers ahead.)

The Book

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Verne’s “Master of the World” is centred around a government investigator’s search for a mysterious vehicle in which civilians have sighted moving at a deadly speed throughout the U.S. Named the Terror it’s a traveling machine that can convert into a land vehicle, a ship, a sub and an air vehicle (or air ship). It’s controlled by its mad inventor, Robur, who uses it as a weapon to destroy the world’s armies for the sake of world “peace”. (Ironic, isn’t it?)

The Movie

In AIP’s movie adaptation of “Master”, the story is cut down and changed in several respects. Namely, the convertibility of the strange traveling machine is taken out limiting it to its air ship mode. The vehicle’s name is changed from the Terror to the Albatross which is the name of the flying machine in Verne’s prequel to the novel, “Robur the Conqueror”. While a significant portion of the novel takes place in Robur’s hideaway in the mountain known as the Great Eyrie, none of the scenes in the movie are set inside the mountain. Most of the characters are either too typical or too comical making the movie as a whole campy unlike the book.

Credit: Pixabay.com

 Even though this movie is a campy gloss-over of the novel, the style of filming somewhat makes up for it. The filtered colouring of the sets--a characteristic so distinctive of many AIP films, especially the Poe book-to-movie adaptations--particularly the Albatross interiors gives a surreal, otherworldly look. The aerial shots of the air ship flying over skyscapes of clouds are done really good. The design and graphics of the vehicle itself makes it appear humongous, even monstrous with its many exhaust pipes and propellers on its top. These stylistic features were probably extraordinary for the early 1960s, even for a B movie.

Vincent Price does his role as Robur really good. His own style of acting comes out in the villainy of the character while it also conveys a tragic heroic quality, or maybe anti-heroic quality. This is especially the case whenever Robur explains his mission to destroy all armies of the world in order to bring world peace. This is the true “punk” in “steampunk” which this movie is even though that term would not be coined until decades later. So, Price depicts faithfully the rebellious and villainous character that Robur is in the book.

American International Pictures made several book-to-movie adaptations in the 1960s such as "Master of the World" starring Vincent Price.

While American International’s “Master of the World” doesn’t stay as true to the book as it should, its filming techniques and Vincent Price’s acting make it a good film in its own right. Still, it is no competition for AIP’s book-to-movie adaptations of Poe’s fiction, most of which also star Price. While Richard Matheson, author of “I Am Legend”, does an okay job in writing the screenplay as far as the plot goes, he does much better writing the ones for the Poe book-to-movie adaptations. Still, if you like Jules Verne, Vincent Price, or 1960s technicoloured AIP films then this movie is worth watching at least once.

Have you read Jules Verne’s “Master of the World”? Have you seen the Vincent Price movie adaptation?

Until next time . . .