Stinkeroo!
I'm a longtime fan of Jules Verne and "B" actioneer director William Whitney...Sadly neither of them shine in this pathetic opus......A wasted cast, a great music score, but a sad inept little film.
The screenplay combines two of Verne's stories: Master of the World and Robur the Conqueror. "Robur" was the story of the Albatross by-the-way.....It would have been impossible to have made a sequel considering that both stories were combined into one big mess.
Cheesy spfx abound here......Despite the beautiful model of the Albatross....The lighting was pathetic as was the camerawork, making the miniature shots look like they were done by 8th graders in their dad's garage.
The overuse of lifted footage from other films further dooms this tripe to the slag heap it deserves.
In the summer of 1961 I was with my parents at our beach house in Newport Ca. My mom asked me if I wanted to go see a film and I said "sure".......I looked through the paper and it was a tossup between "Master" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".........I went to the latter and never regretted it.......I finally saw "Master" on TV four years later and was bitterly disappointed.
In '63 I purchased the original soundtrack from the bargain bin. I'd really hoped the film would have stood up to the quality of the music and artwork as shown on the record jacket - it didn't.
One can only imagine (as I have many times) if this film had had a decent budget for special effects and sets, not to mention decent writing, it could've been a pretty slick film.
The acting? Overdone! Price hams and mugs it up throughout the film, Bronson just walks through his part, Frankham is more boorish than Winchester on M.A.S.H.....and Hull is as corny as they come! The only one that clicks is Vito Scotti's "Topage".
What a waste!