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Master of the World (1961)
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 7:07 pm    Post subject: Master of the World (1961) Reply with quote

__________

Here's my drawing of the Albatross, which I had posted previously on the old site.



A larger file is available here:


http://orzel-w.deviantart.com/art/Albatross-491825443

~~~~~~~~~~
Edit 27 Sep 2017: Corrected drawing image.
Edit 5 Dec 2017: Added poster.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Master of the World was a low-budget vision based primarily on Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror. Verne's sequel, Master of the World, had Robur in a smaller, multifunction vehicle that drove like a car, flew, and dove like a submarine. The movie used the later title for the earlier story. The Albatross' inventor, Robur, is portrayed as driven by a desire to end war by bombing it out of existence, as contrasted with Disney's Captain Nemo being driven by a personal vendetta of revenge, with destroying the means to wage war as a cover justification.

The movie's chief (or, some say, only) asset was the filming miniature of the Albatross. It was beautifully executed with fine detail and operable multiple propellers/lifters and bomb bay doors. The rudder was apparently operable also, as well as the gangway ladder, but this was not evident in the movie. The miniature was filmed extensively against rear projected library footage, which was not always matched to the time period of the story. The miniature, however, was always beautifully lit.

The multifaceted design of this Albatross was evidently influenced by the Nautilus from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had been released seven years earlier. Here are a few photos of the Albatross miniature and several screen grabs from the movie showing various views of the miniature.























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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 6:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the wonderful sf/steampunk TV series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne there was an evil organization called The League of Darkness.

They had an immense & very nifty looking airship.

I always assumed that it was a tip of the hat to the Albatross.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote



In some ways this a little better than the Albatross -- which seems a bit too much like an overweight submarine wanna-be. And it looks far too heavy to be lifted by those overworked little propellers on top.

The Albatross looks much better in those gorgeous jpegs Wayne posted than it does in the movie, with all those shaky rear-screen shots that Wayne mentioned.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Something I've wondered about this vessel ever since I set about drawing it is where and when the lowerable gangway is used. It seems to be of a length that would reach a platform at the level of the bomb bay structure. This in turn would imply that the vessel could be landed on a dedicated platform designed to accommodate that appurtenance. It would make sense that the Albatross would need to be docked from time to time so the rotors could be turned off for maintenance.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The original blueprint:



The reference photo of the Albatross:



Wayne, how about reposting your pictures of the Albatross and Nautilus together that was on the old board? I'm sure the new members would enjoy them!
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Robert (Butch) Day wrote:
Wayne, how about reposting your pictures of the Albatross and Nautilus together that was on the old board?

Certainly:










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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2016 9:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:


In some ways [I like] this a little better than the Albatross -- which seems a bit too much like an overweight submarine wanna-be. And it looks far too heavy to be lifted by those overworked little propellers on top.

I pulled a few excerpts from Jules Verne's description of the Albatross in Robur the Conqueror to show why the movie version was designed as it was.

Jules Verne wrote:
"As he has become master of the seas with the ship, by the oar, the sail, the wheel and the screw, so shall he become master of atmospherical space by apparatus heavier than the air--for it must be heavier to be stronger than the air!"
--------------
"Besides," continued Robur, "With your balloons as good as you can make them you will never obtain any speed worth mentioning. It would take you ten years to go round the world--and a flying machine could do it in a week!"
--------------
And though he had but contempt for those who obstinately worked away in the direction of balloons, he held in high esteem all those partisans of "heavier than air," English, American, Italian, Austrian, French--and particularly French--whose work had been perfected by him, and led him to design and then to build this flying engine known as the "Albatross," which he was guiding through the currents of the atmosphere.
--------------
In short the contrivances likely to solve the problem are of three kinds:--
1. Helicopters or spiralifers, which are simply screws with vertical axes.
2. Ornithopters, machines which endeavour to reproduce the natural flight of birds.
3. Aeroplanes, which are merely inclined planes like kites, but towed or driven by screws.
Each of these systems has had and still has it partisans obstinately resolved to give way in not the slightest particular. However, Robur, for many reasons, had rejected the two first.
--------------
Nevertheless Robur had thought that the simpler his contrivance the better. And the screws--the Saint Helices that had been thrown in his teeth at the Weldon Institute--had sufficed for all the needs of his flying machine. One series could hold it suspended in the air, the other could drive it along under conditions that were marvelously adapted for speed and safety.
--------------
Engines of suspension and propulsion.--
Above the deck rose thirty-seven vertical axes, fifteen along each side, and seven, more elevated, in the centre. The "Albatross" might be called a clipper with thirty-seven masts. But these masts instead of sails bore each two horizontal screws, not very large in spread or diameter, but driven at prodigious speed. Each of these axes had its own movement independent of the rest, and each alternate one spun round in a different direction from the others, so as to avoid any tendency to gyration. Hence the screws as they rose on the vertical column of air retained their equilibrium by their horizontal resistance. Consequently the apparatus was furnished with seventy-four suspensory screws, whose three branches were connected by a metallic circle which economized their motive force. In front and behind, mounted on horizontal axes, were two propelling screws, each with our arms. These screws were of much larger diameter than the suspensory ones, but could be worked at quite their speed.
--------------
And now for the metal used by Robur in the construction of his aeronef--a name which can be exactly applied to the "Albatross." What was this material, so hard that the bowie-knife of Phil Evans could not scratch it, and Uncle Prudent could not explain its nature? Simply paper!

For some years this fabrication had been making considerable progress. Unsized paper, with the sheets impregnated with dextrin and starch and squeezed in hydraulic presses, will form a material as hard as steel. There are made of it pulleys, rails, and wagon-wheels, much more solid than metal wheels, and far lighter. And it was this lightness and solidity which Robur availed himself of in building his aerial locomotive. Everything--framework, hull, houses, cabins--were made of straw-paper turned hard as metal by compression, and--what was not to be despised in an apparatus flying at great heights--incombustible. The different parts of the engines and the screws were made of gelatinized fiber, which combined in sufficient degree flexibility with resistance. This material could be used in every form. It was insoluble in most gases and liquids, acids or essences, to say nothing of its insulating properties, and it proved most valuable in the electric machinery of the "Albatross."

Depicting the Albatross heavier-than-air, with lifting rotors rather than a gas bag, the movie at least stayed with the Vernian concept as opposed to generic Steampunk (a nonexistent term at the time of the movie).
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Two pics for you.

A rarely seen publicity pic.



The matte painting of the engine room.


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you think about a re-imagining of having Captain Nemo & Robur working in tandem together on some fantastic adventure?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This movie is far from perfect, but the music is pretty good. Here's the soundtrack album. All twelve of the tracks are available. Some of them have non-working thumbnails, but they still play just fine, so hit the play button to start the tracks.

Enjoy! Very Happy
__________________________________


________ Les Baxter: Master of the World (1961)


__________

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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After Walt Disney's big success with the ''20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'' movie, it'd been wonderful to see his studio tackle "Master of the World'' with the lavish resources he did for his Jules Verne film.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I agree, Pow! Very Happy

However, despite how good the Albatross looks in that great poster, I just can't buy the idea of a Zeppelin-sized helicopter that never needs to land. Those wimpy little blades just wouldn't lift this flying sperm whale off the ground, much less hold it aloft indefinitely! Shocked

No sir, what I'd much rather see is a big-budget version of Tarzan at the Earth's Core, in which Jason Gridley builds a "vacuum tank" Zeppelin out of a super-light, super-strong allow which needs no helium or hydrogen in its tanks at all!

The ship would look sort of like this.



The tanks would lift the aircraft when the air is pumped OUT, causing them to be even lighter than if they were filled with helium or hydrogen!

The beauty of this concept is that the vacuum tank Zeppelin acts just a submarine. Normal air becomes like seawater in a submarine — the "ballast" which is pumped into the tanks to bring the airship down. And the lack of air in the tanks when it's pumped out causes it to rise up when the ship's total weight is less than an equal volume of air!



When I first read Burrough's novel, decades ago, I was amazed at the brilliance of this concept! Admittedly there are no alloys in existence today which are stronger than diamonds and lighter than aluminum — which is what the vacuum tank Zeppelin would need for it to have tanks that could resist the crushing air pressure from outside the tanks when there's no air inside them.

A material like that would be even better than carbon fiber, and it could be used to construct almost every part of the Zeppelin. Imagine a lighter-than-air ship which was NOT composed of flimsy fabric wrapped around a fragile aluminum framework, like the poor Hindenburg!

Instead we'd have a strong, rigid fuselage and all the mechanisms throughout the ship which allowed it to rise up into the sky by pumping air OUT of it's vacuum tanks —



— and then descending whenever it bled air back into those tanks so it could land like a helicopter!

I also pictured this beautiful craft as being equipped with huge "earth anchors" along the lower sides — curved spades which rotated downward, using hydraulics, until they plunged down into the ground and clamped the ship in place.

That way the airship could be ready for liftoff at a moment's notice after the vacuum tanks had been partially vacated of air, causing the ship to be slightly lighter than air and straining against the "earth anchors" until the moment they were pulled out of the ground when the ship was ready to lift off!



Gentlemen, I submit that the Albatross is a poor substitute for the "vacuum tank Zeppelin" suggested by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan at the Earth's Core.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm also fascinated with airships, Bud, & their potential for carrying massive amounts of emergency supplies such as water, food, medical supplies & medical teams, equipment & rescue crews to regions which have been devastated by natural disasters or war.

I've read several articles on this topic over the years.

Airships could also bring instant communications & internet to remote areas. There is even the suggestion that unmanned airships could explore planets in our solar system depending on how favorable the atmosphere would be in allowing such a thing.

I've always wondered if airships which could carry far more freight than our largest airplanes would be practical in fire fighting efforts? As I watch the news about the terrible wildfires now destroying southern California, could water or some kind of fire suppressant be loaded onto an airship in order to have it dropped down on the fire?

Perhaps the updrafts from these raging infernos would make operating an airship directly over it an impossible task?

However, I don't believe that many nations are putting the proper r&d into airships & the future of just what these vehicles are capable of achieving.

I think your idea for a Tarzan movie is wonderful. He's always been a fave character of mine. But most of the movies dealing with him have had plots that were rooted more into reality.

Tarzan stops the poachers, Tarzan stops the evil cult, Tarzan tracks escaped criminals, & so forth.

Rarely have films with Tarzan delved into the world of sci-fi on an epic scale. So the premise you suggested would be not only an exciting one but an area that few, if any, Tarzan films have explored.

Many fine actors have played the jungle legend over the years in both film & television.

Mike Henry, who did 3 movies as Tarzan, remains one of my fave actors in the role. Mike looked the part like few actors did according to one book I read.

I agree.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The answer is simple Bud.

Just fill the airship with the ninth Barsoomian ray!
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