Master Baxter

At the height of his frantic gig writing scores for American-International Pictures, Les Baxter was mostly busy rescoring European import and doing Roger Corman's great Poe series. However, 1961's Master of the World is a bit of a change of pace, obviously designed to cash in on the recent success of Around the World in 80 Days (which is mentioned no less than twice on the back sleeve notes). Vincent Price and Charles Bronson star in the tale of a megalomaniac determined to enforce world peace, even if it means dragging a bunch of people across the sky in an airship and bombing everyone into submission. This was one of AIP's earliest multi-channel releases (in four-channel "StereoSonic Sound!"), so ol' Les really gets to cut loose with the right-left channel separation here. The music is really lush and grand with a nice old Hollywood feel, crammed with soaring themes and tons of crescendoes.