Mistress of the World


Mistress of the World is a 1960 German-French-Italian science fiction-spy film remake of the 1919 eight-part silent film The Mistress of the World directed by William Dieterle and starring Martha Hyer and Carlos Thompson. It marked the comeback in his native country of the director William Dieterle after several decades spent in Hollywood. In West Germany, it was released in a longer version split in two parts.

Plot

Cast

Mistress of the World was developed when producer Artur Brauner invested in a three-hour West German-French-Italian co-production. Brauner contracted William Dieterle to direct the film. The film was made with a predominantly German crew, but with a multi-national cast including Martha Hyer and Sabu from Hollywood, Carlos Thompson from Argentina and Gino Cervi from Italy, and Micheline Presle and Lino Ventura from France.
The film was shot between September 1959 and January 1960. The film shot around the world, including Macau, Angkor, Nice, Hong Kong, Naples, Nepal, Sweden, Bangkok and the Spandau Studios in Berlin. While filming in Indochina, Dieterle left the production leaving cinematographer Richard Angst to take over directing.

Release

The first part of Mistress of the World was released in Hamburg on April 14, 1960. The second part was released on April 26, 1960.

Reception

The film was not received well by critics in West Germany on its release.

Footnotes