Two years after King Kong, the same team went on to make this enjoyable disaster movie about life in Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It is directed by Kong's Ernest B Schoedsack and the impressive eruption at the end was also done by the same people who did the effects for Kong including Willis O'Brien.

The excellent cast includes Preston Foster, Alan Hale, a pre Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone and Edward Van Sloan (Dracula, Frankenstein).

The Last Days of Pompeii seems to be quite a rare movie and I was pleased when BBC2 screened it several years ago and I still have it on video.

Catch this if you are lucky. Enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

The Last Days Of Pompeii tells the story of a poor blacksmith in ancient Rome who becomes a gladiator and in turn a wealthy man, while his son, upon encountering Jesus, grows up to become a Christian. The film is a spectacle from the middle thirties, after the De Mille manner, which is to say it tries to look big but is actually, upon closer examination, at best mid-sized. RKO didn't really have the bucks to make a film on as lavish a scale as they surely would have wished. The film has many flaws, but also virtues. It was made by the King Kong team of Ernest Schoedsak and Merian Cooper, who were very resourceful gentlemen, highly creative and not at all like other Hollywood film-makers, and therefore the movie has a unique style that's difficult to put into words. The best way I can describe their approach is to say that it's highly individual; its makers had their own way of doing things, and therefore told their their story, or more properly showed it, so that the movie doesn't resemble other films with similar themes. Also on the plus side is its cast, not of thousands, maybe of hundreds; more likely of dozens. In the leading role Preston Foster's anchors the film in a kind of emotional reality. He may not have been the most versatile of actors but he was a most sincere one, and he is excellent in the lead. Also good is Basil Rathbone as Pontius Pilate, surprisingly unhammy. It's a very good movie overall, hokey as hell but always watchable, and in the end, while the spectacle of Mount Vesuvius erupting isn't all it might be, the movie as whole at least holds firm, and I for one was moved by it, not to tears maybe, but in a more modest way, by the smaller, more intimate tale of a good man who comes to his senses too late, at least for redemption in this world.

This film is a bit of a surprise, as you'd think this was a film by Cecil B. DeMille since it is a huge spectacle with a vaguely Christian message. However, this is NOT a Paramount film and instead the man behind the film was Marian C. Cooper--the same guy who had made "King Kong". And, incidentally, Willis O'Brien (the stop-motion guy who created Kong) did the special effects in this film.

The film begins, not surprisingly, in Pompeii. However, it's decades before the eruption in 79 AD. A nice blacksmith (Preston Foster) is living a happy life. But, when his wife and son are killed, he finds himself willingly becoming a gladiator. In the process, he gains great fame as well as adopts the young son of one of his dead opponents. How does all this eventually lead to the life of Christ and the ultimate destruction of their town? See the film and find out for yourself! There are a few quibbles I have about the film (such as how quickly Foster goes from being a nice guy to becoming a jerk-face as well as the weird 'redemption' at the end of the film that will probably make theologians wince). But, overall, it IS entertaining and seems to have a little bit more depth in the characterizations than a DeMille epic. Entertaining even if the story lags a bit towards the end--and the effects were quite nice for 1935--even if they seem cheesy compared with those in use today.