4/5 Good history of film but not "good history"
  by TammyJo Eckhart (Bloomington, Indiana United States)
It's always interesting to see how different directors, writers, producers and actors portray historical events over the decades. This is a great example of the hyper Christianization and moralizing that has been popular at various times. For it's period, the movie is pretty good in terms of acting and special effects though it will make the modern viewer laugh or roll their eyes I'm sure.

In terms of history, frankly the religious aspects are far over played and social dynamics are a bit far fetched. The social and moral questions are far more 20th century than first century so take it all with a grain of salt. However there are some good historical things as well so just know your Roman history and you'll do fine when viewing this otherwise just see it as entertainment.

5/5 A real old but great classic
  by Michael Taylor (Auckland, NZ)
This is a timeless RKO classic. I must say the quality and sound - unlike many other Korean import versions - is excellent. One must remember this is a movie from the 30's and I must say looks & sounds brilliant.

The Korean subtitles can be removed and so do not fret there.

This is one for classic lovers only and a very interesting story regarding a gladiator (Preston Foster) who is forced to make hard choices - at one part of the story, one of which is not to offer aid to Jesus Christ on his way to his crucifixion. A momentary but very interesting play on that particular place & time in Judea, and how that moment plays with the rest of his life and naturally the biggie - Pompeii's destruction. Those of you familiar with the original 1933 King Kong need to get this movie... for no other reason than it is from Merian C. Cooper.

The special effects are good for the times... made in the 30's. I think I am happy to call it an EPIC. Each to his own!

4/5 Marcus: "It's easy to get money! All you have to do... is kill."
  by Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
Co-producer/directors Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper's attempt to top their own KING KONG (1933) with epic THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII was not successful; the movie bombed at the box office.

An opening title card credits British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton only with settings for this story. Cast members most familiar to latter day audiences are Basil Rathbone, Alan Hale and Ward Bond. (Watch for star athlete Jim Thorpe as he tosses coins to gladiator Marcus.)

SYNOPSIS (spoiler alert)--
Marcus (Foster) is a poor but happy blacksmith. Given a silver coin by a wealthy man (with encouragement to become a gladiator), Marcus takes wife Clodia (Wilson) and infant son to market. While there, both mother and boy are injured by a runaway chariot; they later die because Marcus hasn't money for a doctor. The embittered man now believes wealth is everything; he enters the arena and becomes a successful gladiator.

Marcus witnesses Pontius Pilate (Rathbone) washing his hands of the crucifixion fate of Jesus of Nazareth. (In a bizarre twist of timeline logic, both Pilate and Marcus are fairly young men when Mount Vesuvius erupts 46 years later!) Marcus publicly battles and slays a Carthaginian (Bond); he adopts the man's orphaned boy, Flavius (Holt).

Ten years have passed (46, in reality). Marcus is a man of means. Flavius (Wood), who's never forgotten his slave roots arranges sea passage for a group of runaways-- if he's caught it means death by torture. Legionnaires capture them all; the women are imprisoned, the men (Flavius included) are sent to the arena. Marcus's appeals of clemency for his son prove futile; Flavius and slaves prepare for battle to the death. As they clash against an army of gladiators, the nearby smoking volcano rumbles then comes violently to life.

In the confusion, Flavius frees the slave women and children and reunited with Marcus, he leads them to his father's ship. As they cast off, Marcus holds back a number of Roman soldiers who want the boat for themselves. He's mortally wounded. As ash settles on the dying man, the spirit of Jesus extends a hand. THE END.


Scenes of Pompeiian destruction are nicely rendered-- buildings crumble, fires blaze, crowds panic and lava flows to the Mediterranean. Where this movie fails is in its melodramatic story and wooden acting from star Preston Foster, who looks awful in a skirt!

Related item:
The Italian remake of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII offers widescreen color cinematography, musclebound Steve Reeves and improved special effects. Although it's based on the Bulwer-Lytton book, this one is no improvement over the '35 version.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.5) The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) - Preston Foster/Alan Hale/Basil Rathbone/John Wood/Louis Calhern/David Holt/Dorothy Wilson (uncredited: Ward Bond/Jason Robards Sr./Jim Thorpe)

3/5 Truly the Last Day
  by Martin Asiner (Jersey City, NJ)
When THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII was released in 1935, the special effects industry was still in its infancy. Just a year earlier, FX wizard Willis O'Brien had audiences gasping at KING KONG and assorted dinosaurs on Skull Island, but here at Pompeii, the large scale destruction of a major Roman city could not take a back seat to a thinly disguised morality tale of the eternal battle between a man's lusting for money and his desire to accept Christ. The film, at least up to the climactic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, is a leisurely plod that details a simple tale of a blacksmith Marcus (Preston Foster) who has a loving wife and a new born child. When he brags that he is rich in all the things that count, one can almost hear the script writers say, "Ah-ha, here's where we knock the hubris out of him." Sure enough, his wife and son are killed in a chariot accident. Since he has no money to pay for a doctor, they die, leaving him to ponder the function of money in the universal scheme of things. His conclusion: he must earn it in any way he can, which in his case is fighting as a gladiator in the arena. Most of the middle third of the film deals with his acceptance that money exists solely to provide protection against the uncertainties of life. Foster as Marcus is not likable, and that I think is precisely the point of director Ernest Shoedsack, who sets up Marcus as a cinematic straw man who exists only to later suffer pangs of conscience that ultimately direct him to forgo money in place of accepting Christ as a savior. Marcus kills an opponent only to find his son asking where his daddy was. When Marcus adopts the boy, he is irrevocably set on the Path of True Righteousness. Little by little, he sees that a reliance on earthly lucre is the most transient of things. Years later, with his son now grown up, he must face the consequences of an earlier decision of his to abandon Jesus at the Crucifixion. Conscience, it seems, does more than make cowards of us all. Foster's performance is lackluster, however, since he has to share screen time with Basil Rathbone as Pontious Pilate. Rathbone portrays Pilate as a man of immense dignity who is torn between sparing Jesus and crucifying him to please the crowd. The Pilate of this film is far more heroic and sympathetic than the Pilate of other Biblical epics. All of Marcus' inner conversion leads to some pretty spectacular special effects which close out the film. There are numerous scenes of buildings collapsing on screaming crowds, streets opening up to swallow unlucky citizens, and slow moving lava flows that inundate the landscape. There are several anachronisms that most audiences will probably not notice, the most obvious being that the historical Pilate committed suicide several decades prior to the eruption. Still, what one takes away from THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII is disturbing revelation of the various layers that men have created internally to direct their lives when circumstances force them to act rather than react. We can hardly fault Marcus for his path when we probably would have done no different.

4/5 The Last Days of Pompeii
  by Carlos S. Gomes
Though this film strayed from actual facts, it was well made with it's special effects from the 1930's. All in all I enjoyed it once again after all the years that I first saw it and would recommend this film to be seen - owned by folks who like golden oldies.