The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

hyped garbage

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

No need to repeat the plot. Ordinarily this sort of costume spectacle would have been done by a big-budget studio like MGM or TCF. But the makers of King Kong (Cooper & Shoedsack) were special-effects wizards, so RKO put them to work again, hoping I guess for another box-office smash like Kong. I'm not sure why the movie flopped (IMDB), but apparently it did. The movie does lack big name stars, though Foster cuts a virile figure as the poor man who makes good. Plus, the middle part sort of sags as we await the big event.Then too, there's not the expected skimpy costumes or dancing girls to spice up the heavy religious message, suggesting someone should have called up that crafty old master of biblical spectacle, CB De Mille. In fact, there's little depiction of notorious Roman decadence outside of their blood sports. Thus, when judgment day comes, courtesy Mt. Vesuvius, there's not the usual satisfaction of seeing all the sinning and sinners get punished.Nonetheless, the special effects remain pretty impressive, even in our digital age. Too bad, however, we don't see more of that towering Goliath statue. It's still a real grabber. And when it comes crashing down, we get the message. Speaking of messages, if you're a skeptic like me, put off by the heavenly choirs and ethereal lighting, take the narrative as a worthwhile morality tale instead of Hollywood's proved pathway to heaven.

If you are a King Kong fan, you will no doubt enjoy this sword and sandals epic about Jesus. Y You will have to, of course, overlook the fact that events happening at the time of Pontius Pilate (Basil Rathbone) could not have occurred near the eruption of Pompeii, but it is, after all, a movie.Rathbone was the definite star in this film. He really put on a great performance as Pilate, one of the most reviled men in history.The rest of the film is what you have seen in Ben Hur, The Robe, and other films on the topic. Certainly not the excessive blood in The Passion of the Christ.Great special effects as Pompeii crumbles.

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.

If you liked "Gladiator," then "The Last Days of Pompeii" is a good choice for an empty afternoon of slash-em-up moralizing. The sets are expansive and ornate, there's loads of action and the story, though pretty one-note, is well-written and well-acted. Normally I can't stand classical actors, but the performances in "Pompeii" are so energetic that I got sucked in, anyway. The moral underpinning of the movie does include a couple of appearances by Jesus Christ, complete with awed crowds of followers and the obligatory boys choir, but compared with some of the later Jesus epics that Hollywood produced ("King of Kings" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told"), "Pompeii" handles the material with considerable flair. The only major nitpick I have for this movie is its freewheeling use of history. At most, the story only covers 20 years, but Jesus died around 35 AD and Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. But then, when has Hollywood let the truth get in the way of a good story?