The Last Days of Pompeii

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) is an RKO Radio Pictures film starring Preston Foster and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, creators of the original King Kong. Although inspired by the novel of the same name by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the film has nothing to do with the book. Indeed, a Foreword appearing after the film's opening credits states, "Although...the characters and plot have no relation to those in the novel by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, acknowledgement is made of his description of Pompeii which has inspired the physical setting of this picture." This story of Marcus, a man whose life is touched at various points by Christ and his followers, is impossible, because of the dates. Flavius is a small boy when Jesus heals him and a young man when Vesuvius erupts in 79 AD—46 years later. According to TCM, few critics complained about it at the time. Plot In the time of Jesus Christ, blacksmith Marcus is content with his life, beautiful wife Julia and six-month-old son Flavius. When Julia and their child are run down by a chariot in the streets of Pompeii, Marcus spends the little money he has to pay for a doctor and medicine. Needing more, in desperation, he becomes a gladiator. He wins his fight, but his wife and child still die. Blaming his poverty, he becomes an embittered professional gladiator and grows wealthier with each victory. Marcus adopts Flavius, a boy whose father Marcus killed in the arena. An injury ends Marcus career as a gladiator and he takes a job working for Cleon, a slave trader. Marcus raids an African village for slaves, where a father battles Marcus raiders until his young son's life is threatened and he is forced to surrender. Marcus identifies with the father's grief at being unable to protect his son. He stops slaving and turns to trading instead. Marcus rescues a fortune teller, who foretells that Flavius will be saved by the greatest man in Judea. Marcus and Flavius travel to Jerusalem to see the man that Marcus thinks fits that description: Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. At an inn along the way, a man tells him that the greatest man is staying in the stable, but Marcus does not believe him.