THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII

US, 1935, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Preston Foster, Alan Hale, Basil Rathbone, Louis Calhern.
Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack.

The title comes from a famous novel by Bulwer, Lord Lytton. However, the film-makers say that they have used this title but not the story. The story, they claim, is original. It has many familiar elements from such stories as Ben Hur and Quo Vadis. The indebtedness to Lord Lytton is the description of Pompeii which has been reproduced.

The film comes from the team which made King Kong and Son of Kong a couple of years earlier than this film. Willis O'Brien is in charge and chief technician. Merian C. Cooper is producer and Ernest Schoedsack is director. The film is modest in comparison with Cecil B. de Mille spectacles. This one was made two years after The Sign of the Cross.

It has plenty of plot and the pace keeps moving. Preston Foster is quite good in the central role. However, such articulate actors as Basil Rathbone and Louis Calhern take the part respectively of Pontius Pilate and the Prefect of Pompeii. They have quite a deal of rhetoric and deliver it with style. The film is particularly interesting in its presentation of Pontius Pilate and the coincidence of a plan to rob the Ammonites of horses culminating on Good Friday. The expected special effects for the final destruction of Pompeii are quite effective. This film stands in good comparison with others of its kind - although for the scenes with Christ (who is not visible on screen except in a visionary way at the very end) relies on the massed choir effect.

1. The entertainment value of this Roman spectacle? In comparison with later more elaborate productions? The perennial appeal of Rome, the cruelties and domination of Rome? Biblical spectaculars and the focus on Christ, the miraculous, his passion? Conversion stories? The elements in this film comparable with similar films?

2. The quality of black and white photography, the special effects especially for the destruction of Pompeii? The musical score? The actors and their style, the rhetoric of the screen play?

3. Audience knowledge of Pompeii, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius? The build-up of the plot to this event? Its melodramatic introduction and its rescuing the hero just at the right moment? Audience expectations of the destruction and the way that it was presented?

4. Marcus and his blacksmith shop, the slave market, the stalls and the buying of the ball etc.? How was this important for Marcus's later wealth and career?

5. The theme of wealth and the way it was used throughout the film, the slaves going to the games, his giving of the silver coin to Marcus and the husband and wife going to buy the ball with the consequent death of wife and child? The doctor and his refusal to come without payment? The tax collectors? The gladiators and their making money and having to kill? Marcus going to the arena, His first experience of killing, weighing up his wife's life against his opponent's? The actual killing and receiving of the coins? His decision and the repercussions on his life?

6. The collage of his success? rising on the list of gladiators, killing Flavius's father and then adopting Flavius? His injury? His attack on the slave master and then being employed by him, his cruelty in rounding up the slaves and threatening them with the loss of their children? His moving into the trading in horses? His going to Judea and the prophecy? His expecting Pontius Pilate to be the influential man in his life and not recognising the influence of Christ? The plan with Pontius Pilate, the gaining of the horses? His being established for life?

7. The character of Marcus - a strong man, his work as a blacksmith, love for Julia and his grief at her death, his love for his child and the adoption of Flavius? His separating his killing in the arena from his personal life? His buying the slave and tutoring his son? Everything geared towards his son and therefore the effect of the prophecy? His going to Palestine, letting his son see Pontius Pilate? The participation in the raid against the Ammonites? The death of his son and the experience of Jesus healing? His escape from Jerusalem and the coincidence of the way of the Cross? His rejection of Jesus? His returning to Pompeii and building up success, the passing of the years? The jealousy of the Prefect, the visit of Pilate and the final banquet? The build-up to a climax with his loss of his son, rescuing him, conversion and death? A credible portrait of a man of Pompeii?

8. The picture of his household the background of Roman customs and way of life, Flavius and his growing up? The bond with Leaster? The visit to Judea, the experience of his healing but his inability to remember the healer? Flavius and his reaction against his father, the rescuing of the slaves? Leaster and his bond with him?

9. The film's presentation of Pontius Pilate - at Pompeii, at the opening, his exasperation in Jerusalem, his plan against Herod, his diplomacy with Marcus? The effect of condemning Jesus to death, the washing of the hands, the immediate interview with Marcus? His later visit to Pompeii, the memories of those times, telling the truth to Flavius? Offering him a position in Rome? An ultimately sympathetic portrait of Pilate? Basil Rathbone and his style and diction?

10. The action sequences with the Ammonites, the slave, the gold, the choice of the gold as against helping Jesus? The gold in Pompeii and its being lost in the destruction?

11. The character of the Prefect, his arrogance, the staging of the games, his wanting to meet Pontius Pilate? His cynicism at the meal, behaviour at the games, his cowardice in wanting to escape?

12. How well did the screenplay bring the themes together on the final night: Flavius and the arrest of the slaves, the clash with Pilate and the memory of old times? The discovery of the identity of Jesus? The build-up to the games on the next day, Flavius's participation, Marcus's desperation?

13. The ominous eruption, the scenes of destruction? The effect for the audience at this stage of the screen play? where did audience sympathies lie?

14. Marcus and his desperation, the discovery of his son, his decision to save the children instead of the money? Did this give a background and backing for his final vision of Christ?

15. How satisfying a spectacle, the presentation or the games and their vividness, the way of ancient Rome and Pompeii?

10. The traditions of the religious spectacular, pious sentiments and words, the heavenly choir style, the absence of a clear picture of Christ? The blend of the Roman and the early Christian for satisfying entertainment?