Doing the Mid-1930s, producer Merian C. Cooper was involved in a number of big budget spectaculars for RKO Radio Pictures featuring then state-of-the-art special effects. The first and best known is the legendary, original KING KONG (1933) which allegedly saved the studio from bankruptcy during the Depression. This was followed by a quick sequel the same year, SON OF KONG, which was not as successful as its predecessor. These were only 2 of 24 movies produced by Cooper in 1933. Others included movies featuring Katherine Hepburn and Wheeler & Woolsey before ending with FLYING DOWN TO RIO.
Two years later Cooper oversaw not one but two special effects extravaganzas based on 19th century British novels. The first was H. Rider Haggard’s SHE and the second was Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. Based on is something of a misnomer as the only thing they took from Bulwer-Lytton was the setting of Pompeii and the climactic eruption of Vesuvius but at least they acknowledge as much in the opening credits. For the story they used a screenplay by long time Cooper collaborator Ruth Rose that featured all new characters.
The plot bears a resemblance to the much later GLADIATOR (2000). It involves a blacksmith who is forced by circumstances to fight in the arena. He not only survives but thrives until he is the top gladiator in all of Pompeii. He adopts the young son of a gladiator he has killed and raises him away from the arena. The son falls ill on a trip to Judea and is healed by Jesus at a wayside inn. Father and son meet Pontius Pilate and do him a service. They become rich but years later the son becomes involved in the Christian underground. Then Vesuvius erupts and the son is saved from Roman justice.
Preston Foster (of DOCTOR X fame) is Marcus the blacksmith turned gladiator. He gives a strong performance moving from poor tradesman to brutal gladiator to wealthy citizen of Pompeii. Basil Rathbone (in a curly wig) is a dignified Pontius Pilate while Louis Calhern is a despicable Roman tribune. The climatic eruption and destruction of the city is still impressive today. The film lost money as did its companion piece SHE, but both made back their cost when re-released as a double feature in 1949. They work well that way today. The latest print looks and sounds great. An impressive piece of 1930s moviemaking.
The Capsule Critic 