Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The team that produced King Kong for RKO Pictures, writer Meriam C. Cooper and director Ernest B. Schoedsack, decided to emulate Cecil B. DeMille in giving us The Last Days Of Pompeii. It's not a bad film, but it nearly bankrupted RKO so prohibitive was the cost for that small studio. The film bears a distinct resemblance to DeMille's eye filling, but now incredibly campy The Sign Of The Cross. Our protagonist here is Preston Foster who plays Marcus the Blacksmith, but before the film is done goes through more reinventions of character than you would find in good and bad Russian literature. As a content, but happy blacksmith a bit of good fortune has him and wife celebrating. But she's accidentally injured and dies for lack of medical care, not that medical care was all that good back in those days to begin with. Foster decides that all that matters in life is the money you can accumulate for a rainy day. Foster is constantly reassessing life throughout the film.Foster gets to go to Judea and is on the scene of the crucifixion and before that has Jesus heal his adopted son David Holt who grows up to be John Wood. Foster also meets Basil Rathbone as Pontius Pilate who also does some major reassessing after presiding over the trial of Jesus.If the Oscar for Special Effects was in existence in 1935 it would have been interesting to see either The Last Days Of Pompeii or Mutiny On The Bounty would have won the award. Those scenes of the volcanic eruption of Versuvius are what guaranteed this film would not show a profit. They do rival what DeMille was capable of, but DeMille had a far bigger studio and more financial security in Paramount.Also in the cast are Louis Calhern as the Roman consul and Alan Hale as Foster's number two man. They give their usual good performances.As for RKO Studios and Preston Foster, they got some Oscar recognition for another film that Foster did for them that year. It was the low budget, but incredibly powerful Irish story, The Informer where Victor McLaglen won for Best Actor. A much better film than The Last Days Of Pompeii. Still the spectacle of this film can still awe you, even on the small screen.

RKO Radio epic in grand style. Title is taken from a Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel, the movie does not employ its plot, story line or characters. Even an opening disclaimer denies any historical content besides using the eruption of Mount Vesuvious in 79 AD. as climatic backdrop. Marcus(Preston Foster), an Ancient Roman blacksmith is forced to become a gladiator after his wife and son are accidentally killed. He takes a young boy Flavius(David Holt) under his wing and raises him as his own. Basil Rathbone is superb as Potius Pilate,who is preoccupied with the execution of Jesus Christ. Marcus witnesses Christ's march to Calvary and later calls for divine help in saving the life of Flavius as Vesuvius erupts. Other players: John Wood, Alan Hale, Louis Calhern, Edward Van Sloan and Zeffie Tilbury.

I just saw this film recently and found it absorbing enough as a kind of Judeo-Roman kitschy melodrama, which argues that only bad people are punished by volcanic eruptions. (Please enjoy the final scene where the spirit of Preston Foster communes with a double-exposure of "the Master" while a heavenly choir sings). Basil Rathbone is a pleasant figure but it cannot be said that there's anything subtle about his Pontius Pilate, with his heavy shrugs and sighs and his "I wonder" and "What is truth?"; his style is just as "big" as Preston Foster but he carries it off better because he's a more attractive presence. Anyway, we should point out two things. First, this is NOT based on Bulwer-Lytton's novel; not that it's better or worse for it, but even B-L didn't claim that the eruption in 79 A.D. happened only about 10 years after the Crufixion. Second, Willis O'Brien's special effects are not terribly impressive even "for the time." The recently released video of the 1913 Italian version is at least as convincing and maybe more so. This 1935 version is content to mostly have a lot of flying debris as people run for their lives. There is one carefully stiff, transparently processed "lava shot" as people jump into the sea. The major visual spectacle during the disaster--the collapse of a giant statue--is marred by a glaring continuity error. First we see the statue crack in two across the abdomen (well above the discreetly place sword) and begin to fall, and then we cut to a close-up of the falling torso, now completely intact but with the head coming off. There was no reason for that mistake. So the long-awaited spectacle is not what it's cracked up to be.

I first saw this movie years ago as a child and it had quite an impact on me. I loved the acting. Preston Foster as the disillusioned blacksmith, David Holt, as the sweetest little boy one could possibly imagine, and John Wood as the older Flavius, so idealistically touched by his experience at the hands of Jesus. But I must reserve the greatest praise for Basil Rathbone. His portrayal of Pontius Pilate, so fine, so sure, is unparalleled. His nuances of effect and strength of personality are superbly matched to this role. You can almost taste the turmoil roiling within him as you watch the splendid emotional battle waged on his wonderfully expressive face. Walt Disney once said, "First you begin with a story." It is true. The story here is classic. A man searching the world for the key he holds within his own heart. Preston Foster, so disillusioned in his flight from poverty, that he fails to see the significance of events around him, Flavius, as the boy grown to manhood touched by a higher calling and Basil Rathbone as Pontius Pilate, probably the second most reviled figure living at that time. Wonderful, wonderful historical novel, acted brilliantly as only the actors of that time could do.