![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
Oct. 22nd, 2007 10:18 amRecently I watched the 1935 version of She again, and I liked it so much that I bought the new DVD (with a colorized version, but including an improved transfer of the B&W version as an extra) and watched it yet again. I finally noticed how much of an imprint from King Kong it bears -- a lost world story produced by Merian C. Cooper, score by Max Steiner, the same leviathan gate with another beautiful monster behind it, Noble Johnson playing the chieftain of a tribe of primitives (in this case cave people) speaking the same made-up language, which prominently features the word "Balla". I enjoyed the movie so much -- and love King Kong (1933) and The Most Dangerous Game (1932, filmed simultaneously with Kong on the same jungle set) so much -- that I decided to seek out more Merian C. Cooper productions from the same era.
Thus I picked up The Last Days of Pompeii, released the same year as She and directed by Cooper's old partner, Ernest Schoedsack. It bears the imprint of Kong as well, copping sections of Steiner's famous score at key points. Here it is the Ammonites in Judea who say "Balla!" It's less of an adventure movie than the others, although it still has many rousing moments. It's the very plot-heavy story of a blacksmith in Pompeii who becomes a gladiator and then, over decades, the wealthy master of the arena who hopes his adopted son will become a nobleman. The title is taken from the Bulwer-Lytton novel, but apparently not the story. Still, it plays like a trashy historical novel, and like so many Roman historicals of its type -- like Ben Hur, for example -- it works Jesus and Christianity into the story. In fact, Basil Rathbone shows up in a terrific turn as Pontius Pilate, and Our Hero just happens to be in Jerusalem when Christ is crucified.
This is all great fun. With that title, you know what the climax is going to be, and the devastation of the city is wonderfully well done. There's a very delicate effect they did with little tracers of smoke, as though cinders are falling, that is ghostly and beautiful. Some of the effects work was apparently done by Willis O'Brien, which is another connection with Kong. The one thing it's lacking is Noble Johnson, who enlivens any movie he's in, but I did spot Ward Bond in an uncredited bit part as Murmex of Carthage, another gladiator. He even gets to speak some taunting lines, and I'd love to see the movie about his character, mostly because I'm becoming a big Ward Bond fan. Didn't notice Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing in Browning's Dracula), however. I'll look for him next time, and I'll definitely be watching this one again at some point.
There's more Cooper and Schoedsack I'd like to see, including two silent "documentaries," Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927) and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925), the latter of which seems to be set in the mountains of Kurdistan. I'd love to see their 1929 version of The Four Feathers, with Fay Wray, William Powell, and, yes, Noble Johnson, but it's not available on home video as far as I can tell.
Thus I picked up The Last Days of Pompeii, released the same year as She and directed by Cooper's old partner, Ernest Schoedsack. It bears the imprint of Kong as well, copping sections of Steiner's famous score at key points. Here it is the Ammonites in Judea who say "Balla!" It's less of an adventure movie than the others, although it still has many rousing moments. It's the very plot-heavy story of a blacksmith in Pompeii who becomes a gladiator and then, over decades, the wealthy master of the arena who hopes his adopted son will become a nobleman. The title is taken from the Bulwer-Lytton novel, but apparently not the story. Still, it plays like a trashy historical novel, and like so many Roman historicals of its type -- like Ben Hur, for example -- it works Jesus and Christianity into the story. In fact, Basil Rathbone shows up in a terrific turn as Pontius Pilate, and Our Hero just happens to be in Jerusalem when Christ is crucified.
This is all great fun. With that title, you know what the climax is going to be, and the devastation of the city is wonderfully well done. There's a very delicate effect they did with little tracers of smoke, as though cinders are falling, that is ghostly and beautiful. Some of the effects work was apparently done by Willis O'Brien, which is another connection with Kong. The one thing it's lacking is Noble Johnson, who enlivens any movie he's in, but I did spot Ward Bond in an uncredited bit part as Murmex of Carthage, another gladiator. He even gets to speak some taunting lines, and I'd love to see the movie about his character, mostly because I'm becoming a big Ward Bond fan. Didn't notice Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing in Browning's Dracula), however. I'll look for him next time, and I'll definitely be watching this one again at some point.
There's more Cooper and Schoedsack I'd like to see, including two silent "documentaries," Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927) and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925), the latter of which seems to be set in the mountains of Kurdistan. I'd love to see their 1929 version of The Four Feathers, with Fay Wray, William Powell, and, yes, Noble Johnson, but it's not available on home video as far as I can tell.
