The Last Days of Pompeii

The Last Days of Pompeii is a 1959 Eastmancolor sword and sandal action film starring Steve Reeves, Christine Kaufmann, and Fernando Rey and directed by Mario Bonnard and Sergio Leone. Bonnard, the original director, fell ill on the first day of shooting, so Leone and the scriptwriters finished the film. The film is characterized by its CinemaScope framing and lavish look, and is one of many films produced during the 1950s and 1960s as part of the peplum sword and sandal cycle, originally launched by Pietro Francisci's film Le fatiche di Ercole (1958), released as Hercules in the United States. Plot Glaucus, a centurion returning to his home in Pompeii after a spell in Palestine, sees Ione, the daughter of the city's Consul, lose control of her chariot. He saves Ione's life and then continues his journey. En route, Glaucus intervenes in defense of Antonius, a thief who is being severely punished on orders given by the Praetorian Guard Gallinus. Glaucus later discovers that his father's house has been looted and his father was murdered by a band of hooded thieves who have been terrorizing Pompeii, always leaving a cross painted on a wall as a calling card. Glaucus vows revenge against the killers. In order to convince the Emperor that the mass murders are not a sign of trouble, Ascanius, the Consul of Pompeii, orders a citywide festival. In the streets, Antonius rolls a drunken soldier and steals his pouch. It contains a ring that belonged to Glaucus's father and a black hood identical to that worn by the killers. Antonius brings the ring to Glaucus' friend Marcus, who follows the soldier to Pompeii's Temple of Isis. But before Marcus can tell anybody what he has discovered, he is killed by Arbaces, the High Priest of Isis, and his body is left to be found with a Christian cross carved into it.