The Last Days of Pompeii

Overview

This seven-hour British-Italian adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 epic, set against the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and previously filmed in 1935, and in 1960 was a vehicle for muscleman Steve Reeves, was trashed by the critics as the campiest of sword and sandal sagas to emerge in years. This despite its reported $19-million price tag, the nobility of its cast that includes Laurence Olivier, Siobhan McKenna and Anthony Quayle, and its rather unspectacular special effects. The central figures are Nicholas Clay as Glaucus, the noble Athenian; Olivia Hussey as the high-born Ione, his love, who is seduced by the Egyptian, Arbaces (Franco Nero), a religious fanatic; Duncan Regehr as Lydon, the champion gladiator; and Linda Purl as the blind slave Nydia, who is torn between Glaucus and Lydon.

Cast

Linda Purl

Nydia

Anthony Quayle

Quintus

Duncan Regehr

Lydon

Laurence Olivier

Gaius

Benedict Taylor

Antonius

Gerry Sundquist

Clodius

Catriona MacColl

Julia

Malcolm Jamieson

Petrus

Tony Anholt

Lepidus

David Robb

Sallust