The Last Days of Pompeii
About The Last Days of Pompeii
In Pompeii in 79 AD, Glauco (Umberto Mozzato) loves the Greek Ione (Mirra Principi). The Egyptian priest Arbace (Luigi Maggi) wants her for himself. Glauco buys Nidia (Lydia De Roberti), a blind slave, and she falls in love with him. She asks Arbace for a love potion. He gives her a drug meant to drive Glauco mad. Vesuvius erupts over the city.
Cast & crew
More about The Last Days of Pompeii
Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi directed. Roberto Omegna wrote the scenario from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel. Ambrosio produced it in Turin. Italy and France saw it in December 1908; Germany in January 1909; Austria and Britain in February 1909; the United States in April 1909. The Italian release was about 366 meters.
Themes
In film history
It was a hit on release, and historians credit that success with starting a run of Italian historical spectacles.
Making
Ambrosio Film, the Turin company founded in 1906, both produced the picture and put it into release. Maggi, one of the two directors, plays the priest rather than the young lover.
Look
Roberto Omegna and Giovanni Vitrotti photographed it.
Preservation
A print survives, running about 17 minutes.
Notes
- Maggi plays Arbace, the priest, not Glauco. Mozzato is Glauco.
- Ernesto Vaser plays Nidia's master. Cesare Gani Carini plays Apoecide, Ione's brother.
- An export version ran about 380 meters, a little longer than the Italian 366.
- English Wikipedia's running time, matching a surviving print of 16 minutes 55 seconds, is 17 minutes.
- The picture is the first film version of Bulwer-Lytton's novel.
Scenes
- Nidia takes from Arbace the drug he has told her is a love potion.
- Vesuvius breaks over the streets where Glauco, Ione, and Arbace have been circling one another.
Influenced by
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii (1834)
Influenced
- The Last Days of Pompeii (1913)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-last-days-of-pompeii)
