The Last Days of Pompeii

press release:

USA | 1935 | 35mm | 96 min.

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack

Cast: Preston Foster, Basil Rathbone, Alan Hale

Pompeii, 79 AD. While the volcano at Mount Vesuvius begins to rumble, blacksmith Foster aspires to wealth and fame in the doomed Roman city by becoming a gladiator. The breathtaking special effects for the fiery climax of this RKO mega production were supervised by King Kong maestro Willis O’Brien. 35mm print courtesy of Library of Congress.

Special Presentations: Spring 2017 is filled with numerous special repertory screenings. Our lineup includes several new restorations, including new DCPs of Julie Dash’s landmark movie Daughters of the Dust, Juzo Itami’s uproarious food comedy Tampopo, and Julien Duvivier’s terrific thriller Panique. We will also present a new DCP of the long-thought-lost RKO proto-disaster movie Deluge which will screen as part of a “flood and fire” double feature with a 35mm print of another RKO super production, The Last Days of Pompeii. Other 35mm showings include the ultra-rare "Moment in Time" cut of animator Richard Williams' magnum opus, The Thief and the Cobbler; Ingmar Bergman’s film of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and two fine IB Technicolor prints of Francis Ford Coppola’s two 1974 releases (and Best Picture Oscar nominees) The Godfather Part II and The Conversation. Plus an evening of musical Vitaphone shorts and live musical performance; Al Pacino in William Friedkin’s controversial Cruising; and two very different Cannon Films adaptations of an Elmore Leonard crime novel classic (52 Pick-Up), made only two years apart!

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.