Writers: James Ashmore Creelman, Melville Baker, Ruth Rose
Composer: Roy Webb
Starring: Preston Foster, Alan Hale, Basil Rathbone, John Wood, Louis Calhern, David Holt, Dorothy Wilson, Wyrley Birch, Gloria Shea
More info: IMDb
Plot: In the doomed Roman city, a gentle blacksmith becomes a corrupt gladiator, while his son leans toward Christianity.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? No.
From the team that brought you the amazing KING KONG (1933) left most of their adventurous side behind when they made this picture. It's melodramatic like you'd expect from '35 but there is some action from time to time to break that up. I was hoping for more from Schoedsack & Cooper. It's an OK picture but you don't get any volcano action until the last few minutes and even then it's a let down. Halfway through the flick friggin' Jesus shows up so now it's a religious picture. Yawn. Talk about a turn off. Foster does a pretty good job and he would've been even better, I think, if he'd had more action scenes. He fit nicely in the role of a gladiator. It's weird seeing Rathbone looking like he does and even he has moments of back of the hand to the forehead overacting but some of that is the fault of the script and the reverence to religion this picture has. I can't see any reason to seek this one out. It's not bad but it's not all that good, either.
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