The film stars Basil Rathbone as Pontius Pilate and Preston Foster as a Pompeian blacksmith who dreams of fame in gladiatorial combat. The lives of these socially unequal residents uravel seperately, but become intertwined as magisterial Rathbone watches Foster fight for his life in the arena. Yet nature is stronger than caste; before the onslaught of the fiery volcano, all of the citizens of Pompeii are reduced to a common level of helplessness.
The stuff of great disaster movies easily fills the screen with the visual material for gripping melodrama.
