A Roman centurion returns to Pompeii from the wars to find his home ransacked and to discover his father has been killed. He swears vengeance on the Christians who appear to have done it and searches for them in the city. This takes him through the court of the consul, a pagan temple, a prison and finally the arena where he fights for his life and to defend the Christians he now sees as innocent. Then mount Vesuvius erupts. This is a good film and could have stood up as an engrossing story without the volcanic ending but the latter is very well staged and ends the film with a bang. Several writers adapted the Bulwer-Lytton novel by changing most of it. The film looks excellent in widescreen (Supertotalscope no less!) and Eastmancolour and is enhanced by the fine film scoring of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Each frame of the film is a pictorial delight, thanks to cinematographer Antonio L. BallesterosSteve Reeves as the hero is the usual Steve Reeves as the hero and Christine Kaufmann is her usual gorgeous self. Very able support is given by Fernando Rey as the sinister high priest and Anne-Marie Baumann as the duplicitous Julia not to mention various beefy types in other supporting roles.One of the better peplum movies.

Once again Steve Reeves is perfectly cast in a period film -- this time set in the final days of Pompeii with paranoia about Christianity running rampant. The costumes are exquisite (though perhaps more GREEK than ROMAN if you know your history and fabric patterns), with a MAJOR plot twist towards the end -- NO SPOILERS, go watch the movie! -- as Reeves investigates his father's murder. There's some confusion as to why folks in Pompeii were worshiping the Egyptian Isis throughout the movie, so I'll have to hit the history books again to see if that was a thing or just a liberty taken by the director. (To my knowledge they followed the usual suspects: Mercury, Minerva, Neptune, etc.)

Sergio Leone's uncredited debut is nowhere near the masterpieces he churned out starting from A Fistful of Dollars. His credited debut Colossus of Rhodes is a much better Sword and Sandal film. The production design, very good looking men and women and the widescreen cinematography are the good things in here. The bland acting(?) by most of the actors, ludicrous plot etc makes it uninteresting for the most part. Including a bit of homosexuality is commendable for the time period. Even though most of the film is not very good there are moments that entertains and makes it a little memorable.

....but the proper nouns!Glaucus,Ione,Arbaces ,Nydia.This flick tells a story even more confused than the novel.Sir Bulwer-Lytton's book had assets : its precise depictions of the daily life in a soon-to-be-destroyed city,the spoiled youth Glaucus is part of ,his dilemma -he was born a Greek man and his country was conquered by the Romans,he had no friends,but was surrounded by parasites ,like Clodius -and of course a sincere if childish look at the rising of Christianity.Sergio Leone's script includes tortures,orgies and attacks of hooded villains(?).Of course it kept the final eruption but ,by today's standards,it's barely more than fireworks .Fans of Steve Reeves may be satisfied ,but Bulwer-Lytton's readers will fatally be disappointed.NB:the miniseries ,made in 1984,was more successful,although it added new characters and a different ending(Nydia does not get drowned)