Up Pompeii (film)

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Up Pompeii
Up Pompeii (film).jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed byBob Kellett
Written bySid Colin
Produced byNed Sherrin
StarringFrankie Howerd
Michael Hordern
Barbara Murray
CinematographyIan Wilson
Edited byAl Gell
Music byCarl Davis
Production
companies
Anglo-EMI
London Associated Films
Distributed byMGM-EMI
Release date
11 March 1971
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£200,000[1]

Up Pompeii is a 1971 British sex comedy film directed by Bob Kellett and starring Frankie Howerd and Michael Hordern. The film was shot at Elstree Film Studios, Borehamwood, England and is based on characters that first appeared in the British television sitcom Up Pompeii! (1969–1975).

Plot

Lurcio becomes the inadvertent possessor of a scroll bearing all the names of the proposed assassins of Nero. The conspirators need to recover the scroll fast, but it has fallen into the hands of Lurcio's master, Ludicrus Sextus, who mistakenly reads the contents of the scroll to the Senate. Farcical attempts are made to retrieve the scroll before Pompeii is eventually consumed by the erupting Vesuvius.

Cast

Production

The Robert Stigwood Organisation had money in the film.[2]

A version was made for American audiences with six minutes of additional footage including a prologue and epilogue and Lurcio setting the scene.[1]

Reception

Box office

The film was the 10th most popular film at the British box office in 1971.[3][4] By June 1972 it had earned EMI a profit of £20,000.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Moody, Paul (Oct 19, 2018). EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema. Springer. p. 104. ISBN 9783319948034.
  2. ^ City comment: Thanks to the pound Swan, Hunter; Stigwood, Robert. The Guardian 2 Aug 1972: 16.
  3. ^ Waymark, Peter (30 December 1971). "Richard Burton top draw in British cinemas". The Times. London, England. p. 2.
  4. ^ Harper, Sue (2011). British Film Culture in the 1970s: The Boundaries of Pleasure: The Boundaries of Pleasure. Edinburgh University Press. p. 269. ISBN 9780748654260.
  5. ^ Moody, Paul (Oct 19, 2018). EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema. Springer. p. 83. ISBN 9783319948034.

External links