The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) is an RKO Radio Pictures film starring Preston Foster and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, creators of the original King Kong. Although inspired by the novel of the same name by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the film has nothing to do with the book. Indeed, a Foreword appearing after the film's opening credits states, "Although...the characters and plot have no relation to those in the novel by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, acknowledgement is made of his description of Pompeii which has inspired the physical setting of this picture." This story of Marcus, a man whose life is touched at various points by Christ and his followers, is impossible, because of the dates. Flavius is a small boy when Jesus heals him and a young man when Vesuvius erupts in 79 AD—46 years later. According to TCM, few critics complained about it at the time.