1971 British comedy film by Bob Kellett
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.
Production
Ned Sherrin had enjoyed success producoing comedies The Virgin Soldiers and Every Home Should Have One. He and Terry Glinwood formed a company, Virgin Films, which made seven movies beginning with this (it included the two sequels, Rentadick, Girl Stroke Boy, The National Health and The Alf Garnett Saga'').
Franke Howerd's agent Beryl Vertue sold the idea of a film version of Up Pompeii to Nat Cohen. Sherrin wrote Cohen "had spotted the potency of cheap TV spin-offs and was envious of the Boulting brothers’ success with Till Death Us Do Part." Cohen hired Sherrin to produce.[2]
In May 1970 it was announced the film would be the first in a series of comedies produced by Ned Sherrin for Anglo-EMI, the second of which would be The Last Virgin Left Alive from a script by Eleanor Bron and John Fortune based on the novel Jam Today by Susan Barratt.[3] Anglo-EMI's head Nat Cohen said "I am convinced the key to recapturing large cinema audiences is a good, uproarious comedy."[4] The deal was negotiated by Beryl Vertue a director of London Associated Films Limited with Cohen and Sherrin.[5]
Sherrin felt "Frankie’s unique comic quality had never been captured on the screen. Nor did we, despite the ingenuity of the director, Bob Kellett, really manage to pin it down."[6] Sherrin says this was because Howerd performed best in front of a live audience and struggled without it. "He was often very funny, particularly in the first two films of the series, but still a fraction of his commanding presence on stage."[7]
Talbot Rothwell wrote the scripts to the television series but was busy writing Carry On movies so the screenplay was written by Sid Colin.
The Robert Stigwood Organisation had money in the film.[8] In March 1972 Stigwood would buy out Virgin Films.[9]
Filming took place at MGM-EMI studios in August 1970. Billy Walker the boxer was given his first screen role.[10] The producers were able to use left over sets from Julius Caesar which had just finished filming.[11]
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.[12][13] By June 1972 it had earned EMI a profit of £20,000.[14] It led to two sequels.
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