Up Pompeii (film)


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!.

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

The Robert Stigwood Organisation had money in the film.
A version was made for American audiences with six minutes of additional footage including a prologue and epilogue and Lurcio setting the scene.

Reception

Box office

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