Stock footage from the RKO film The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) was used in shots of the crowds filing into the Colosseum. Harpo Marx was considered for the part of Androcles at one time. American feature film debut for Jean Simmons. After principal filming was completed, Howard Hughes decided the film needed some extra sprucing up. He had Nicholas Ray shoot a "Vestal Virgin Bathing Sequence" which immediately ran afoul with censors and enraged producer Gabriel Pascal, among o ...[Read Story ]