The Last Man on Earth

Having seen dozens of Vincent Price films over the years, I was surprised to realize I had never seen this classic. A wild, eerie schlock-fest, this re-telling of Matheson's "I Am Legend" comes across as a truly nightmarish tale, albeit not without some faults. The title succinctly explains the entire plot of the film and the book upon which its based. What isn't explained in the title is that the last man on Earth now finds himself fending off legions of roving monsters - ex-humans who now thirst for blood. The film, which is set in small-town America but obviously filmed overseas, walks a thin line between creepy and silly. The "vampires" thud against Price's front door like mindless zombies, chanting "Come out" over and over. One viewer might find the image and accompanying, hollow voice quite horrifying, while another could easily see it as low-budget campiness. While I loved seeing Price bed down for the night with a cup of tea and loud jazz music while the monsters mindlessly attack the exterior of his house, the image is equally ridiculous if one tries to take it seriously in the context of the film. Surprisingly enough, I found this film to pale in comparison to 2007's I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. Not one to enjoy modern remakes, I found this superior feature captured the emptiness of Matheson's classic novel with much more tenacity. While the first film version of this book is still a fun ride, I am surprised to recommend the latest version of this story with a bit more enthusiasm.

I've never read Richard Matthieson's novel, I Am Legend, but know some of his short stories and his work on The Twilight Zone has been consistently admirable. This thing eludes me. The pace is slow, the exposition clotted, the acting below par, and the story depressing. It wasn't until the climax that I realized I'd seen it when it was first released. Not that it made enough of an impression for the film as a whole to be registered in my long-term memory, but I recognized it at once when Vincent Price is trying to escape the mutants and is pelting them with grenades. And I remembered thinking in the theater, "Santa Maria, he's not throwing them like baseballs, he's throwing them like DARTS!" It's not so much that Vincent Price was effete. I mean, the man had fine taste in art and wrote a splendid book of recipes, even though his editor got the ingredients for eggplant parmigiana all fouled up. (Take a second look at the amount of breadcrumbs called for.) It's that Price's range as an actor was limited. I know. Everybody's range is limited. (Woody Allen as Julius Caesar?) But this weak story calls for a dramatic actor of some magnitude as its central figure if the film is to be lifted out of the dismal. It doesn't have much else going for it. Or maybe it's that the story itself, despite its authorship, just doesn't translate well to the screen. The end of the world is one thing. Nice possibilities there, though most of them have already been explored. But must the dead turn into flesh-eating zombies too? That's George Romero territory. And they are afraid of garlic, can't look into mirrors, will die only with a wooden stake through the heart, and only come out at night? Clichés -- every single trait -- after Bram Stoker. Why didn't somebody throw in the crucifix business or a Mogen David? Set the movie in Teheran and have Price spend the whole time searching for some object to turn into a Crescent. Who are these walking dead anyway? They don't rot. They feel sensations because when Price slams a door on one of their arms they howl with pain. And why the wooden stake when thousands of them have just been tossed safely into a fire and meet their personal end? And the mutants machine gun a few who seem to die in proper cinematic fashion. And what do they all have against Vincent Price anyway? Did they run up against the typos in his cookbook? I don't know. Many other viewers seem to think this is a cult film. I've never understood exactly what a "cult film" was. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" certainly qualified because attending a showing dressed in outrageous gear was a rite of intensification -- at least it was at the Chestnut Theater in San Francisco when I saw it. And I suppose others might be "cult films" if they were minor and unrecognized masterpieces of the genre. "The Last Man on Earth," though, seems to me to be only minor and unrecognized -- period.

Of the three films based on I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth is my personal favourite. I also liked The Omega Man, though didn't care for the 2007 film I Am Legend. This futuristic horror is very engrossing stuff, slowly paced yet deliberately so with an ending that has always moved me. There may be lapses in logic in the script, however so much compensates. The sets and filming are minimalistic and stark, and this approach adds much to the apocalyptic feel of the story. The score is haunting, the creatures are appropriately creepy, the film is beautifully directed and the story is full of suspenseful yet beautiful atmosphere. Vincent Price here gives one of his more restrained performances, often interacting to little or nothing, very different from the arch yet sympathetic roles that show him at his very best. While also stoic and vulnerable, he shows terror and despair brilliantly. All in all, engrossing with a different but wonderful performance from Price and a real sense of atmosphere. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The great Vincent Price has starred in many essential Horror films that qualify as masterpieces, and "The Last Man On Earth" of 1964 is doubtlessly one of his most memorable films. "The Last Man On Earth" is the only Horror film the World's greatest Horror actor (and my personal all-time favorite actor), Vincent Price, ever made in the greatest Horror-country, Italy (actually, it's an Italian/American co-production), and this is certainly not the only memorable fact about the film. Directed by the under-appreciated Ubaldo Ragona, who sadly directed only four other films, none of which became a success, "The Last Man On Earth" predates George A. Romero's Horror milestone "Night Of The Living Dead" by four years, and it can easily be cited as the famous Zombie flick's main inspiration. But not only is the film one of the most important origins of the modern Zombie film, out of all films I've seen, this one is probably THE film that has the most realistic atmosphere of the apocalypse. The horrifying idea of being the last person alive on Earth is brought to screen in a brilliantly menacing manner, and Vincent Price was the perfect man to play the role. A mysterious epidemic has exterminated mankind, leaving the immune Dr. Robert Morgan (Price) behind as the sole survivor. Morgan, whose wife and daughter were, as anybody else, killed by the plague, is in desperate search for another person alive. He is also desperate to defend himself, as the plague victims come back from the dead by night, longing for the blood of the living - his... The film is the first adaptation of Robert Matheson's novel "I Am Legend". The story was re-filmed as "The Omega Man" with Charleton Heston, which is decent, but way inferior to this one and, more recently as "I am Legend" starring Will Smith, which I haven't seen (and probably never will). This first, and incomparably brilliant film is a must-see for everyone interested in motion pictures. Maybe more than any other film, this proves what a brilliant actor Price was. His desperation, his monologues,... no other actor could have possibly played this role as ingeniously as Price does. There is a constant feeling of doom, the atmosphere is menacing and apocalyptic beyond comparison, yet "The Last Man On Earth" is a compelling Drama just as much as it is a stunning Horror/Sci-Fi flick. The exploration of Robert Morgan's psyche, and his longing for the company of a fellow being is maybe more significant an aspect of the film than the fact that he has to fight off the vampire-zombies that the victims have become. The living dead here are not yet the brainless flesh-eaters of later Zombie flicks, but basically thinking people who happen to crave for blood. The film's black and white cinematography is as amazing as the the story itself - Seeing Vincent Price drive his car through the empty streets is one of the great pictures in 60s Horror cinema. This film is simply amazing in all aspects. Incredible film!