THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is one of those end-of-the-world sagas that posits the notion of what it would be like to live in a largely dead world after some ghastly war or plague with nobody else left. The twist here, taking its basis from Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel "I Am Legend" (the first of three adaptations of that book, in fact), is that you do have one human protagonist left alive, and a world full of things that want to kill him.
Vincent Price stars as Robert Morgan (though he is Robert Neville in both the book and the latter film THE OMEGA MAN, and the 2007 version with Will Smith, under the author's original title), the only survivor of a terrible plague that decimated Earth, and turned everyone into vampires. By day, Price goes out into the city to stake and burn as many vampires as he can. And at night, he must barricade himself against the hordes that prowl around his isolated fortress each night, including his ex-friend Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), wanting to get at him. Price tries to find a logical and scientific explanation for the vampire plague (explained in flashbacks to when the plague began); and in due time, he happens upon another survivor, a woman (Franca Bettoia) who seems to be normal. But there is a fairly diabolical twist that Bettoia turns out to have in store, for both Price and the vampires.
Often seen as a precursor to George Romero's 1968 horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and Danny Boyle's more recent 28 DAYS LATER, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, though very flawed in many aspects due to its rather low budget and its being filmed in Rome (Matheson's original novel is set in post-plague Los Angeles, as is THE OMEGA MAN), does have an extremely high creepiness factor that is very difficult for a lot of horror/sci-fi hybrids to come by, especially today. Price may not have necessarily been the ideal one to play Robert Morgan (one of the many reasons Matheson disavowed the film and used his pen name Logan Swanson for the screenplay credits), but he does a fairly good job all the same. The direction of Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona is fairly perfunctory for the most part, but certain scenes do stand out, including Price being caught outdoors at dusk after visiting his wife's grave; and Price having to see his wife come back from the dead as a vampire.
Matheson's novel remains one of the high points of both horror and science fiction literature, not only in its consistently interesting scientific explanation for vampirism (making it without much doubt the greatest vampire story since "Dracula"), but also because of its basic psychological and scientific horror; and it has proved to be quite impossible to film properly per the author's intentions and still fit Hollywood's insatiable box office need (THE OMEGA MAN differed wildly from the letter of the novel but retained the basic spirit of it, while the Will Smith version is its own creation, still using elements of the novel). But if one ignores the inherent flaws of this near-Poverty Row production, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH can easily be seen as a fairly good cult film of "legend"--and, in many ways, a disturbing and thought-provoking one.
Vincent Price stars as Robert Morgan (though he is Robert Neville in both the book and the latter film THE OMEGA MAN, and the 2007 version with Will Smith, under the author's original title), the only survivor of a terrible plague that decimated Earth, and turned everyone into vampires. By day, Price goes out into the city to stake and burn as many vampires as he can. And at night, he must barricade himself against the hordes that prowl around his isolated fortress each night, including his ex-friend Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), wanting to get at him. Price tries to find a logical and scientific explanation for the vampire plague (explained in flashbacks to when the plague began); and in due time, he happens upon another survivor, a woman (Franca Bettoia) who seems to be normal. But there is a fairly diabolical twist that Bettoia turns out to have in store, for both Price and the vampires.
Often seen as a precursor to George Romero's 1968 horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and Danny Boyle's more recent 28 DAYS LATER, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, though very flawed in many aspects due to its rather low budget and its being filmed in Rome (Matheson's original novel is set in post-plague Los Angeles, as is THE OMEGA MAN), does have an extremely high creepiness factor that is very difficult for a lot of horror/sci-fi hybrids to come by, especially today. Price may not have necessarily been the ideal one to play Robert Morgan (one of the many reasons Matheson disavowed the film and used his pen name Logan Swanson for the screenplay credits), but he does a fairly good job all the same. The direction of Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona is fairly perfunctory for the most part, but certain scenes do stand out, including Price being caught outdoors at dusk after visiting his wife's grave; and Price having to see his wife come back from the dead as a vampire.
Matheson's novel remains one of the high points of both horror and science fiction literature, not only in its consistently interesting scientific explanation for vampirism (making it without much doubt the greatest vampire story since "Dracula"), but also because of its basic psychological and scientific horror; and it has proved to be quite impossible to film properly per the author's intentions and still fit Hollywood's insatiable box office need (THE OMEGA MAN differed wildly from the letter of the novel but retained the basic spirit of it, while the Will Smith version is its own creation, still using elements of the novel). But if one ignores the inherent flaws of this near-Poverty Row production, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH can easily be seen as a fairly good cult film of "legend"--and, in many ways, a disturbing and thought-provoking one.