The Last Man
on Earth

The Movie

Based on Richard Matheson's SF thriller "I am legend", the movie is about a man who survives a global plague only to be stalked nightly by undead victims who call out his name. Vincent Price stars as Robert Morgan, a scientist who tried desperately to come up with a cure for a virus that was killing people around the globe. Although he could not develop a serum in time to save his family - not to mention the rerst of the world - he himself seems to be immune from the disease.

• Directed by Sidney Salkow
• Based on Richard Matheson's novel 'I Am Legend'
• Writers: William F. Leicester, Richard Matheson (as Logan Swanson)
• Cast:
  Vincent Price as Robert Morgan
  Franca Bettoia as Ruth Collins
  Emma Danieli as Virginia Morgan
  Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ben Cortman
  Umberto Raho as Dr. Mercer
  Christi Courtland as Kathy Morgan
  Antonio Corevi as Governor
  Ettore Ribotta as TV Reporter
• Produced by Robert L. Lippert
• Original Music by Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter
• Cinematography by Franco Delli Colli
• Film Editing by Gene Ruggiero, Franca Silvi
  
  

Review

Age and Vincent Price have blessed this movie with a reputation for being a fine attempt to film a classic book. Sadly, neither the book, the movie, nor Mr Price deserve the reverence. It's a poor story, made into a cheap movie. Price is not at his best.

As the failed and lonely scientist condemned to watch his family and friends die around him, Price might be forgiven for sleepwalking through a morose voiceover and a lonely existence.

But if he were so conscious of being that Last Man, surely he's do more than board up the windows of his suburban semi and spend his days dumping staked vampires into a tip?

And the vampires? The undead problem follows an airborne plague, and the victims have nothing in common with vampires, except a fear of mirrors and an allergy to garlic; the vampire claim is tenuously linked to Our Hero's immunity following a bat bite. Which no-one troubles to investigate, even our hero until a little late in the day.

The undead lurch around like any respectable zombie; having a particular joy in whacking walls with seven foot poles, occasionally breaking a window. There's no hint of any traditional vampire powers, or blood sucking, or ifection via the fangs; of which there are none. They don't even want to consume or turn our hero; just to kill him.

As a zombie movie, it's a little "so what", as a vampire movie, forget it.