The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)

The Last Man on Earth
A promotional film poster for The Last Man on Earth.
Directed by	Ubaldo Ragona Sidney Salkow
Produced by	Robert L. Lippert Samuel Z. Arkoff Harold E. Knox
Written by	Novel: Richard Matheson Screenplay: Furio M. Monetti Ubaldo Ragona William Leicester Richard Matheson (as Logan Swanson)
Starring	Vincent Price Franca Bettoia Emma Danieli Giacomo Rossi-Stuart
Music by	Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter
Cinematography	Franco Delli Colli
Editing by	Gene Ruggiero Franca Silvi
Distributed by	American International Pictures (US) 20th Century Fox (international)
Release date(s)	8 March 1964
Running time	86 min
Country	United States Italy
Language	English

The Last Man on Earth (Italian: L'ultimo uomo della Terra) is a 1964 science fiction horror film based on the Richard Matheson 1954 novel I Am Legend. The film was directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, and stars Vincent Price. The script was written in part by Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and chose to be credited as "Logan Swanson". William Leicester, Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo Ragona were the other writers.

The Last Man on Earth was filmed in Rome, Italy, with some location shots taken at Esposizione Universale Roma. It was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures, and has since fallen into the public domain. MGM Home Video, the current owners of the AIP film catalog, released a digitally remastered widescreen print on DVD in September 2005.

Plot

In the year 1968, every day is the same for Dr. Robert Morgan (Price): he wakes up, gathers his weapons and then goes hunting for vampires. Morgan lives in a world where everyone else has been infected by a plague that has turned them into undead, vampiric creatures that cannot stand sunlight, fear mirrors, and are repelled by garlic. They would kill Morgan if they could, but fortunately, they are weak and unintelligent. At night, Morgan locks himself inside his house; during the day, he kills as many vampires as he can, burning the bodies.

A flashback sequence explains that, three years before, Morgan's wife and daughter had succumbed to the plague, before it was widely known by the public that the dead would return to life. Instead of taking his wife to the same public burn pit used to dispose of his daughter's corpse, Morgan buried her without the knowledge of the authorities. When his wife returned to his home and attacked him, Morgan became aware of the need to kill the plague victims with a wooden stake. Morgan hypothesizes that he is immune to the bacteria because he was bitten by an infected vampire bat when he was stationed in Panama, which introduced a diluted form of the plague into his blood.

One day, a dog appears in the neighborhood. Desperate for companionship, Morgan chases after the dog but does not catch it. Some time later, the dog appears, wounded, at Morgan's doorstep. He takes the dog into his home and treats its wounds, looking forward to having company for the first time in three years. He quickly discovers, however, that it too has become infected with the plague. Morgan is later seen burying the dog, which he has impaled with a wooden stake.

After burying the dog Morgan spots a woman in the distance. The woman, Ruth, is terrified of Morgan at first sight, and runs from him. Morgan convinces her to return to his home, but is suspicious of her true nature. Ruth becomes ill when Morgan waves garlic in her face, but claims that she has a weak stomach.

Morgan's suspicion that Ruth is infected is confirmed when he discovers her attempting to inject herself with a combination of blood and vaccine that holds the disease at bay. Ruth initially draws a gun on Morgan, but surrenders it to him. Ruth then tells him that she is part of a group of people like her — infected but under treatment — and was sent to spy on Morgan. The vaccine allows the people to function normally with the drug in the bloodstream, but once it wears off, the infection takes over the body again. Ruth explains that her people are planning to rebuild society as they destroy the remaining vampires, and that many of the vampires Morgan killed were technically still alive.

While Ruth is asleep, Morgan transfuses his own blood into her. She is immediately cured, and Morgan sees hope that, together, they can cure the rest of her people. Moments later, however, Ruth's people attack. Morgan takes the gun and flees his home while the attackers kill the vampires gathered around Morgan's home.

Ruth's people spot Morgan and chase him. He exchanges gunfire with them, and picks up tear gas grenades from a police station armory along the way. While the tear gas delays his pursuers somewhat, Morgan is wounded by gunfire and retreats into a church. Despite Ruth's protests to let Morgan live, his pursuers finally impale him on the altar with a spear. With his dying breaths, Morgan denounces his pursuers as "freaks," and declares that he is the last true man on earth.

Production

Rights to Matheson's novel had been bought by producer Anthony Hinds for Hammer Productions. Matheson wrote a script but the British censors would not allow its production so Hinds sold the script to Robert Lippert. Lippert originally told Matheson that Fritz Lang was to direct but eventually Sidney Salkow was chosen. To save money the film was shot in Italy with a predominantly Italian cast and crew.

There are differences between the film and the novel in which it's based. The protagonist of the novel is named Robert Neville, not Robert Morgan. The movie also changed the protagonist's profession from plant worker to scientist. The film's vampires are almost zombie-like, whereas in the book, they are fast, capable of running and climbing. The dog that shows up on Neville's doorstep is timid in the novel, and comes and goes as it pleases. The relationship with Ruth also slightly differs from the novel, and no transfusion takes place; a cure seems implausible, even as Neville hopes he will find one. Ruth escapes after Neville discovers that she is infected. He is not captured until many months later, and even then he barely fights. The book ends shortly before Neville is to be executed: Ruth returns to give him suicide pills, and finds it ironic that he has become as much of a legend to the new society as vampires once were to his (hence the title). The novel implies that the vampire plague resulted from a biological disease. The origin of the disease is not explained in The Last Man on Earth, and is altered in the subsequent adaptations.

Release

Although "The Last Man on Earth" was not considered a success upon its release, the film later gained a more favorable reputation as a classic of the genre. As of November 2011, "The Last Man on Earth" holds a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Phil Hall of "Film Threat" called "The Last Man on Earth" "the best Vincent Price movie ever made." Awarding the film three and a half stars out of four, Danél Griffin of "Film as Art" said, "Directors Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona and star Vincent Price (giving a poignant, straightforward performance) are able to conjure up some genuine chills here, mainly in the use of stark, black-and-white images and the underlining mood of the piece."

Among the less favorable reviews, Steve Biodrowski of "Cinefantastique" felt the film was "hampered by an obviously low budget and some poorly recorded post-production dubbing that creates an amateurish feel, undermining the power of its story", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" remarked, "Some would consider this version better than the 1971 remake with Charlton Heston, "The Omega Man", but that isn't much of an achievement."

Among the film's creators, Price "had a certain fondness for the film" and felt it was better than the 1971 "The Omega Man". Richard Matheson co-wrote the film's screenplay, but was unhappy with the results. In order to keep receiving residual income from the film, though, he had to be credited, and so used the name "Logan Swanson" - a combination of his wife's mother's maiden name and his mother's maiden name. Author Matheson remarked, "I was disappointed in "The Last Man on Earth", even though they more or less followed my story. I think Vincent Price, whom I love in every one of his pictures that I wrote, was miscast. I also felt the direction was kind of poor. I just didn’t care for it."

Legacy

George A. Romero has acknowledged the source material of "The Last Man on Earth" as an influence on his film "Night of the Living Dead", remarking that he "basically had ripped [it] off from a Richard Matheson novel called "I Am Legend"." Numerous critics have suggested "The Last Man on Earth" film itself was also a source of inspiration for "Night of the Living Dead".

The film was featured in an episode of "Deadly Cinema".

The film was first remade in 1971 starring Charlton Heston and Anthony Zerbe, with Rosalind Cash under the title "The Omega Man" with Neville as a exiled immune U.S. Army bio-war scientist living on the top of his old Los Angeles townhouse with all his books, art and laboratories and weapons, fighting Zerbe's half-human black-cloaked creatures of the night with several interesting episodes occurring in old familiar surroundings like the interior of the Los Angeles City Hall and the Memorial Collseum and a funny one with Neville repeating back the dialogue from the crowds in the 1970 movie "Woodstock" as he watches in an abandoned theatre by himself. The Omega Man followed by a later remake starring Will Smith in the 2000's under the original book title, "I Am Legend".

Cast

• Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan (in others as Robert Neville)
• 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 the Governor
• Ettore Ribotta as the TV Reporter
• Rolando De Rossi
• Carolyn De Fonseca dubbed for Ruth Collins' voice in the English release of the film. She was uncredited.
• Giuseppe Mattei as the leader of the survivors. He was also uncredited.

See also

• List of films in the public domain

External links

• The Last Man on Earth at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last Man on Earth is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• The Last Man on Earth at AllRovi
• Complete stereo soundtrack of the Paul Sawtell/Bert Shefter film score released by the "Monstrous Movie Music" label (sound samples available)
• Audio transcription of the film (Part 1) (Part 2) at the Internet Archive.
• Cine Fantastique Review
• The Last Man on Earth on Livestream