The Last Man On Earth - Movie Review
By Monica Sullivan
"The Last Man On Earth" is among Vincent Price's saddest, scariest films. It is NOT a pretty film to watch. Photographed in stark black and white by 35 year old Italian cinematographer Franco Delli Colli, the film looks like a shoestring effort to document the end of the world as we know it. We know it isn't, because who would make such a movie?
The only recognizable human is Vincent Price's Robert Morgan. Everyone else is a vampire or a corpse. Robert's looking for a cure, but his heart isn't really in it. Everyone he knew and loved is gone. Still he forges on, in a despondent state of shock. Ubaldo Ragona directed in Italy and Sidney Salkow (who'd made "Twice Told Tales" with Price two years earlier), was responsible for dubbing the Italian dialog into English.
Two far more lavish movies of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" were later released: 2007's Will Smith version and 1971's "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. Each adaptation has its own flaws, but for me, "The Last Man On Earth" is the creepiest and most premonitory.
"The Last Man On Earth" is among Vincent Price's saddest, scariest films. It is NOT a pretty film to watch. Photographed in stark black and white by 35 year old Italian cinematographer Franco Delli Colli, the film looks like a shoestring effort to document the end of the world as we know it. We know it isn't, because who would make such a movie?
The only recognizable human is Vincent Price's Robert Morgan. Everyone else is a vampire or a corpse. Robert's looking for a cure, but his heart isn't really in it. Everyone he knew and loved is gone. Still he forges on, in a despondent state of shock. Ubaldo Ragona directed in Italy and Sidney Salkow (who'd made "Twice Told Tales" with Price two years earlier), was responsible for dubbing the Italian dialog into English.
Two far more lavish movies of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" were later released: 2007's Will Smith version and 1971's "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. Each adaptation has its own flaws, but for me, "The Last Man On Earth" is the creepiest and most premonitory.
© 2009 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 10/21/09
Movie Magazine International
Movie Magazine International
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