The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Madacy DVD (region 0 NTSC)
d. Sidney Salkow, Ubalda Ragona; pr. Robert L. Lippert; ph. Franco Delli Colli; m. Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter; ed. Gene Ruggiero, Franca Silvi; scr. William F. Leicester, Logan Swanson, Ubalda Ragona, Furio M. Monetti; novel. Richard Matheson; cast. Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (86 mins)
Richard Matheson’s novel I am Legend is an acknowledged classic in the horror genre.
Although it was adapted twice for the screen, consensus holds that neither version does much justice to the source. Shortly after its original publication, Matheson adapted his work into a screenplay for British studio Hammer Films. Hammer reportedly expected too much censor trouble in Britain and so sold the project to producer Robert Hippert who then sought Italian investment. He also had the project re-written. Matheson at one point believed that the film would be a major movie to be directed by none other than Fritz Lang. Needless to say, this did not eventuate and the film that did result, The Last Man on Earth, starred Vincent Price and emerged as a hybrid of Italian science fiction exploitation and a fore-runner to the post-apocalyptic cycle a few years later. Although ostensibly directed by Sidney Salkow, Italian director Ubalda Ragona also contributed, although remains uncredited on many release prints. Matheson sadly detested the film and felt that horror icon Price had been completely miscast in the role. Matheson also had his now co-screenplay credit changed to a pseudonym (Logan Swanson), stopping just short of completely disavowing the movie. Although the film failed to make much of an impression, it was nonetheless remade in 1971 as The Omega Man, with Charlton Heston in the lead role.
The Last Man on Earth takes place shortly after humanity has been virtually destroyed by a biological plague. The seeming lone survivor is a former scientist, Vincent Price, who is somehow immune to the epidemic.
He now relentlessly pursues a violent vendetta against the remaining plague victims, who have been turned into un-dead vampires. He remains in his family home, which he has enshrouded in mirrors and garlic to ward off the vampires who pound on his walls night after night. By day, he kills as many of the sleeping but rather pitiful creatures as he can find and takes their bodies to be incinerated in a still smoldering pit on the outskirts of the city, lest they come back from the dead once again. Haunted by awful memories, he watches his family home movies and recalls the onset of the plague, bemused at how it gradually consumed his loved ones, first his daughter, then his wife and then turned a friend into a hideous rival. His memories go deeper: he tried to prevent his wife being incinerated only to find a most monstrous result, challenging his belief in rationalism. Alone outside one day he sees a small dog. Desperately wanting a companion, he chases it around but it eludes him. One day it returns and he cares for it, only to find that it too has been affected by the plague. However, he soon discovers that he may not be alone after all, and that his blood may hold the key to human survival.
Although somewhat overshadowed by the remake, The Last Man on Earth is nowhere near as negligible as film history has made it. Where the remake became one of genre cinema’s most provocative studies of a narcissistic psychosis, the Vincent Price film is much more downbeat and ironic.
It is ultimately the portrayal of a cold and rational man forced to realize that he must survive in a totally irrational world. In the process, he must admit the failure of everything that had given his life meaning, although he clings to what he considers rational order in his obsessive killings. The man of science has become a pathological exterminator (the film thus slyly alluding to Nazi notions of genocide) in a private war to maintain his prized sense of reason. Price essays this role surprisingly well: he is unusually restrained and in the process captures the sense of despair and defeat with which this man exists, sitting forever on the verge of the resignation to despair but believing such would be the ultimate admission of the failure of reason and rationality. He thus holds out a faint hope of communication but has become an indifferent murderer, arguably as monstrous as the vampires he destroys. His pathological homicides are an attempt to deny the power of the irrational world that has overtaken him and to re-assert rationality. It is this perversion of reason that runs disturbingly and resonantly throughout this film.
The filmmakers see no joy in the end of reason however, making this nightmarish film one of bleak despair rather than nihilism. It is filled with a sense of embittered struggle against the surrender to collapsing rationalism.
Its vampiric creatures shamble along much like the zombies in George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead, although The Last Man on Earth actually predates that seminal film by some years and is ultimately more about personal defeat than visceral terror. The defeatist enigma makes The Last Man on Earth a true re-discovery: a fascinating visualization of a man forced to confront the limits of his scientific objectivity. His dilemma lies in his attempt to disavow his failure and the film makes much out of the suggestion that in this inverted world, his clinging rationality is a form of madness. The latter scenes of the film are thus filled with irony, as Price disbelievingly must consider that he has become a monster. His denial is ultimately filled with notions of genetic purity – his belief that he is uncontaminated and that all others are inferior and doomed to be inhuman. What thus remains intriguing about the film’s structure is its systematic attack on his ideology, made clearest in the harrowing flashback sequence where the fate of his own wife is the last blow to the defenses of his sanely objective, scientific rationalism. For a minor exploitation film, The Last Man on Earth is surprisingly rich.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The letterbox transfer on this DVD preserves the original scope ratio, unlike the horrid pan and scan releases of the film also in circulation. It is grainy, but this aptly adds a newsreel authenticity to the stark, nightmarish desolation. However, blacks and shadows are rather murky. The film creates an eerie sense of isolation in a world of decay (physical, social, psychological), encapsulating the irony of a lone man surrounded by the dead. It is stark rather than stylized in lighting design, more about the absence of feeling and sentiment than about creating or evoking moods, reinforcing ideas of resignation and defeat. Likewise, Price’s restrained manner befits the theme of pathological detachment and its consequences. The film also stresses just how ritualistic Price’s life has become, clearly indicating his need to restore some kind of order and with perfect irony shows that this has become his personal trap. It is low-key in design, but manages to draw parallels between the burning of plague victims and Nazi genocidal practices to enhance its apocalyptic imagery. The flashback nicely depicts the erosion of conventional niceties and shows the impersonal nature of Price’s character. The clash between Price and a former friend is allegorical: the rational versus the irrational. Despite the transfer’s flaws, it captures the film’s strengths well enough to suggest that it has been unfairly neglected and even slyly influential.
Sound
The sound transfer on this DVD is a very minor Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, although this low-key transfer is quite true to what seems the original design of the movie and again enhances the emptiness and resignation so essential to the film’s conception. Stereo approximations are rare but the film does have an eerie, abrasive score at times and a fine dispassionate voice-over narration by Price. Diegetic sounds create an authentic feel for a life lived without talk, but like the remake, The Omega Man, the film is peculiarly afraid to confront the horror of silence and so relies much on the score. This somewhat negates the horror of stillness in his world, and so works against the notion of stagnation otherwise attempted. A sound pop was heard at least once in this transfer, although the affect was not overtly jarring. There are telling moments, as when Price’s laugh turns into uncontrollable sobbing (making for a nice demonstration of the relationship between madness and sorrow). Ironically, there is less score used in the flashback scenes, although the use of human voices in interpersonal communication here underscores the absence of this in Price’s present world. Likewise, Price’s restrained voice shows just how remote this character is – hinting that these events have happened to teach him a lesson. While not a transfer that is designed for home theatre experiences, it suits the film.
Special Features
There are a modicum of special features, including a too-brief biography of the origins of Price’s career, a movie poster, a trivia game and a selection of trailers from vintage 1950s science fiction and horror movies (The Giant Gila Monster, I Bury the Living, The Killer Shrews, Killers from Space). The trailers are of truly poor visual and sound quality. Despite the lack of features, with a reasonable transfer and at its current very low retail price, the DVD of The Last Man on Earth makes for worthwhile viewing.
