The Last Man on Earth (1964)

 

 Another post to get through, might as well get started.  That's my take on the first line of The Last Man on Earth adapted from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend which was released a decade prior.  This is the first film version of the popular vampire/zombie story.  This version of the film mostly follows the book in that some type of plague outbreak caused most of humanity to either die or turn into a sort of vampire like creature.  During the day Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) hunts them down in hopes of finding their lair as well as make reparations in order to make it through another night.  He does all of this alone as he may just be the last living man in the world.  Matheson helped write the screenplay but hated it so much he quit writing it and didn't even want credit for what he had written.  He is credited however under the name Logan Swanson.  In the book the creatures are quick and able to climb.  Here they are slow and unintelligent and are easily avoided or killed by Morgan.

 

 

To save money the movie was filmed in Italy with mostly an Italian cast and crew.  As with the screenplay Matheson was also unhappy with the film as well.  During a flashback we see the early stages of the outbreak and how it effects Morgan's family and how he looses everyone he holds dear.  One day he finds a dog and unfortunately the dog is also infected so he has to kill it.  I would have rather the dog not be included in the story instead of killing the dog.  I don't hold this against it as much as usual though as it dances around that fine line of when the dog has to be killed.  There are two other versions of this story on film; The Omega Man with Charlton Heston which I didn't like as much as this one and I Am Legend with Will Smith that I felt was slightly better than this is. 

 

I love Vincent Price but I felt he sort of faded into the background even though there's not really a scene he isn't in.  I don't know if it is that the book is just so damn good or what.  It's probably that I'm just not used to seeing such a subdued and laid back performance like Price gives here.  While watching this you can see how George Romero took his lead from this film and by extension the original book to root his Night of the Living Dead story in.  While the book is a masterpiece this not so much but it is definitely well worth the watch at least once.  At one point a story like this was nothing more than fantasy and fiction.  The past few years has shown that this may be more possible than we thought.  I'll give this three strings of garlic out of five.