The Omega Man (1971)

 

Based on the 1954 Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend, this story of the last man to survive a global pandemic hits a little too close for comfort these days.  The fact that the pandemic here is the cause of germ warfare doesn't do much to assuage the feeling that caused the hairs to stand up on the back of my neck either.  Charlton Heston plays survivor Robert Neville one of the last living humans who has not been turned into an albino mutant.

 

By day he hunts "The Family", a group of the mutants who cannot stand the daylight.  The Family is led by Matthias (Anthony Zerba) a former news reporter.  By night the roles are reversed and Neville hides inside his fortified apartment building.  Eventually, with his sanity slipping, Neville finds Lisa and a small group of young survivors.  Lisa is played by Rosalind Cash.  The film is historic as it features one of the first biracial kisses in film history between Heston and Cash.  Cash remarked that it was odd kissing Moses referring to Heston's role in The Ten Commandments.     

 

 

I am a big Richard Matheson fan and I really like the novel I am Legend.  This is probably the weakest of the films based on the novel (I Am Legend with Will Smith and The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price are both better films IMO) although all three I recommend.  I'll leave it up to you to decide which one you prefer.  This is somewhere around two and a half or three pairs or dark sunglasses out of five and since I don't do quarter grades, it barely squeaks out three pairs of dark sunglasses out of five.