Griff Lees
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
mgconlan-1
"The Last Man on Earth" is the first of at least three film versions of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend," a 1954 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel in which the entire human race is hit by an unstoppable plague which first kills its victims and then, if their bodies aren't burned first, turns them into vampire-like creatures. The movie rights were bought by Hammer Studios in 1957 and they attempted to make a version with Fritz Lang as director (now that would have been an impressive coup!) and one of a number of fine British actors (Stanley Baker, Paul Massie, Laurence Harvey and Kieron Moore) in the leading role of Robert Neville - called Robert Morgan in this version - the sole survivor of the plague who's carrying on a one-man war against the vampires. But Hammer placed the film in turnaround and their original U.S. distributor, Robert Lippert, picked it up and decided to make the movie as a U.S.-Italian co-production, filming it in Italy with two directors, Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona. He also hired Matheson to write the script, but then put so many other writers on it - including William Leicester, Furio Monetti and director Ragona - that Matheson had his name taken off the film and replaced by the pseudonym "Logan Swanson." To play Robert Morgan, Lippert hired Vincent Price, and though Matheson thought he was miscast (and Price's presence is a bit problematical if only because in 1963, when this film was made, he was far more identified with old-style Gothic horror than science fiction), Price responded to the rare challenge of a script that not only made sense but gave him a rich, multidimensional characterization in a serious story he didn't have to camp up to make entertaining. During his long reign as King of Horror Price mostly got silly scripts and got through them basically by winking at the audience, as if to say, "I don't take this crap seriously, and there's no reason why you should, either" -but occasionally he got a good script that gave him some real cinematic meat and allowed him to show off what a fine, rangy actor he could be: this film, Roger Corman's "Masque of the Red Death," Michael Reeves' "The Conqueror Worm" a.k.a. "Witchfinder General." I still regret that the finest performance Vincent Price ever gave is totally lost - his one-man show as Oscar Wilde, "Diversions and Delights," which fortunately enough I was able to see on stage in San Francisco in 1977 but, to the best of my knowledge, was never recorded or filmed. (It was also one of the few times Price got to play an actual historical person; others included his role as Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith in the 1940 biopic "Brigham Young" and the real-life "witchfinder general" Matthew Hopkins in "The Conqueror Worm.") Despite the multiple writers and directors - usually a bad sign for any movie - "The Last Man on Earth"is an excellent movie, with Price burning up the screen and avoiding most of his horror-schtick trademarks (though there are a couple of sequences when we hear Price's famous extended laugh, and they seem a bit out of place) in a movie that is effectively staged and edited by the directors. The plot features Price as a vampire hunter who uses the same armamentarium Van Helsing used against Dracula in the story that basically wrote the rules for the classic Gothic vampire genre - the vampires are repelled by mirrors (because they cast no reflection in them) and garlic, and they can be killed by driving wooden stakes through their hearts. He goes about doing this during daylight because the vampires are only active at night, and at night he has to barricade himself inside his home because a gang of vampires regularly attempt to break in and kill him each night. (The sequences of Price erecting the barricades inside his home to ward off the vampires are strongly reminiscent of "Night of the Living Dead," made four years later, and "Night of the Living Dead" director George Romero conceded that this film had influenced him.) Regardless of how it compares to the other versions of this story, including "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston and "I Am Legend" with Will Smith, on its own merits "The Last Man on Earth," despite its relatively crude production values and the problems with Vincent Price as a "type," is an excellent film that gave Price an acting challenge to which he rose magnificently. And the story's premise is so haunting and powerful it's no wonder so many filmmakers have returned to it since!
jacobjohntaylor1
This is a very bad movie. It has good actors in it. Vincent Price was a great actor he made good movies most of time. But this is not one of them. It has an awful story line. The ending is awful. The 1971 remake titled Omega Man is not very good and it is better then this. The 2007 remake I am Legend is a great movie. See that one. Do not see this. It is a horror movie and It is not scary.
Johan Louwet
The hardest was to rate this movie. I thought 6 was too low and 7 seemed too high but given all the good points it has I think it is justified even if I don't think I will watch this movie anytime soon. So it is an apocalyptic movie with Vincent Price as protagonist, a scientist in a world full of infected people. When the infected people die they eventually come back as living dead. They are called vampires but resemble zombies more (because they are slow, weak and pretty dumb) and it looks Romero might have gotten his inspiration from this movie to make his Night of the Living Dead. But a lot of the vampire features are there: the vampires can't stand daylight, are allergic to garlic, have no reflection and can be killed by driving a stake through their heart. The whole story is told in a narrative way since Price's character has no one to talk to most of the movie. By means of flashbacks we get to know how he and the whole planet (well that's my guess) has gotten into this situation. I'm aware that I am Legend is some kind of remake or more recent adaptation from this story but where I thought I am Legend was rather stupid this "original" was much more effective to me. Tragic ending which might have been fitting after all.
