The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Director:

Ubaldo Ragona

Writers:

Richard Matheson (novel) and
William F. Leicester (writer)

Release Date:

8 March 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Drama

Tagline:

By night they leave their graves, crawling, shambling, through empty streets, whimpering, pleading, begging for his blood!

Plot:

Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a devastating world-wide plague due to a mysterious...

Plot Keywords:

Plague | Night | Survivor | Charnel Pit | Transfusion

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Dr. Robert Morgan
Franca Bettoia	...	Ruth Collins
Emma Danieli	...	Virginia Morgan
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Ben Cortman
Umberto Raho	...	Dr. Mercer
Christi Courtland	...	Kathy Morgan
Antonio Corevi	...	Governor (as Tony Corevi)
Ettore Ribotta	...	TV Reporter (as Hector Ribotta)
Rolando De Rossi

Also Known As:

L'ultimo uomo della terra (Italy) (dubbed version)
Naked Terror
Night People
The Night Creatures
Vento di morte
Wind of Death

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA | Italy

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG (2007) | UK:X (1966) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Australia:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

E.U.R., Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Associated Producers (API)

Trivia:

Richard Matheson felt Vincent Price was miscast as Robert Morgan.

Goofs:

Plot holes: When Morgan returns home at night and is fighting the vampires he opens his unlocked front door and enters. The marauding vampires should have been able to enter the home, before his arrival, with the door unlocked.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Robert Morgan: Another day to live through. Better get started.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "TCM Underground: Madhouse/The Last Man on Earth (#1.12)" (2006)

Frightening and Dark View of the Fate of Mankind

When a plague devastated life on Earth, the population died or became a sort of zombie living in the dark. Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the unique healthy survivor on the planet, having a routine life for his own survival: he kills the night creatures along the day and maintains the safety of his house, to be protected along the night. He misses his beloved wife and daughter, consumed by the outbreak, and he fights against his loneliness to maintain mentally sane. When Dr. Morgan finds the contaminated Ruth Collins (Franca Bettoia), he uses his blood to heal her and he becomes the last hope on Earth to help the other contaminated survivors. But the order of this new society is scary.

"The Last Man on Earth" is a frightening and dark view of the fate of mankind. In those years, the preoccupation with radiation and biological weapons due to the cold war leaded people to this type of fear and preoccupation; later with AIDS; and presently with the disease in chickens. Fortunately science has developed means to cure or at least avoid epidemic situation, but I do not know how far we might be from such sad end of mankind. Vincent Price has a great performance in this movie, and I particularly liked the beginning of insanity of his character showed when he sees a shooting of his family. The screenplay is very well developed, but I did not like the violent conclusion. I always thought that George A. Romero was the creator of the "zombies", because of his excellent 1968 "Night of Living Dead". But now I can see that the origin of these creatures was in "The Last Man on Earth".

When I was a teenager, the remake "The Omega Man" was a very successful film in the movie theaters. I had not had the chance to see the original movie, since "The Last Man on Earth" (and "The Omega Man") had not been released on VHS or DVD in Brazil. Fortunately a minor Brazilian distributor has just released "The Last Man on Earth" on DVD, giving me the chance to see this great unknown movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mortos Que Matam" (Dead That Kill")

Obs: On 25 May 2008, I watched this great classic movie again.