The Last Man on Earth (1964)

When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.

Director:

Ubaldo Ragona

Writers:

William F. Leicester (screenplay), Richard Matheson (screenplay),

Stars:

Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli

Cast

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

Storyline

Dr. Robert Morgan is the only survivor of a devastating world-wide plague due to a mysterious immunity he acquired to the bacterium while working in Central America years ago. He is all alone now... or so it seems. As night falls, plague victims begin to leave their graves, part of a hellish undead army that''s thirsting for blood...his!

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Plot Keywords:

plague | vampire | survivor | disease | night | 

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Taglines:

Alive among the lifeless... alone among the crawling creatures of evil that make the night hideous with their inhuman craving!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Italy USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 March 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Damned Walk at Midnight

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produzioni La Regina, Associated Producers (API)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although this is much more faithful to the book than The Omega Man and I Am Legend which are based on the same novel, it changes the main character's name from Robert Neville to Robert Morgan, while the other two leave it unchanged.

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Goofs

The first time Morgan goes searching for corpses to incinerate, he puts a man and a woman into the back of his station wagon head first. When he arrives at the garbage dump, the woman is now lying feet first in the back of the car and has switched sides with the man.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

Referenced in Night of the Living Dead (1968)

User Reviews

Amazing film! The apocalypse rarely felt this real.

I never read Richard Matheson's novel 'I am Legend' but I'm particularly intrigued by (science fiction) movies with an apocalyptic theme. And this adaptation simply is one of the most fascinating stories of an already brilliant decade for this type of films. Much more than a grim horror film, this is a gripping drama with an excellent (as always) Vincent Price as the sole and devastated survivor of a deadly plague that exterminated the entire human race, including his own wife and daughter. Price is Dr. Robert Morgan and due to his immunity to the lethal germs, he's the only one to fight victims who return in the shape of vampire/zombie-like creatures. Even though it has already been 3 years, Morgan desperately continues his search for other survivors…This is one of the most impressive performances Price ever gave away, and a lot more difficult than his usual roles of villains and madmen. Judging by today's standards, I guess the film looks very dated and you can't really refer to the tame 'vamp-zombies' as threatening anymore. But the empty streets and depressing cities, shot in unsettling black and white, still are the ultimate in eeriness! I love it when a film makes you feel miserable and worried…and the lower the budget is, the more efficient this effect is reached!

Like several of my fellow-reviewers already pointed out, this also was an immensely influential film. You can't watch 'Last man on Earth' without being reminded of George A. Romero's milestone genre film 'Night of the Living Dead'. If you then realize this movie was made 4 years before Romero's classic, you can't but reckon the underrated brilliance of this film. The same hopelessness-aspect that made Romero's film so tense features HERE first, in 'Last Man on Earth'! This production offers an ideal proportion of frights and sentiments, luckily without too many tedious scientific speeches or faked drama. 'Last Man on Earth' has to be seen by every SF/horror fan on this planet. For some reason this is one of the most underrated genre efforts ever, and that urgently has to change.