User reviews

"The Last Man on Earth" is an English language, Italian production of Richard Matheson's classic horror tale "I Am Legend", starring the great Vincent Price in the titular role.

This story was also done with Charlton Heston as "The Omega Man", and "I Am Legend" with Will Smith.

This is probably the best filmed version of this story I have seen. The black and white photography is fantastic, as is the direction, which really makes you believe you are witnessing a post-apocalyptic scenario. Above all, Vincent Price is surprisingly well cast as the titular last man, haggard, face drawn, less an action hero than a scientist trying to solve the problem of apocalypse.

The creatures in the movie are apparently vampires - they cannot go out in the day time, and they must be "staked" - yet they behave much more like the kind of zombies that George Romero would change the horror landscape with a few years later. I wonder if he was inspired by this film.

This one seems to be less well known than others in Vincent Price's filmography -- possibly because the title makes it sound more like a romantic comedy.

In this first filmed version of Richard Matheson's superb short novel "I Am Legend", though, Price really shines in one of the best performances of his career. Far superior to its 1971 remake "The Omega Man" -- as if we needed yet another "Charlton Heston vs. the subhuman hordes" outing after "Khartoum" and "55 Days In Peking" -- the script follows Matheson's book almost scene-for-scene, but then, I think the author always wrote with one eye on the movie or TV rights.

Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a worldwide plague that kills its victims, only to resurrect them as zombie vampires. (His own immunity was conferred by the bite of a vampire bat infected with a weaker version of the virus, when he was doing research in South America.) By day, he systematically searches out the plague victims and destroys them in the traditional Van Helsing manner, retreating to his fortified house when darkness falls and the vampires come out to play. Worst of all, his best friend Ben -- now a vampire -- is part of the crowd that nightly besieges his house, thirsting for his blood.

Unlike "The Omega Man", very little of this film is devoted to Morgan's one-man war against the vampires, who as others have noted have a kind of "Night Of The Living Dead" ambiance, minus the gore. Instead it focuses on his utter isolation, both physical and spiritual, his mission as an exterminating angel the only purpose now left to his life.

A large part of the movie is taken up by a flashback to three years previous, to the beginning of the plague, as his friend Ben arrives at a birthday party for Morgan's daughter bearing an armful of presents. Against the background of the children's shouts and laughter the adults worriedly discuss the appearance of a new virus. The world then proceeds to fall apart in a quietly terrifying re-enactment of the Black Death, complete with National Guard "bring out your dead" units and a 24/7 immolation pit for the anonymous, canvas-wrapped corpses. Morgan's wife and daughter succumb to the virus in a sequence that is quite stunning in its low-key, almost clinical lack of the standard histrionics.

The black-and-white cinematography is as stark and minimalistic as the story (and, admittedly, the budget). The exterior scenes set in a deserted Los Angeles -- well, actually Rome, shot in the early morning -- are often quite effective in mirroring his internal desolation. Cast and crew alike do an excellent job with the material, despite the monetary constraints. Unlike so many in our current "bash you over the head" school of film-making, the real horror of the situation is allowed to speak eloquently for itself.

If you're expecting the high camp of one of Price's Roger Corman flicks, you'll probably be bored stiff by this movie. If instead you're looking for a surprisingly good adaptation of a great story, you can't do much better than "Last Man On Earth".

Richard Matheson's seminal sci-fi horror novel, "I Am Legend", published in 1954, is first and foremost, a character study, and any film producer must come to terms with that, if there is to be a successful adaptation from print to screen. The novel was adapted to screen in 1964 as "The Last Man On Earth"; producer Sidney Salkow, hampered by a tiny budget, intuitively did the best he could and came close to pulling it off! What Salkow did was convey the novel's mood, tone, atmosphere and plot in primitive fashion, crudely capturing the gist of the novel - that of one man, Robert Neville's confrontation with a horrendous existential dilemma - to be, himself, that is; or not to be, a plague- induced vampiric shell. While "TLMOE" was not entirely successful in translation, especially in the ending - co-scripter Matheson ultimately distanced himself from the final product - it nevertheless, clearly outshines a later, technically superior 1971 remake, "The Omega Man" in the aforementioned aspects. "The Omega Man", taken on it's own, is an interesting, entertaining film; but when referenced against the novel, falls flat on it's face. (Matheson himself stated that that film and his novel are two completely different animals.) In contrast, "TLMOE" fares much better when referenced: it shows that Morgan's (Neville's) battle is more with reactions within himself than with the vampires as a physical threat per se, as it becomes obvious that the vampires are slow-moving, dull-minded individually, and disorganized as a group, each instinctively and savagely interested only in HIS blood. Besides the perpetually nightmarish nuisance of the vampires, who have a collectively demoralizing effect on him, Morgan (Neville) must fight against the horror generated by the desolation and doom of a post-apocalyptic world, against the loneliness of being the last human on earth and against the agony of tragically losing his wife and daughter to the plague. In the final analysis, "The Last Man On Earth" could be likened to a series of crude, but brilliant brush-strokes of feeling-tones. As such it fully deserves cult-classic status.

I'm not sure why this film is as underrated as it is. This is an amazing, depressing and in many ways brilliant film based on the Richard Matheson classic novel "I Am Legend". Vincent Price effectively conveys the terror and despair of being the last living man on an Earth that is now overrun with vampires and/or zombies. The depiction of Price's day to day bleak existence is a moving and powerful thing to behold and the continual menace of the hordes of zombies is creepy in the same way as was later depicted in "Night of the Living Dead". In fact, as noted by others here, one can not watch the scenes where the zombies lay siege to Price's boarded up house and attack his car without recognizing how close these scenes would later be copied by George Romero in his classic zombie films. If you are a fan of horror film history or just looking for a classic and unique film with an interesting story, track down this lost gem.

The vincent price one! Black and white. The title says it all. It's him against the zombie people that keep coming and trying to get into his house. We hear his thoughts, as he goes shopping and plans out his defense against the intruders. This one isn't bad! Price had made so many cheesy, campy horror films in the 1950s and 1960s, where he played the organ and laughed at his own jokes. This one is played quite seriously. It's pretty good. Fifty five minutes in, he walks past a building that looks like a space ship, it's still a working restaurant in rome... ristorante il fungo, and has a web page. Directed by sidney salkow. He had directed a bunch of the lone wolf films with warren williaim, back in the 1940s. Based on the book by richard matheson. He had a bunch of his short stories and novels made into film.

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.

Vincent Price stars as Dr. Richard Morgan, the apparent sole-survivor of a world-wide plague that has turned humans into vampire-like creatures that come out at night, trying to kill him. He has barricaded himself in his home at night, but ventures out in the day to gather supplies, and kill any of the "undead" he can find. He will come to discover that he isn't in fact the "last", but he may as well be...

Based on the famous novel by Richard Matheson, film doesn't really succeed, despite a good performance by Vincent Price. Script is full of holes, and becomes dreary and ultimately unsatisfying, even unintentionally funny at times. Has really good source material that explores and attempts to explain vampire lore, and the reasons behind it(like garlic and mirrors) but this is barely covered. Has some atmosphere, but not enough.

When a plague devastates life on Earth, the population dies or becomes 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 learns that there are other survivors. He uses his blood to heal Ruth 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 we do not know how far we might be from such sad end of mankind. Vincent Price has a great performance in this movie, particularly in the beginning of the insanity of his character showed when he sees a photo of his family. The screenplay is very well developed, but the violent conclusion is weird. 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.

On 15 March 2014, I saw this movie again.

Having seen dozens of Vincent Price films over the years, I was surprised to realize I had never seen this classic. A wild, eerie schlock-fest, this re-telling of Matheson's "I Am Legend" comes across as a truly nightmarish tale, albeit not without some faults.

The title succinctly explains the entire plot of the film and the book upon which its based. What isn't explained in the title is that the last man on Earth now finds himself fending off legions of roving monsters - ex-humans who now thirst for blood.

The film, which is set in small-town America but obviously filmed overseas, walks a thin line between creepy and silly. The "vampires" thud against Price's front door like mindless zombies, chanting "Come out" over and over. One viewer might find the image and accompanying, hollow voice quite horrifying, while another could easily see it as low-budget campiness. While I loved seeing Price bed down for the night with a cup of tea and loud jazz music while the monsters mindlessly attack the exterior of his house, the image is equally ridiculous if one tries to take it seriously in the context of the film.

Surprisingly enough, I found this film to pale in comparison to 2007's I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. Not one to enjoy modern remakes, I found this superior feature captured the emptiness of Matheson's classic novel with much more tenacity. While the first film version of this book is still a fun ride, I am surprised to recommend the latest version of this story with a bit more enthusiasm.

In my review of the recent remake of I AM LEGEND I made the point that Richard Matheson's source novel is probably unfilmable for several reasons . Having recently seen this 1964 adaptation which sticks to the story rather closely my fears were confirmed

There's nothing more difficult than to make a solitary literary character cinematic andaudience friendly . Thought processes are turned in to expositional voice over and all screen writing gurus agree that you should never use voice over to tell a story and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is full of expositional voice over . What makes it worse is that original author Richard Matheson ( Writing under pseudonym Logan Swanson ) co-wrote this screenplay . Couldn't the story have started with the plague sweeping across America thereby eliminating the need for any exposition ? We could have started the story from the beginning with the audience discovering the plot turns as Robert Morgan discovered them ? A much better way of narrative storytelling

It's not just the storytelling that's the problem , it's the production values too . TLMOE was filmed in Italy and the director Ubaldo Ragona seems to have been influenced by Italian Neo-Realism . Can there be a more tedious cinematic movement than Italian Neo-Realism ? The directing doesn't make a fantastical story anymore credible it just makes the on screen events drag along at a snail's pace . Indeed there seems to be an abrasive clash of styles as we're shown slow burning visuals alongside cheap horror gimmicks such as intrusive melodramatic music . There's other niggling things too like a child who looks like she's at death's door and her mother wondering if she should be sent to school ! Things like this makes characterization ridiculous

Since the film revolves around a major protagonist that the audience have to latch on to it's imperative that an actor of charisma is cast and I'm afraid that Vincent Price is not that man . He's not helped by the banal dialogue he's given " Everyday there's more of them as I take them to the pit . The pit . The pit " but he's not really the type of actor who can carry a film which explains why he's best remembered for appearing in cheap B movies like this one , but I guess he was fairly cheap to hire

So in effect the best version of I AM LEGEND is the 1971 movie THE OMEGA MAN . I say " best version" because it is cinematic even though it dispenses with the essential subtext of Matheson's novel and goes its own way but that movie was very entertaining where as this movie and the recent Will Smith star vehicle prove that good books tend not to make great movies

The Last Man on Earth is a great film to watch alone. Horror veteran Vincent Price plays Dr. Robert Morgan, a desperate and lonely man who's left alone in an apocalyptic world; A world ruled by zombie-like vampires as a result of a widespread plague. These vampire zombies are highly reminiscent of George Romero's walking dead in Night of the Living Dead. Price does a remarkable job interacting with practically nothing. He's alone throughout the majority of the film. His performance largely carries this low budgeter. When you watch the movie alone, you really feel where his character is coming from and a sense of hopelessness is established. The Last Man on Earth is really a thought-provoking, creepy classic. I recommend it be watched with Charlton Heston's The Omega Man to see another take on the same story (both were based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend").

the last man on earth one of my favourite movies and has a very sad theme. the film is self- explanatory but there are parts where even I get sad and feel for the main character. the film is about dr.Robert Morgan who is trying to survive in a world that has been overrun by vampires. Morgan is a very likable characters and the film gets you to feel and has sympathy for him. he is played by Vincent Price who is very convincing alone in this film but there is his background of him once being happy and then having everything he loves taken away from him. in the movie I am surprised he didn't just stick a gun outside the window and shoot the $h!t out of the one vampire that always calls his name and taunts him. but int he end it is a good and in a way touching the story of survival, insanity, and in the end loneliness.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is a slow, lumbering film that is elevated by inventive photographic techniques and a strong performance by Vincent Price. As the film opens we are told that the world has basically ended, that a plague has swept all the lands. The bad news is that the quickly spreading germ cloud turns the exposed people into vampires. We meet, whom the film suggests, is the only survivor on earth, a Dr. Robert Morgan (Price). Now Morgan has taken it upon himself to rid the planet of as many vampires as he can. He goes out during the day to track and stake the long-toothed badies, discarding them into a large fire pit. Morgan also collects garlic, crosses, and mirrors for the defense of his decaying home. It is revealed, through a stylishly book ended flashback, that Robert was a scientist who lost his wife and daughter in the madness and even now, three years later, he is haunted by the fact that he was not able to save them. Morgan is immune to the disease, although he seems to combat morbid self-pity more than the forces of darkness. One day he is shocked when he finds a woman (Franca Bettoia) out alone in the daylight. I'll stop here only to say that the situation may not be what it seems and that Morgan may discover that he is not, in fact, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH!

As I mentioned above, Price is (mostly) effective in the lead role. During the present day scenes, he is convincingly worn-down and harried. However, during the flashbacks, he struggles somewhat to paint a portrait of the normal family man; the writing here is not the best, and Price's persona as an unctuous villain counteract these scenes. I kept expecting the Morgan character to kill his wife and child, burn down the house and then flee to Mexico, where he would kill some Mexicans, then burn down some churches. Typecasting in movies was much worse during the first half of film's history and Price became known for his darker roles as time filtered out much of his other work. It would be into the "other work" category that THE LAST MAN ON EARTH would heavily fall. The story is a hybrid of science fiction and horror elements which, however, never really finds a workable balance on screen. The film is overlong and many of the sequences become static or pointless as the events slowly progress towards the increasingly surreal conclusion.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is mostly overlooked in favor of Price's more straightforward genre work (THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, THE FLY, various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories) and the story fails to be either good enough, or bad enough, to be memorable. It is worth viewing if one wants to glimpse the origins of films like THE OMEGA MAN, LIFEFORCE, or 28 DAYS LATER; although there are several screen versions of this same story that predate the 64' incarnation. It is also a fine example of that postwar "altered world" genre that film historians are always on about and which, they contend, reflect the fears of an impending nuclear threat that was prevalent at the time. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH will be useful as trivia (or as an erudite reference) at least. It should also prove mildly engaging if you happen to catch it on late-night television and are not expecting too much anyway. 6/10

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is one of those end-of-the-world sagas that posits the notion of what it would be like to live in a largely dead world after some ghastly war or plague with nobody else left. The twist here, taking its basis from Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel "I Am Legend" (the first of three adaptations of that book, in fact), is that you do have one human protagonist left alive, and a world full of things that want to kill him.

Vincent Price stars as Robert Morgan (though he is Robert Neville in both the book and the latter film THE OMEGA MAN, and the 2007 version with Will Smith, under the author's original title), the only survivor of a terrible plague that decimated Earth, and turned everyone into vampires. By day, Price goes out into the city to stake and burn as many vampires as he can. And at night, he must barricade himself against the hordes that prowl around his isolated fortress each night, including his ex-friend Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), wanting to get at him. Price tries to find a logical and scientific explanation for the vampire plague (explained in flashbacks to when the plague began); and in due time, he happens upon another survivor, a woman (Franca Bettoia) who seems to be normal. But there is a fairly diabolical twist that Bettoia turns out to have in store, for both Price and the vampires.

Often seen as a precursor to George Romero's 1968 horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and Danny Boyle's more recent 28 DAYS LATER, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, though very flawed in many aspects due to its rather low budget and its being filmed in Rome (Matheson's original novel is set in post-plague Los Angeles, as is THE OMEGA MAN), does have an extremely high creepiness factor that is very difficult for a lot of horror/sci-fi hybrids to come by, especially today. Price may not have necessarily been the ideal one to play Robert Morgan (one of the many reasons Matheson disavowed the film and used his pen name Logan Swanson for the screenplay credits), but he does a fairly good job all the same. The direction of Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona is fairly perfunctory for the most part, but certain scenes do stand out, including Price being caught outdoors at dusk after visiting his wife's grave; and Price having to see his wife come back from the dead as a vampire.

Matheson's novel remains one of the high points of both horror and science fiction literature, not only in its consistently interesting scientific explanation for vampirism (making it without much doubt the greatest vampire story since "Dracula"), but also because of its basic psychological and scientific horror; and it has proved to be quite impossible to film properly per the author's intentions and still fit Hollywood's insatiable box office need (THE OMEGA MAN differed wildly from the letter of the novel but retained the basic spirit of it, while the Will Smith version is its own creation, still using elements of the novel). But if one ignores the inherent flaws of this near-Poverty Row production, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH can easily be seen as a fairly good cult film of "legend"--and, in many ways, a disturbing and thought-provoking one.

Made four years before Night of the Living Dead, The Last Man on Earth tells a very similar story. Based on Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend", the film tells the tale of a terrible plague that has wiped out all of mankind and replaced them with vampire-zombie like creatures. Well, it's almost wiped mankind out - one man, Vincent Price, still remains. Now that he has inherited the Earth, the last surviving human has to hunt these creatures by day and then hole up in his house during the night. Vincent Price says most of dialogue in voice over, which gives this apocalyptic horror film a great element of pessimism, which is essential in order for the film to work. The way that Price reads his lines is done in such a way that it seems he has simply given up all hope, and this helps the tragic element of the movie, which is this film's main backbone. The dreary black and white cinematography helps this element of the film also, as it adds the degree of hopelessness and pessimism, which this story thrives on.

Quite how this film has reached the ripe old age of forty and still not garnered the praise and respect it deserves is beyond me. While Night of the Living Dead deserves the praise for 'really' creating the zombie movie that we all now know and love, this film got the theme first, and thus deserves it's place in the annals of film history. The story, even without the horror of the zombie creatures, still makes for fascinating food for thought. The idea of being left all alone on the Earth is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying, and by showing us the things that the protagonist has do every day to ward off the vampires (mirrors and garlic on the doors, hunting them by day), along with such quotes as "another day to live through" show the true horror of the idea behind the film. Of course, Vincent Price is one of the greatest actors of all time and his presence in the movie is easily one of the highlights. Price's great screen presence helps to offset the obvious low budget of the film and even during the slower moments, The Last Man on Earth still ensures that we are interested in what's going on, just by the fact that Price is there. On the whole, this is an extraordinarily brilliant film and one that deserves your viewing!

This is a cheesy movie, but due to current events, I give it a ten for that reason only. Vincent Price is Robert Morgan, a scientist studying the plague that wiped out the earth's population, or so it seems. Set in the USA, but filmed abroad - all buildings and foreign cars give it away. Price loses his beautiful wife and child to what he states is a virus (sound familiar?) that travels in the air (sound familiar?). He is the only healthy survivor living in his house loaded with provisions. Those who died and were not burned in pits to destroy their bodies came back as zombie vampires which includes his close friend. Robert goes out daily to finish them off with the approved method of a stake through the heart and locks himself in his home each night while the Zombies attack it trying to get him. He makes new batches of stakes daily in his house at his home lathe. Why not? Not much else to do. Robert traces his immunity to the fact that while working in Panama years earlier, he was bitten by a bat that carried the virus. Yes, a bat. Sound familiar? Not making this up. Way to accurate. Eventually he finds a a sexy young female survivor who is infected by manages to self medicate to stay normal. She states that she had been in hiding for years but still looking good in her skirt, make-up and heels. These plague survivor girls know how to look good in any situation. Turns out she is part of a tribe of similar survivors who are out to kill him cause he staked a few of their group by mistake. Wild chase and battle at the end of the movie with all the members dressed in black, driving jeeps, carrying spears and Russian sub-machine guns chasing him. This movie is the father of the Omega Man and the grandfather of I am Legend. Too spooky due to current events. Fact that it was made in Italy is even more chilling.

By "dreadful" I certainly don't mean "full of dread". I mean dreadful acting, dreadful dubbing, dreadful pacing, and a complete lack of cinematic flow and continuity. (I'm still trying to figure out why you can see Vincent Price's wife's breath during one of the indoor scenes.) The dinner scene between Price and Bettioa borders on sitcom-like comedy with his "let's just ignore those zombie vampires outside trying to break in" attitude.

Price stares intently at the camera and corrugates his forehead now and then. Then he goes shopping for garlic. He tells the audience that he has been alone for 3 years, yet walks into a freezer at the local grocery story full of 3-year old meat without gagging once. And guess what? The garlic is fresh! Yeesh!

I mistakenly thought that this would be one of the sci-fi classics of the 1960's. This movie is so bad that you could mistake it for an Ed Wood flick.