The Last Man on Earth

1964
Dirs. Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow

Due to a mysterious immunity he acquired when bitten by a rabid bat (!), Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the sole survivor of a devastating global pandemic. By day he spends his time collecting supplies, strengthening his fortifications and destroying the bodies of the living-dead plague victims. By night he boards himself into his house, as hordes of the vampiric post-human creatures leave their hiding places and congregate outside his home, baying for his blood… How much isolation can one person take?

Based on Richard Matheson’s chilling novel, I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth is a creepy, upsetting and thought-provoking exploration of one man’s increasingly fragile mental state as he struggles to accept his isolated existence in a dark new world. This particular adaptation is the most successful in evoking the desperation, mounting hopelessness and quiet dread of its central protagonist: the other two adaptations, The Ωmega Man and I Am Legend, upped the ante, ditched eerie pathos and contemplative meditations on the strength of the human will, to offer us gun-ho action, as Charlton Heston and Will Smith, respectively, blasted away their foes with machine guns and stuff. While still solid, thought-provoking films, Last Man tops both in terms of atmosphere and creeping dread.

‘An empty, dead and silent world.’

Last Man sticks closest to the source material – opting for quiet menace and spine-tingling dread as opposed to manic action machismo. It opens with various shots depicting a city in quiet ruin. Intrigue is immediately established and held vice-like, as we then see images of bodies strewn across streets. It all looks like the morning after the night before the apocalypse. The first glimpse we catch of the protagonist is through the decrepit shutters of his window – a veritable prisoner in his own home. By way of an internal monologue we learn more about Morgan and the unenviable situation he finds himself in – as he admits to feeling sad that he even woke up again, and reveals it has been three years since he ‘inherited the earth.’ We follow him through his mundane routine – we can tell it's mundane because, well, he tells us it is, but also because of Price’s world weary performance. We gradually become aware that he’s barricaded himself into his home and has at least made some effort to cling to a semblance of civilised society – his pad is strewn with books, tasteful furniture, records and food and drink. The exterior of his home is decked out with mirrors and garlic… 

We’re gradually fed more information, both through flashbacks and through Morgan’s actions; moving through the house, occasionally lifting various objects contemplatively, and through the city with a quiet sense of purpose. We follow him on his salvaging expeditions and bear witness to him disposing of the bodies that line the streets. The images of bodies tumbling into a vast and flaming pit are amongst the film’s most striking moments. What becomes clear is that even though Morgan is fast reaching the end of his tether and running out of hope, he still sees the value of maintaining a semblance of order and structure in a chaotic world. Price carries the film – he is in every scene and through the flashbacks his character is fleshed-out fully – a broken man who has lost his family to the plague. Price offers a restrained performance, effortlessly exuding the sadness and waning hopefulness of a desperate individual with the weight of the world on his shoulders. His doomful intoning contains all the elegant and macabre poise one would expect, and he ensures that the audiences’ sympathies lie firmly with Morgan.



The flashbacks are peppered with scientists desperately trying to find a cure for the disease, as society is depicted - as effectively as its modest budget would allow – crumbling into chaos. There are a few issues with continuity and day for night photography, but this can be forgiven due to the unshakable air of bleakness and hopelessness the tale weaves, and of course the haunting performance from the ever-reliable Price. The film remains strangely relevant with its concerns about pandemics and global paranoia. It raises some provocative questions George Romero would also touch on in his Dead movies – it poses the question: how are people supposed to behave logically enough to ‘do away with’ loved ones? A wonderfully creepy scene depicts Morgan’s dire predicament when his dead wife returns to the house and begins clawing softly at the door, calling out to him. It would seem this film, as well as Carnival of Souls had a strong impact on Romero – the sight of the shuffling undead congregating around a house and baying for the flesh of its inhabitant are overwhelmingly similar and equally unsettling to those depicted in his work.

‘More of them for the pit.’

When a strange woman shows up, apparently showing no signs of infection, and talking of other survivors like her, events take a sinister turn. Morgan, initially cautious of Ruth (Franca Bettoia), begins to form an attachment to her – she’s the first ‘real’ person he’s met in years. The film poses interesting questions as Ruth suggests to Morgan that it is he who is the ‘real monster’. He has become as much of a legend in this new society - a veritable bogeyman - as vampires once were to his world (hence the title of Matheson's novel, I Am Legend). *Spoiler alert* Snippets of conversation about evolution add a strange and worrying power to the figures of the survivors. The subversion of religious connotations at the film’s climax and the fact that Morgan’s death seems to cement the hopelessness of this new world, ensures the film ends on a devastatingly bleak note.

While far from perfect, The Last Man on Earth is a largely faithful adaptation of Matheson’s novel, and all the better for it. Its timeless themes of isolation, hope, loneliness, and fraying humanity are as potent now as they’ve ever been. A thoughtful and effectively creepy film, that unfolds as the character study of a man who wakes up and finds himself alone in a dark new world.