[DVD] The Last Man On Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price from Movie Classics

Studio: Movie Classics
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Vincent Price gives an atypically restrained performance as the sole survivor of a worldwide plague that revives its victims as bloodthirsty vampires. During the day, he canvasses his abandoned hometown, tracking down and stalking his former friends and neighbors, always making sure to return before nightfall, when the dead rise to assault his fortified house. Hope arrives in the form of an apparently normal young woman (Franca Bettoia), but her agenda proves to be even more sinister than that of the vampires.

Based on the 1954 novel by coscripter Matheson (whose displeasure with the final product spurred the use of a pseudonym), this Italian-made production is best known for its influence on George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The similarities between the two films go beyond the presence of shuffling zombies and housebound heroes; both feature taboo-breaking scenes of interfamilial murder, and both end on bleak, dystopian notes. While The Last Man on Earth lacks the political and darkly satirical shadings (and graphic gore) that make Night of the Living Dead a more memorable experience, the combination of Bava-esque Gothic atmosphere and bleak, documentary-style camerawork by directors Ragona and Salkow (the brother of Price's agent Lester Salkow) lend themselves to moments of pure frisson that compare laudably to Romero's film. Matheson's novel also provided the source material for the awkward 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man. A planned third version, helmed by Ridley Scott and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was shut down in its earliest stages due to skyrocketing budget costs. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews:

One good, one OK.......2007-06-14

"Panic in the Year Zero" is an outstanding movie. It is as timely today as it was when made. "The Last Man on Earth" is OK and Vincent Price carries the day. It did show its European production style with a lot of fits and starts and no smoothness in continuity.

Buy the set for "Panic in the Year Zero" which is thought-provoking and a good survival primer. Watch "The Last Man on Earth" on a rainy day.

Great stuff.......2007-05-26

I remember seeing Panic when I was just a little (like maybe eight or nine years old) kid. It was on TV and I thought it was great. Having watched it now, as an adult and having grown up during the Cold War, I see just how great it really was. In a sense, it was visionary in its portrayal of society's reaction to a nuclear attack. Miland's performance was incredible as were the other actors in the film. Add to that fact that Miland also directed this film and I believe it truly shows the man's talents and genius. Yes, there was a level of nostalgia for me as I watched it, but the film points to some very significant issues that I feel we all need to address.

I have not yet watched Last Man but will do so soon.

The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place.......2007-02-26

I bought this(these) movies basically because I enjoy the MGM Midnite series(bringing you b-movies gems of the past at a decent price).
Panic in the yEar Zero is a good/alright movie-it's the first movie that Ray Milland directed, and it was written by Jay Simms,who also wrote the cult favorite "Creation Of The Humanoids".
The real reason I bought this was to get a decent print of "The Last Man On Earth"-written by Richard Matheson(under a pen name of Logan Swanson).
There are other print on dvd around (and probably a lot cheaper too)but this is a great print, and as a extra BONUS there's an video interview with Richard Matheson as well.

Last Man.......2007-02-16

I really just bought this for "The Last Man on Earth". For years I have picked up various copies of this movie only to be disappointed by the quality of the picture and sound. When I saw this MGM version I bought it and hoped for the best. I can honestly tell you this is the best version I have seen. Fantastic sounds and picture for a 40 year old movie. Based on the Matheson novel "I Am Legend", this movie is a must for Price fans and fans of the vampire/zombie genre. Panic in the Year Zero is really just a bonus for me. I had never seen the movie. Though it is very dated, I guess it was quite racey for the times, and probably very scary with the Cuban Missle crisis right around the corner. This film is of nice quality as well. This is well worth the asking price.

Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean).......2007-02-02

I received this movie in a very timely manner and it was in great condition. The DVD looked like it was transferred directly from the film itself. It was grainy and had that old theater quality,which at first I was a little annoyed by, but as the movie continued, it sort of made everything a little more authentic, like listening to a record on vinyl.

The movie itself was a mixed bag. Anything with Vincent Price is at least worth a look, and this movie served as not only a very close adaptation of a well known story(I am Legend by Richard Matheson) now under production at a major studio, but as a direct inspiration for one of the best horror films ever-Night of the Living Dead. All those facts about the movie peaked my interest and I was very excited to be able to see it. I came away from the experience satisfied, if a tad underwhelmed.

The plot of the movie revolves around a plague that has devastated the world population. All the victims of the disease die, then return as a weak strain of vammpire. We're not talking abuot typical vampires though, they have all the weaknesses but none of the strengths. They're physically weak, and their brains function at minimal capacity. Vincent Price plays a man who is apparently the only surviving member of humanity. By day he wanders the streets collecting supplies and finding the vampires resting places and killing them. By night he holes up in his barricaded house and waits out the inevitable attempts to break in by an ever growing grouop of the undead, one of which was an old friend. In the last quarter of the movie, he stumbles upon another survivor who is not what she appears.

The pluses of the movie are several, Vincent Price being one as his performance oozes a quiet desperation and his excitement at finding someone else alive is palpable. He has the weight of carrying the film and does so wonderfully. The night attacks have a great creepiness about them and you can definatly see a direct link to NOTLD in these scenes. The biggest difference being the fact that these living dead creatures talk. One of them(Vincents characters friend) pounds away endlessly at the barred window calling his name over and over in a dry, monotone wail. Its a great spooky moment. The scenes during the day are well done too. Showing the monotony of having his set routine planned out every day and there are several striking images, most namely a giant fire pit that burns constantly giving him a place to dispose of bodies. The shortcomings of the movie however almost balance out the good stuff. the movie is a little dated and the acting of most of the secondary characters(primarily introdcued in flashback) verge on cheesy in that old Hollywood Melodramatic vain. Scenes of Mr Price and his family(who contacted the disease) vary from forced to heartbraking as Mr Price has to deal with watching his daughter die. For the most part though these scenes are a little overexplanatory and sometimes unnecessary. These scenes provide some of the main frustration with the movie, portraying the bleakness and hopelessness of the story but done with clunky overbearing acting, along with that old hollywood opinion that audiences can't figure things out for themselves, so explain,explain,explain. Mr Price has several voiceovers at the beginning of the movie as well that seem extraneous. His voiceovers when used as a tool to set up the story and portray his lonliness work very nicely, but when used to illustrate very simple points the really don't need verbalization, become very frustrating very quickly.

All in all though,if you like classic horror and if you want to see an old school end of the world flick that has the guts to tack on a bleak ending that most movies of that era wouldn't, you could do alot worse.

Average customer rating:

Biggest "creep out" you'll get at this price!
a fairly faithful adaption of the fine Richard Matheson novel
Oldie But A Goodie
Surprisingly good, and effective
28 Days Later Probably Copied This Great Film

Last Man on Earth
Starring: Franca Bettoja , Emma Danieli , Vincent Price , Giacomo Rossi-Stuart , and Tony Cerevi
Director: Ubaldo Ragona , and Sidney Salkow
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Soylent Green

ASIN: B0002HODU4
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Customer Reviews:

Biggest "creep out" you'll get at this price!.......2007-01-03

I saw this movie on TV when I was a child and it totally creeped me out! It may be a "B" movie, but it's totally effective in immersing the viewer into the post apocalyptic hell of the "last man on earth".

To me one great aspect of this movie, other than the sheer horror and dread created by the ambiance of the movie, is that it starts out horror but ends sci-fi. Very cool!

So, now I own the DVD and I haven't watched it yet because I'm afraid to watch it by myself! Well, not really, but almost. Actually, I want to watch it with one or more people who have never seen it before in order to see their reactions. Oh well, nine months to Halloween!

a fairly faithful adaption of the fine Richard Matheson novel.......2006-10-24

Matheson himself had a hand in the screenplay based on his book "I Am Legend." The book is as much a psychological study of a lonely man struggling to maintain his sanity in a hostile world as it is a post-apocalyptic tale about vampires. It's hard to translate that sort of introspection to the screen, and the movie doesn't succeed very well. Neither is the movie very scary. In one scene in which the lead character Neville is caught outside after dark, he has little trouble dealing with the vampires. Imagine yourself surrounded by the equivalent of sluggish, not very bright six year olds ineffectually attacking you. The rest of the time the vampires spend shuffling around his house, beating on his door, and shouting his name. It's unclear why he even bothers to put out garlic and mirrors as the vampires seem too feeble to break into his home.

Vincent Price struggles gamely but is miscast as Neville. The last thing you want in a movie of this kind is someone who's rather creepy himself; you want a solidly normal actor as a counterweight to the very strange world around him. As I recall, in the book Neville is irritated by his neighbor Cortman shouting his name every night and becomes obsessed, somewhat humorously, with finding where he sleeps during the day so he can kill him; that would have given this film a little narrative drive. As it is, Neville seems purposeless. That's probably accurate for someone in his situation, but it's not compelling to watch.

There are a few good scenes, as when he receives an unexpected visitor in the early stages of the plague and there's pathos when he finds a dog which has somehow survived. You can also see the influence of the slow moving vampires on later films like "Night of the Living Dead." However, the movie has dated badly and compares unfavorably to "The Omega Man" and recent efforts such as "28 Days Later."

Oldie But A Goodie.......2006-08-01

The Last Man on Earth is a Twilight Zone-like horror movie about the sole survivor of a mysterious plague that has turned the remaining population into living dead. Bob Morgan (Vincent Price) lives in his home, which he has turned into a fortress against the vampire-like undead. Having lost his wife and daughter, he is on a crusade to search the city and kill all the creatures by day.

The story and cinematography is well-paced. The eerie silence of the present is punctuated by flashbacks of happier times. The flashbacks also explain what happened during the early stages of the outbreak.

Recommended. DVD has no subtitles, English or otherwise, or dubbing available.

Surprisingly good, and effective.......2006-04-13

I was expecting much worse after viewing "The House on Haunted Hill" which was just silly and bad. This movie was interesting and "modern" in it's sensibilities right up to the end where it veered sharply into religious allegory that doesn't quite fit.

Vincent Price plays a scientist who experiences the coming plague and the downfall of mankind. Except that they won't all stay down: the undead can rise up and wander around looking for things. They can apparently prey on one another but this does not seem to be diminishing their ranks significantly. The totems of a vampire movie are all rather curiously trotted out: the garlic, the mirrors, the wooden stake through the heart. This vampire motif is questioned later when the undead are offed by metal stakes, and even guns. Our hero, Dr Morgan, is momentarily bemused by this observation but the suggested thread that perhaps these undead are not vampires but somehting else, the vampire thing having been suggested by his friend and coworker before the plague, is not pursued.
There is a lengthy pre-quel that demonstrates how our hero has been reduced to living. I enjoyed those scenes quite a bit and they were rather creepy and scary. A dog shows up just to depress him, then a woman. It turns out that the woman is infected but keeping herself alive with some sort of injected "de-fibrinated blood vaccine". There is, she tells him, a whole burgeoning society of half-cured undead (think:"AIDS") living in the city, and to them HE is the scary monster that walks by day, killing the undead with stakes! "Some of them were alive!" she tells him and the horror and shock of who he is to the others is revealed. It finally occurs to him to give the woman a blood transfusion which saves her (she can stand to see herself in a mirror again...) but she is unable to prevent Dr Morgan's execution at the hands of the angry mob. In a church, no less.
So overall, pretty good and creepy but the ending was weak. 4 stars.

28 Days Later Probably Copied This Great Film.......2006-04-11

This is by far the best zombie film I have ever seen. And although I loved 28 Days Later they did it here first. The film is haunting, creepy, mesmerizing, very cold war- really, really well done and very scarey. This is truly a film worth buying. Vincent Price is outstanding and there are some sexy women in here too.

Average customer rating:

One good, one OK
Great stuff
The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place
Last Man
Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean)

The Last Man on Earth
Starring: Vincent Price , Franca Bettoia , Emma Danieli , Giacomo Rossi-Stuart , and Umberto Raho
Director: Sidney Salkow , and Ubaldo Ragona
Manufacturer: Madacy Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000897C9
Release Date: 2003-03-04

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Customer Reviews:

One good, one OK.......2007-06-14

Great stuff.......2007-05-26

The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place.......2007-02-26

Last Man.......2007-02-16

Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean).......2007-02-02

Average customer rating:

One good, one OK
Great stuff
The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place
Last Man
Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean)

The Last Man On Earth
Starring: Vincent Price , Franca Bettoia , Emma Danieli , Giacomo Rossi-Stuart , and Umberto Raho
Director: Sidney Salkow , and Ubaldo Ragona
Manufacturer: St Clair Vision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Sci-Fi | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Monsters & Mutants | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Futuristic | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Science Fiction | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Voodoo Island/The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (Midnite Movies Double Feature)
The Omega Man
Cult Classics: Earth vs. the Spider/War of the Colossal Beast
Day the World Ended/She Creature
Tales of Terror/Twice Told Tales (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

ASIN: B0001GH79U
Release Date: 2004-02-10

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

One good, one OK.......2007-06-14

Great stuff.......2007-05-26

The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place.......2007-02-26

Last Man.......2007-02-16

Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean).......2007-02-02

Vincent Price: House on Haunted Hill/Last Man on Earth/The Bat

Average customer rating:

Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price: House on Haunted Hill/Last Man on Earth/The Bat
Starring: Vincent Price
Manufacturer: Pop Flix
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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House of Wax
The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
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ASIN: B000EQ47K4
Release Date: 2006-04-11

Description

Hero of horror Vincent Price stars in three silver scream classics! In House on Haunted Hill (1958, B&W, 75min), an eccentric millionaire (Price) invites several of his enemies to a party at his creepy mansion. Each guest who survives the night will receive $10,000 - but will anyone be alive to collect the reward? In Last Man on Earth (1964, B&W, 86 min.), a nightmarish apocalyptic vision of a zombie invasion, a global airborne virus has transformed Earth's population into vampire-like creatures. Scientist Robert Morgan (Price) is the last living soul on earth. He hunts the sleeping monsters by day, but at sundown he becomes the hunted, stalked by zombies thirsting for his blood. Murder, mystery and terror reign in The Bat (1959, B&W, 80 min.), a bone-chilling thriller starring Price, Agnes Moorehead and Darla Hood. A creaky haunted house has a hidden fortune of stolen money, and the bodies pile up as a mysterious prowler known as "The Bat" tries to uncover the loot.

Customer Reviews:

Last Man on Earth.......2007-01-17

My hubby liked this movie the most because of the 50's and early 60's cars shown parked and being driven in this sharp B and W movie. Vincent Price is wonderful...this movie is the obvious precursor to Night of the Living Dead, and Charlton Heston's The Omega Man. This is a wonderfully acted, greatly photographed early film. This is truly a gem.

Discontinuities have to be forgiven, this is the proto-ur-zombie movie. It is not bloody, but has it's psychological moments.

House on Haunted Hill/The Last Man On Earth

Average customer rating:

paid under five bucks
Two must-see Vincent Price classics
A nice surprise
A great value for Vincent Price fans on a budget
A Strictly "Subjective" Assessment

House on Haunted Hill/The Last Man On Earth
Starring: Vincent Price , Carolyn Craig , Richard Long , Elisha Cook Jr. , and Carol Ohmart
Director: William Castle , Sidney Salkow , and Ubaldo Ragona
Manufacturer: Diamond Ent. Corp.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again!
The Haunting
The Omega Man
The Tingler

ASIN: B00004WGAB
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Customer Reviews:

paid under five bucks .......2007-03-11

They just don't hold up all that well. Last Man... is better than the other, although that's not saying much.
Also, you can see where George Romero borrowed heavily for his Night of the Living Dead flicks.

I must add: Richard Matheson is a highly respected genre writer. Besides writing LAST MAN ON EARTH (among other books and screenplays) He's the guy who wrote the excellent DUEL,
starring Dennis Weaver. Get it, if you've never seen it.
I really don't blame him or the late Vincent Price for the way LAST MAN... turned out. It's really not a bad flick...and yet you can't help feeling that it should have turned out far better, that the material was there...

Hey, if you're about ten years old...you might get a real kick out of it.

Two must-see Vincent Price classics.......2005-09-20

It doesn't get much better than this twin-bill of Vincent Price classics. I consider The House on Haunted Hill to be one of the best haunted house movies ever made. The effects may seem somewhat silly to modern audiences, but the simplest frights are often the most effective. The plot itself is gratifyingly complex and twisted, and the ending is by no means disappointing. Anyone with an interest in the horror genre should find this Vincent Price gem to be quite a hoot. Then there's The Last Man on Earth, which is one of the best horror movies ever made, period.

As a jaded modern horror fan, I can't say The House on Haunted Hill really scared me, but I daresay that if you put a couple of hundred people inside a modern movie theatre and showed this film to them, you would get some delightful screams and jumps out of your audience. A movie such as this belongs in black and white, and the whole mood is appropriately creepy. The director left almost nothing out: creaking doors, apparitions, secret rooms, screams (almost so many they become annoying), skeletons, thunder and lightning, organ music, moments of total darkness, a pit of acid, and - of course - Vincent Price.

Mr. Loren (Price) is an eccentric man of wealth throwing a haunted house party for his fourth wife (who is as anxious to kill him as he is to kill her). He promises to pay $10,000 to anyone who can make it through the night. Five strangers make up the party guests - a former test pilot, a society newspaper columnist, a psychiatrist, an unassuming, vulnerable young lady, and the house's owner, who keeps going on and on about the murders that took place there. Naturally, weird things start to happen, and then all of the party goers find themselves locked in the house prematurely with no hope of escape until morning. Naturally, rather than stay together, the houseguests end up wandering around on their own, and the impressionable young lady is especially traumatized throughout the evening by what she sees and experiences. There are games afoot, the full extent of which are not revealed until the ending of the film. In its original theatrical release, the ever so fiendish director William Castle had a skeleton rigged inside each theater that would appear above the audience's heads at the appropriate time - I would love to have experienced that.

The Last Man on Earth is based on Richard Matheson's incredible novel I Am Legend, in my opinion the second best vampire novel ever written. Price plays Morgan, a man left completely alone in the world by a plague that wiped out the rest of the population, including his wife and young daughter, three years earlier. The virus behind the plague was a vampiric bacillus, so all of the people who died and were not destroyed by fire have come back as vampires. Luckily for Morgan, the vampires are quite weak and simple-minded, for they attack his fortified home every night in an effort to get in and kill him. By day, Morgan goes out hunting the walking nightmares and driving stakes through their hearts, but there are so many that the project seems almost useless. Midway through the movie, we are treated to a pretty extended set of flashbacks to the early days of the virus and the deaths of Morgan's wife and daughter. Toward the end, Morgan is shocked to find a woman wandering outside during the day, the first human being he has seen in three years. He takes her home with him and thus sets the stage for the movie's memorable climax.

Obviously, Vincent Price carries this movie on his own back, given the fact that the vast majority of the action takes place around him and no one else. He plays things rather subtly for the most part, which I found quite effective. His memories make him laugh sometimes, but Price's signature laugh evolves quite effectively into sobs of anger and frustration. The most poignant moments of the film, in my opinion, come when Morgan finds a dog outside his house, the first living creature he has seen in three years. The dog initially runs away from him in fear, but the suffering creature eventually comes back. Morgan cleans him and fixes up his wounds, but the new friendship he exults over soon becomes just another tragedy. The movie doesn't dwell on the dog episode nearly so much as Matheson does in his novel, and for this I am grateful because I find it heartbreaking. The little dog gives an incredible performance, but as is so often the case the canine actor does not even merit a mention in the credits.

The Last Man on Earth really is a remarkably good movie and really showcases the immense acting abilities of Vincent Price. I wish it would have delved into the science of the virus much more intensely than it did; the scientific aspects of Matheson's story are what make it such a phenomenally good vampire novel. The script writers did take some liberties with the concluding scenes, but it is really for the best because the novel's conclusion would not have worked in this medium without the audience being given a much more penetrating look into the minds and motives of the characters involved. Some might find the movie creepy, but there is really nothing here that will disturb the timid viewer-the camera never actually shows any of the gruesome acts that tend to be committed by human beings against vampires and vice versa. Somber and depressing as it can be, The Last Man on Earth is the type of distinguished horror movie that should appeal in some way to just about everyone.

A nice surprise.......2005-05-09

I bought this for the movie that I remembered, House on Haunted Hill, which on watching again is a pretty cheezy piece of work. The other movie, Last Man on Earth, I had never heard of, and recognised only from the intro on the DVD which told me in so many words that it was based on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I found I really liked this movie. In a sense, it's like many other 50's and 60's movies in that the bad guy(s) lose. That's the only resemblance, however. In the first part we see Vincent Price as the relentless vampire slayer. Others have commented that these don't seem like "real" vampires, but who knows what they would really be like anyway. We've seen too many Dracula remakes where the vampires are quick, agile, mean and clever. Who is to say they can't be slow, stupid, weak and evil? Anyway. In the second part, we are given the story of the beginning of the plague, which resmebles The Stand, only about 99.99999999% fatal. One survivor, to be exact. As the third part progresses, we start to see new possible candidates for the good guys (behaving just like we do in the old Dracula movies). Finally we see Price for what he has become, a legendary creature of terror, in a total reversal from the vampire as the shadowy creature in all the other stories. You have to see it. This is a great piece of work for all it's faults.

A great value for Vincent Price fans on a budget.......2005-04-02

This "House on Haunted Hill"/"Last Man on Earth" double feature is one of the better buys on the public-domain DVD market. The prints of both films are passable (it's an exaggeration to claim these are "digitally remastered"), and certainly of better quality than the TV prints that have been circulating for years. Both films, of course, feature the late legend Vincent Price and while neither film could be considered his best work there's plenty here Price fans will enjoy.

Vincent Price may have built his career around low-budget horror films, but he was a movie star in the truest sense of the word. His very presence helped to elevate an average film to something memorable. While some find his mannerisms and demeanor campy, I find the glee with which he portrayed the disturbed and obsessed very refreshing. "House on Haunted Hill" bears a strong similarity to any number of forgettable faux-haunted house movies, and "Last Man on Earth"'s plot is a second rate Twilight Zone adventure. But Price's performances make both of these not only worthwhile but memorable. "The Last Man on Earth," in particular, features an excellent turn by Price.

If you're a Price fan who could care less about extras and aren't too fussy about sound or picture quality, snatch up this DVD while they last.

A Strictly "Subjective" Assessment.......2003-04-05

I first saw this film in my mid-teens, when I had no critical faculties whatsoever. In those days, Bergman and Fellini would have bored hell out of me (Fellini still does), and "Citizen Kane" would have left me cold. And many of the films I used to love as a child now strike me as boring. But for some reason, "Last Man on Earth" continues to plunge me into a state of pleasurable gloom, and I keep returning to it every other week like some sort of drug, or one of those amulets cinematic hypnotists dangle before their victims while coaxing them toward some nefarious climax.

I won't attempt an "objective" review of this film, since I'm far too familiar with it, so my impressions are visceral rather than analytic. Also, I long ago ceased to care about the plot (which is amply detailed in many of the other reviews included here). The acting? Here, too, I'm too close to it to make a reliable assessment. I'd have to say that Vincent Price is only slightly hammy in his role as a weary vampire-hunter, and in one scene, where he's vocally mourning the loss of his wife, "Virge," he lapses into some rather embarrassing self-consciousness. The only other aspect of the film that annoys me ---- from an adult vantage point, that is ---- is the atrocious dubbing of the Italian actors, and the ridiculous exhortations of the vampires as they surround the protagonist's house, trying to lure him outside.

Otherwise, "Last Man" still strikes me as one of the best examples of atmospheric film-making in the history of the genre, and it is on this level that I can wholly immerse myself in its special qualities. It does not really resemble any other film ever made ------ much like the international collaboration, "Daughters of Darkness" in that respect. It does not even resemble "Night of the Living Dead," though it clearly influenced that film thematically. It has that sleazy, low-budget quality that most true horror fans love, but other than that it is sui generis.

Part of the power of the film, I believe, is that it concentrates largely on the situation of a totally isolated character, surrounded by alien beings with whom he has no chance of communicating. The fact that he loses both his wife and a close friend to this "enemy camp" only adds to his sense of despair (not to mention a stray dog which he briefly befriends before discovering that it, too, has succumbed to the "vampire germ").

The music score, while not in the class of Bernard Herrmann or Maurice Jarre, is nevertheless wonderfully appropriate for the film, and assists the production with just the right touch of eeriness. Parts of it spill over into excess, perhaps, but it's the right kind of excess.

Customer Reviews:

NOT A BAD SCI-FI..........2006-01-18

Terrible plots, bad acting, hilarious dialog and effects that aren't so special not withstanding, I'm a fan of bad science fiction movies. For the most part, I'm not the type to make fun of them. There's just something about them that pulls me which I really can't put into words. So I bought this movie (more accurately, I bought a three dvd/9 movie package dirt cheap specifically for this movie) because it sounded intriguing. I found it to be rather captivating. A billionaire, his wife and lawyer go scuba diving while on vacation only to emerge and find it impossible to breath. Luckily, they have several hours worth of oxygen in their tanks. The boat's engine doesn't fire, matches don't light and they can't breath. It's become apparent that somehow, the oxygen supply was completely drained while the three were submerged. From that point, the movie turns from its sci-fi premise to a case study of human behavior during an apocalyptic event. The actors involved performed their roles professionally. I detected no campiness and because of this, they made the love triangle and dire uncertainty aspects of the plot believable. Interestingly enough, I don't consider this to be in the bad sci-fi category for a number of reasons. The acting was good and because the movie was more of a psycological study of human nature in extreme situations, there weren't any special effects but the cinematography was done very well. There were a number of shots that I made me think "that's pretty creative". Even the fight scenes weren't too laughable. This movie is almost entirely dialog and I thought it was very well done. The ending was a little, shall we say, limp wristed but this doesn't ruin the movie. All in all, I was surprised to find this movie to be this well done.

Only Roger Corman could make the apocalypse this unbelievably boring.......2005-12-01

Roger Corman was the Ernie Banks of filmmaking (the difference being that Ernie Banks was actually good at what he did). Let's make two, Corman said on more than one occasion - we've got this set, we've got some actors, and we've got a few days, so let's make a second movie on-the-fly. And so it was that The Last Woman on Earth was made alongside Creature From the Haunted Sea on location in Puerto Rico. It looks and sounds like the story and dialogue were all made up on the spot - and that's pretty close to the truth. That's the only excuse Robert Towne has for giving us such a miserably boring script. Talk about the world ending with a whimper!

Towne didn't just write the script, though; he also starred in the film (under the name Edward Wain) as lawyer Martin Joyce. He's joined by Antony Carbone (who seems to be attempting to channel both Dean Martin and Bing Crosby simultaneously - with little success) and Betsy Jones-Moreland (the "last woman," as you might have guessed). Martin's a lawyer for shady businessman Harold Gern, who is "vacationing" (far away from an indictment) in Puerto Rico with his wife Evelyn. The three just so happen to be scuba diving when something big happens up above - all of the oxygen in the air mysteriously disappears, killing everyone who wasn't fortunate enough to be hooked up to an oxygen tank at the time. The oxygen soon returns as mysteriously as it vanished, and our three survivors are able to keep on surviving (unfortunately for us, the viewing audience). They hole themselves up in a beachside villa and basically just bicker amongst themselves for the rest of the movie. Harold is a power freak, and his constant planning drives Ev and Martin up the wall (and closer together, although there is not the first trace of any passion in their "romance"). Martin thinks that the whole apocalypse thing makes the Gerns' marriage null and void, but Harold disagrees. The men argue about more than sharing Harold's wife, though. My favorite is the boat argument - there are hundreds of abandoned boats out at the marina, but these two chowder heads actually duke it out over sole control of Harold's boat. Can't we all just get along, what with it being the end of the world and all? The answer to that would be no.

The only good thing about The Last Woman on Earth is the fact that it's relatively short, clocking in at 64 minutes - that's about all a sane person can take of these three incredibly annoying characters. I've seen some bad Roger Corman films in my time, but this has to be the most boring of the bunch.

Post Apocalyptic Gab-Fest..........2005-06-27

This one starts off fairly well. We are introduced to the three main, and as it turns out ONLY characters at a cockfight (!) in Puerto Rico. Antony Carbone (Bucket Of Blood, Pit And The Pendulum) is a self-made zillionaire, Betsy Jones-Mooreland is his wife, and Robert Towne is their lawyer. The trio heads out for a day of fun and scuba-diving, unaware that while they are busy swimming below, the world has come to an end! Upon surfacing, they realize the air is unbreathable, so they use their oxygen tanks to survive until they reach the safety of the shore. It appears that the jungle fauna has replenished the oxygen supply in short order. Corman shows us some desolate, semi-disturbing shots of the aftermath of whatever holocaust has occurred, including a dead child on the side of the road and a ghostly car hitting a curb. Unfortunately, this all happens within the first twenty minutes. The final hour and ten minutes is like an episode of the world's most tedious soap-opera. The three characters argue, fight, pout, and talk-talk-talk their way to the final credits, mostly whining about their "love triangle" situation or waxing philosophical about the evils of money. There is NO action or intrigue (unless you consider half-hearted fist-fights exciting), just excrutiating oration and endless bloviating! I was tempted to throw a lamp through my own TV screen! Good luck with this one...

Dull.......2004-05-22

Having finished Creature From the Haunted Sea early, Corman decided to put the locations and talent he still had on hand to work on another film. Robert Towne wrote the script in a rush at the same time it was being filmed (and at the same time he was acting in it), so don't expect another "Chinatown". A mobster, his wife, and a lawyer are scubadiving when some disaster (maybe an atomic war) burns out the oxygen in the air. They are saved because they still have about an hours worth of air in their tanks and are near an oxygen producing jungle. At first they work together, but a love triangle forms. Some intelligence shines through, but ultimately the film is little more than talking heads and arguments. Nothing profound.

As for the picture quality, the colour has mostly faded to shades of red.

Bad Beyond Belief.......2003-07-22

Don't even think about buying this movie. Awarded 1 star only because ZERO was not given as an option. I received it as a gift ( a GAG gift, as it turns out...) so I felt obligated to watch at least some of it. Bad acting, terrible script, non-existant special effects and a cheesey music score. The only thing worse than the movie itself is the DVD transfer, which features a bleached out, grainy print and miserable sound to go with it. You can't do any worse than this. Spend your [money] on beer or cigarettes.

Great Bloodsucking Vampire Movies (The Satanic Rights Of Dracula / The Devil Bat / The Last Man On Earth)

Average customer rating:

One outta three
Good experience.
A great value for horror fans on a budget
Mediocre disc with one shining standout!

Great Bloodsucking Vampire Movies (The Satanic Rights Of Dracula / The Devil Bat / The Last Man On Earth)
Starring: Great Bloodsucking Vampire Movies
Manufacturer: Bfs Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005QW53
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Description

3 Great Movies on 1 DVD. Star Power, Exciting Genre with Extras on each DVD.

Customer Reviews:

One outta three.......2006-02-24

I purchased this DVD for the original widescreen version of "The Last Man On Earth".
The other two movies are whatever. For $5.00 I won't complain. The Satanic rights of dracula is not for children. It was watchable with popcorn but I doubt I would ever view it again. If you have been looking for the Vincent Price movie in it's original format this is the version at the right price.

Good experience........2005-10-10

The packaging was great, the time of arrival was excellent but the quality of the film was not a digitally remastered copy, its a film made in 1973 which is very old.The film was a gift for partner so it needed to be in good condition. Very good experience. I have bought films a number of times after first experience. Thankyou.

A great value for horror fans on a budget.......2003-01-10

If you aren't overly concerned with the quality of the presentation, this DVD affords you a great chance to see three pretty good horror movies for one low price. "Great Bloodsucking Vampire Movies" is a bit of a misnomer, though. There's really not very much bloodsucking to be found here, and one of the movies technically has nothing to do with vampires at all. The Satanic Rites of Dracula is a Hammer film from the early 1970s featuring Christopher Lee's final portrayal of Count Dracula and a movie-saving performance by Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing. Even though there doesn't seem to be quite enough of it, this is the only one of the movies featuring any real blood; you don't get to see any real bloodsucking, but it is strongly implied that blood was sucked at some point. I think The Devil Bat is one of Bela Lugosi's finer horror films. He plays a scientist whose buddies got rich off of his formula, making him want nothing more than to seek revenge on them. He does this by using some kind of electroshock treatment to greatly increase the size of a bat, then releasing the aptly named Devil Bat on his victims after getting them to try his new, strongly-hated-by-bats aftershave concoction. Thus, there are no vampires here, but Lugosi portrays the well-liked yet secretly twisted mad scientist role to perfection. The definite highlight of this DVD, though, is Vincent Price's sterling performance in The Last Man on Earth, a movie based on Richard Matheson's incredible novel I Am Legend. A plague of sorts has spread throughout the world, killing everyone except for the seemingly immune scientist Robert Morgan. The dead don't stay dead, though, because the virus is a vampiric one. These vampires are more like zombies, though; all they do is gang up around Morgan's house every night trying to get past his barricaded doors and windows. Price gives an amazing performance, and the film can be quite touching in the moments when Morgan thinks he has found another survivor and won't have to be so completely alone anymore. Presented in a widescreen format, this old black and white masterpiece looks and plays much more impressively than the other two movies. This DVD is more than worth the price for The Last Man on Earth all by itself, so consider the other two movies as very special bonuses.

Mediocre disc with one shining standout!.......2002-03-08

This low-rent disc of public domain titles contains three movies. The Satanic Rites of Dracula is first, with Peter Cushing, Freddie Jones, Joanna Lumley and Christopher Lee as Dracula. Not a highly regarded Hammer Dracula film, and not a good presentation. Although it's widescreen (about 1.85:1), the colors bleed and strobe badly. If you want this one, seek out ASIN 6305183406. The Devil Bat, one of the most common public domain titles (I previously had two copies on DVD already), stars Bela Lugosi and... isn't awful, just fair. Presentation is what you'd expect from such an old film in the public domain. Better DVD editions exist. The third feature is the first film version of Richard Matheson's classic story "I Am Legend" - called The Last Man On Earth, starring Vincent Price (later made as Omega Man with Charlton Heston). This is an excellent movie with a wide cult following. It's been on DVD before (full-frame), paired with The House on Haunted Hill. But this all leads me to why this disc is a must-buy:

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is presented in WIDESCREEN at last!

It might have been mastered from the rare widescreen laserdisc release (rare because it was released in the waning days of the format) and although the picture's a bit fuzzy, it's vastly satisfying to see the full frame at last (about 2.35:1). It's infinitely better than any previously existing VHS version, and the print is clean with decent contrast so it looks better than the other DVD release, too.

Product Description

Horror Classics 4 Pack Vol. 2 - Dementia 13, The House on Haunted Hill, The Last Man on Earth, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues

System Requirements:

Running Time 303 Mins.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Average customer rating:

Good one!

Last Man on Earth (B&W)
Starring: Last Man on Earth
Manufacturer: Critic's Choice
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009O9GHA
Release Date: 2006-08-29

Product Description

Vincent Price relished his hammy roles in Roger Cormans many horror flicks, but the iconic actor gives an utterly compelling performance as a scientist who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by savages and vampires. Although it was remade into The Omega Man and influenced George Romeros Night of the Living Dead, Prices gripping performance lives on through this film and the bonus unsold TV pilot The Left Fist of David (1958/26 min.), costarring Peter Lorre and Thomas Gomez. B&w/NR.

Customer Reviews:

Good one!.......2007-04-13

Not the best screen quality...but still a fun watch. Plus I enjoyed the added bonus short movie.

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