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It's not every day that you see three distinct movies made out of the same source material, in this case, Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, a classic work of science fiction whose concept has endured over four decades and a trio of variations. The Last Man on Earth (1964) is the most basic in terms of style and available resources of the adaptations. With a few barren sets and the services of lead actor Vincent Price all work to instill its inherently creepy magic upon viewers. The cast also stars Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Christi Courtland.
Price plays Robert Morgan, a man who has like the meek has seemingly inherited the earth. Three years have passed since a mysterious plague wiped out most of mankind, turning survivors into horrific zombies who wander the streets at night. A former doctor who blames himself for not finding a cure, Morgan spends the later hours hiding out in his home and his days ridding the city of any ghoul he comes in contact with.
Vincent Price & Franca Bettoia
It truly does seem as if he's the last human on the planet, until he crosses paths with Ruth Collins (Franca Bettoia), a woman apparently uninfected by the disease. Her presence fills Morgan with hope that there more like him out there and there is a potential cure for the plague. But he has little time to figure things out, for the hordes of undead have begun to gather en masse, plotting to end Morgan's life before he can end theirs.
As much as I admire Vincent Price, I'll admit that not all of his movies were of the finest caliber. Like Boris Karloff, he had a reputation for being an actor of true merit stuck shilling his talents in B-movie hell. But as a result, Price was usually the best part about such dreck, and it goes without saying that he walked away with his fair share of home runs.
The Last Man on Earth is one of these pictures, another low-budget endeavor from the infamous American International line that just so happens to be pretty darn good. The film's production was relatively cheap, a fact that director Sidney Salkow doesn't even try to disguise. Aside from Price, the cast consists of mostly Italian actors, each one dubbed over to their own degree of hilarity. The foreboding setting is definitely cost-effective (an empty street here, a deserted field there), though that doesn't stop the occasional bystander from making their way into the background.
 While all of this will provide fans of campy cinema with plenty of material to poke fun at, the true measure of The Last Man on Earth's success is how its themes persist regardless. It was in The Omega Man and 2007's I Am Legend that the story pretty much boiled down to their respective stars fighting monsters for a couple hours. Here, however, the focus is on Morgan's isolation, how living so long in a constant state of fear has taken a toll on his psyche.
To further sweeten the morally ambiguous pot, Salkow makes the wise move of first showing us Morgan going about his duties, only to flash back to before Armageddon arrived and add a fascinating new dimension to the character. Sharper than usual writing is the result of this unusually layered creep show, but it couldn't have come together without Price giving precisely the sort of performance the part called for. This is no Theatre of Blood or The Masque of the Red Death, where teeth-gnashing and scenery-chewing are the order of the day. Morgan has his torments, but Price does a wonderful job of handling them just as the character might, in a clinical, almost coldly logical sort of way that helps when it comes time to view him as not such a nice guy after all.
Anyone with a camera, an abandoned warehouse, and an afternoon to kill can whip up a movie on the fly and call it an apocalyptic thriller. But it takes something special to really put you in the mood, to make viewers seem totally alone while maintaining a universal sense of dread and danger. The Last Man on Earth may have been a Z-grade cheapie made to scare a drive-ins' worth of teenagers, but its effect remains all the more disquieting and consistently so, something not even Will Smith can lay claim to.
Director: Sidney Salkow
Writers: Logan Swanson and William F. Leicester (based on the novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson)
Cast: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Christi Courtland
Rating: No MPAA Rating (some disturbing images)
Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Run Time: 86 minutes
Studio: American International Pictures
Format: Black-and-white, widescreen
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