The Last Man On Earth

I've gone about all this wrong, I thought, as I tuned in to watch the first adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend after both The Omega Man (reviewed here) and I Am Legend (with Will Smith). But, in actual fact, I think I might have gone about things the right way.


For starters, The Last Man On Earth stays faithful to a far greater degree to Matheson's novella than either of the later adaptations. Gone is the slick stylisation of The Omega Man or the transplantation to New York of Lawrence's 2007 hit. Instead, we have the same run-down home described in the book, and the same kind of man: a family man, with remembered friends and memories, with science as his gospel, and with a curious immunity to the virus that plagues the rest of the world. Here too we have some of the greatest accuracy to the book's plot: a new breed of 'vampire' that is organising society anew; spies sent to draw out Robert (who strangely is Morgan, not Neville, in The Last Man, a strange, unnecessary deviation in my view); Robert's own interest in science and introspection. The film even ends in the same way as the book.


So this was very much the climax of the trilogy for me, even though I came to it last, and should perhaps have reached it first. Price's Robert is brooding and pained at all turns (check out those eyebrows and the lines on his head), and very much aware of his own sickening isolation. This is brought about in part by his voice-overs, so succinct and curious, yet echoing in silence, and in part by a score that, like any good black and white film, mirrors the action on screen. It certainly seemed dated now, but worked very well with the material offered up. 


That was, to my eye, the one weakness of the film: for a paltry 86 minutes it felt a lot longer, and it struggled to keep my attention very effectively. But that surely says more about me as a film watcher than about the film, or at least a little about both of us. The adaptation was as close as I'd want it to be to the novel, and yet that wasn't enough for it to be truly engaging for me. 


Definitely worth a look in for any fans of I Am Legend or The Omega Man, but not quite the cinema gem it could be. I wish I could put my finger on why not...


~~~
1964


Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli


dir. Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow (depending on whether one watches the Italian prints)