Post Apocalypse Week: Last Man on Earth

How do all and welcome to Day 2 of Post Apocalypse Week.  Going more for a viral feel this time around so why not tap into one of the most famous novels made to film adaptation I Am Legend by Richard Matheson?   A joint effort between Italy and the states a pairing of  director Ubaldo Ragona (Sweet Smell of Love, Baldoria nei Caraibi, Il fiume dei Faraoni) and director Sidney Salkow (The Zero Hour, Flight Lieutenant, The Golden Hawk, Sitting Bull and The Great Sioux Massacre) causing two different styles and formats to blend together to provide you a movie.  This is Last Man on Earth.

SICK TO DEATH OF BEANS!!!

Robert Morgan: December 1965. Is that all it has been since I inherited the world? Only three spoilers.  Seems like 100 million.





Most men get into a routine but few could manages Dr. Frank Morgan (Vincent Price of Tower of London, The Eve of St. Mark, The Three Musketeers, House of Wax, The Fly, The Bat and Pit and the Pendulum) his daily duties such as: sharpening stakes, prepping mirrors and garlic for the house and running men and women through with said stakes.   Three years prior a plague infected the populous to the point foreign powers contemplating destroying the nation.  Dr. Morgan speculates that the virus mimics vampirism causing the victims to rise at night and tear around the towns and cities. The only reason he too is not infected is from a bite of a Vampire bat in Panama many years ago giving him immunity.

Not so welcome wagon.

Residing in Los Angeles (areas of Rome) finding supplies is not too difficult as Morgan enjoys a five finger discount and his narrative operates explanation for the audience.  His dark humor masks his pain as he discovers a dog on his front stoop.  He tends to the animal's wound and the dog starts showing signs of the disease.  As he buries the dog he spots a girl and chases her down.  Her name is Ruth (Franca Bettoia of Desert Warrior, The Seducer-Man of Straw, The Itchy Palm, The Dam on the Yellow River, Duels of Champions and The Lion of St. Mark) and clearly she was infected but somehow her society has been working on a serum to allow them out in the daylight.  It never lasts though and Morgan  takes Ruth home, gives her a transfusion of his blood to instantly cure her.   Can these two bring about order in the world again?

I had just a few comments to make on the film at this time.  Other than a few goofs in continuity I found this to be a dark and disturbing story of a scientist, a doctor having to give up his Hippocratic oath simply to live through another night.  It weighs on his soul every day and he does break up from time to time but his logic brings him back in order continue on.   A few vehicle swaps occur between shots at the plague burning pit and bodies were laid at different angles from different shots as well.  Overall it is a creepy and foreboding tale making you question if you would do not unlike Doctor Morgan.

Last refuge for the smoker.