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A Passion For Horror
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The Last Man on Earth (1964)(a.k.a. Naked Terror, Night People, The Night Creatures, Ultimo Uomo Della Terra, Vento di Morte, Wind of Death)
Directed by Ubaldo Ragona The Last Man on Earth is based on the Richard Matheson novel, I am Legend, and stars Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan who is, as the title suggests, the last man on earth. Last man he may be, but Dr Morgan is not completely alone on the planet. He shares it with hoards of hungry vampires that are all out for his blood, and so has to hole-up in his home in the hours of darkness, listening to records and nursing a glass of wine along with his memories, while the vampires try to break into the house, gatecrash his party and get a drink out of him. Fortunately Morgan is reasonably safe because he has turned his home into a fortress with mirrors on the doors, boards on the windows, and garlic on both. In the daylight hours the vampires sleep and that is when Morgan goes hunting, armed with a bag of wooden stakes and a mallet, and when Morgan knock-knock-knocks on wood it's bad luck for the vampires on the receiving end. Just a note here on the vampires: for some reason they seem to be very slow moving and everything about them put me in mind of zombies rather than vampires. This is just one of many ways that the film does not follow the standard format for vampire films and is also one of many reasons why it might still appeal to those viewers that don't normally enjoy vampire films. The film begins by showing the viewer various scenes of empty City streets where bodies lie sprawled in the sun. Then the camera zooms in through a window and finds a sleeping Dr Moragan, just before his alarm clock goes off and wakes him up. The film then goes on to follow Morgan through his average daily routines of checking the garlic hasn't lost its smell, the boards are all in place on the windows, the mirrors are intact and the generator in the garage has enough fuel. For a little extra variety to his day he then uses his lathe to knock up a few all essential stakes ready to distribute amongst the vampire population later on. Towards the middle of the film there is a flash-back sequence that serves to explain to the viewer the reasons behind Morgan's and indeed the planet's present situation, and what became of his family. Later still there is a sequence where Morgan finds a dog that seems to have escaped being infected with the vampire creating virus. Then, more towards the end of the film, it seems that Morgan might not be entirely alone at all when he encounters a young woman walking along, swinging her arms, in the noon-day sun. Those viewers, who have already read Matheson's classic story, will find that The Last Man on Earth doesn't follow the original storyline very closely. It is still a good film in its own right, though, and well worth watching.
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