Last Woman on Earth (1960)

Load of rubbish!!

Disturbing yet enthralling

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Seems like every sentence uttered begins with the other person's name. Real people don't speak like that. At least, no one I know does. So it sort of doesn't allow you to see the movie as real. Which is fine, as long as you don't mind that. But for me, it ruins the movie experience. That said, it is watchable, unlike many other horrible films. Good as a 'B' movie for your saturday matinee double feature. At only an hour long, you won't get sick of the crappy dialogue before it ends.

Roger Corman's end-of-the-world scenario (set in Puerto Rico) begins with the main character, Harold Gern (Anthony Carbone), betting on a cock fight. His wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones Moreland) and their attorney Martin Joyce (Edward Wain) are present as well, but find the whole thing revolting. Since Corman filmed an actual cock fight instead of simulating one, I fully agree.The three go SCUBA diving, only to resurface and find everyone else on the island dead of asphyxiation. They immediately conclude that while they were underwater, the Earth's oxygen supply temporarily disappeared, killing off the entire human race. That's right, folks. It never occurs to Harold, Evelyn, or Martin that any of the planet's three billion people might still be alive. So they move to a house on a remote part of the island, where they teach themselves basic survival skills. Things go relatively well until it becomes obvious that Ev and Martin are attracted to each other.Carbone plays Harold as a Trump-like real-estate magnate who doesn't care about the rules and will do anything it takes to come out on top. He delivers his lines in a low-key but menacing manner that says, "Don't even think about messing with me." Martin is Yang to Harold's Yin, a starry-eyed young man with no interest in climbing the ladder of success and who is more concerned about human welfare. Wain portrays the character as highly emotional and given to impulsiveness. Finally, Betsy Jones Moreland is gorgeous to look at, but her character is severely underdeveloped. Her Evelyn comes across as more of a plot device than a flesh-and-blood human being. But that was the screenplay's fault, not the actress'. The stars deliver competent performances. That's important as the film plays out mainly through dialogue, not all of which works. Martin, for example, came out with this line: "There's something in the air if you breathe it."To the movie's detriment, the sexual tension that is supposed to permeate each frame is very much undercooked. One example is a scene in which Harold wants to make love but Evelyn does not. He gets on top of her and intones, "You're my wife." The scene ends there, strongly implying spousal rape. Though it would have been highly unpleasant to watch, allowing the scene to continue might have made the film stronger. Of course, that couldn't have happened in 1960. It does, however, make me wonder how the scene would have played out a decade later, when sexual mores had loosened. (I'm thinking of the infamous "butter" scene from LAST TANGO IN Paris.)The script also makes attempts at Big Statements. For example, it takes a swipe at religion when, in a church, Martin tells Harold, "There are no more churches, no more gods." And once the men have fought to the death, the victor sadly proclaims, "I killed him. Will we ever learn?" Can't the human race just end without half-baked attempts at philosophy?Despite its flaws, this is one of the more palatable Corman vehicles. It's no ON THE BEACH, but it held my interest and (with a few exceptions) didn't make me angry. That's much more than I can say for a lot of Corman's films.Item: In a spirit true to this era, when Evelyn has trouble breathing, Harold gives her a cigarette.Item: A radio station keeps playing the same song. However, broadcast turntables do not have an "eject" feature that returns the needle to the start of a record.Item: As the three of them walk through the city, they spot a dead child in the street. The "child" is clearly a doll.Item: A fight breaks out between Harold and Martin while they're fishing in a boat. They end up in the water, which is barely at chest level. Why take a boat if you're only going ten feet from shore?Item: The vanishing and reappearance of the planet's oxygen supply is never explained.

It's no masterpiece but we both found the film interesting. The direction is good, the acting is good, the story is interesting. I wouldn't say it was ahead of it's time but when you think about it, we're still interested in the post apocalyptic story, the last man on earth fantasy. This was 1960.The film moves fairly quickly and for black and white has beautiful surroundings. I would say the weakest spots are the editing and continuity. Is it just me or does the lead actress' hair change color twice in the film? One minute she appears blond, the next brunette. Even her make-up seems different. And her clothing is constantly changing. Dated? Yes. A bad film? I've seen far, far worse. I think most people will like this.

THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH begins and ends (more or less) with a cockfight. An interesting take on end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it movies, it's literate and well-acted and very well directed. The movie never loses focus, and the opening cockfight sets the tone for everything that follows; this in itself is remarkable for a low budget quickie: when was the last time one of the hundred-million-dollar bombs making the rounds these days actually seemed to have been infused with any real THOUGHT...? Screenwriter Towne and director Corman were most definitely not asleep at the wheel on this one. Carbone turns in an outstanding performance, thanks in no small part to some outstanding writing and some VERY taut direction. This one's an underrated classic if ever there WAS one.