originally posted on tumblr, Apr 4th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #40: The Last Man on Earth (1964)

VINCENT PRICE TIME ONCE MORE AYYYYYY!! So I glimpsed on the summary of this movie and I went, "wait is this I Am Legend??" and sure enough, it is! It's I Am Legend before Will Smith got to it! I'm hoping this movie sticks closer to the novel's plot, since we have a white man heading this one.

I had a chuckle over Price rolling out of bed, going "another day to live through, better get started..." in such a despondent tone, and then him shambling around the place with the veeery dramatic orchestra blasting over it. Like damn, yeah that's what getting started with my day sometimes feel like. Also Price can rock any outfit he wears, but somehow the homely unbuttoned shirt over a tank top and trousers looks particularly amazing on him? Guess it's the homebody chic.

Coming out from A Quiet Earth so fresh in my head, the narration kind of grates on me. Noooo, trust me as the audience to understaaaaand, don't baby meeeeee. It's also quite comical to see a neatly stocked supermarket in what were supposed to be the end times. No looters existed I guess?? Also why isn't he gardening for fresh garlic? I get that he has limited daylight time but c'mon.

I know Morgan has been doing this for a long time now, but seeing him pop open a bottle and play some record while the vampires bang at his barricades is quite the visual. Almost as much as Morgan laughing at a comedy video and it turning into crying. Yeah, three years of solitude would do that.

Having such a long flashback sequence to explain how it all went down is, meh, but I feel like talking down about it even worse. Again, this is a movie from a different time, before these kinds of stories had become mainstream, and it's not that much of a wild direction either. It gives me some reprieve from the narration though, which is a plus.

Pretty okay movie, might look for something with more oomph next.