3
(comments on there being no God)
7
(mild sexuality and strong language)
3
(avoid this unless you're a big Corman fan)
If someone is going to make "The Last Man on Earth" we also need a "Last Woman on Earth," right? Unfortunately the latter is a far cry from the quality of the former.
A sudden and unexplained lack of oxygen has killed everyone in the vicinity and possibly everyone on Earth (we never find out the true scope of the effect). Only a scuba diving group survives because of their oxygen tanks. It’s 2 guys and a girl.
Harold is a business man who formulates a plan for the group’s survival. He seems to have it together, but he can be quite a jerk particularly to his wife, Evelyn. As a result she doesn’t like him much anymore. Seeing as how she may well be the last woman in the world and already married the other guy, Martin, is just flat out of luck as far as having female companionship or a family. He’s left to perpetually be the third wheel, forever womanless, that is unless the last one remaining decides she’d rather ditch her husband for him. Martin, of course, encourages her to do so, but Harold will not be easily cast aside. Who gets the woman, the husband or the guy that isn’t a jerk?
I found the movie pretty boring. I’m not generally a Roger Corman fan anyway although I wouldn’t have thought this to be one of his movies if I didn’t see his name in the credits. The acting is stiff and the editing choppy. It’s slow and saved only by being short.
My interest did pick up a tad towards the end, but it failed to ever get particularly exciting. The total lack of explanation of how and why the oxygen supply was suddenly but temporarily reduced to lethal levels doesn’t bother me much, but if you’re the type that needs to know the answers to such questions you should know that you’re not going to get them. The characters don’t theorize much on why the oxygen took a vacation but decided to return before their air tanks ran out. We never even find out how much of the planet has actually been affected.
So what we’re left with is a cast of 3 trying to decide who gets the task of repopulating the plant with the last available woman. I found myself barely caring about what happened to any of them or how they might resolve their disagreements.
Morality
There is very little violence other than some chickens fighting (animal rights people beware!) unless you count most of the world’s population dropping dead of suffocation, but even that is just implied.
There’s a little strong language and some mild sexual suggestion. The opening credits roll over a pan up the side of a woman who appears to be naked, but we don't see anything that would qualify as nudity.
Spirituality
This is certainly not a biblical presentation of marriage, although I suppose if the characters were the type to take their marriage vows as seriously as the Bible tells us to we wouldn't have much conflict for a movie. How seriously do you take your vows made before God if there are no humans around to judge you?
The final chase ends in a church where one of the characters comments that there is no more God (in the context of he's gone because all the people that would serve as his church are gone).
Final Thoughts
This is an unimpressive endeavor made worse by poor presentation. It's not bad so much as it's just dull.
Buying Guide
"The Last Woman on Earth" is another one of those old movies with so many different releases that even Google coughs politely and says, “Um, I'll get back to you in a minute.”
I'm not even going to begin to count the number of different DVD releases I've seen floating around out there. Considering there are at least as many different multi-packs, my head is spinning like Linda Blair.
Only a couple of the stand-alone DVD's stand out. One “Timeless Classics” release announces that it is remastered although there is no indication of what, if any, quality improvement this offers.
Another offers a 3D version. I just can't imagine this as a 3D movie. It doesn't lend itself to that kind of presentation. I can't find any comments on the quality of the presentation.
Neither of these lists any extras, and the specs are the same as what I'll detail below.
The Roger Corman Puerto Rico trilogy offers "Creature from the Haunted Sea," "The Last Woman on Earth," and "Battle of Blood Island" with the best presentations and listing of extras I've seen for any of them. This is the only listing for a widescreen version of this movie that I've seen along with a commentary and additional scenes shot for TV. It also offers “the long-awaited restoration of the rarely seen 35mm color” version. I can't actually say for sure that it offers the black-&-white version at all.
Final Recommendation:
The Horror Classics 50 pack is a good opportunity to check out this movie in the sense that you're getting 49 other movies (many of them much, much better than this one) for your money. The Roger Corman trilogy set is the only one that sounds like it might offer a significantly improved quality and is also the only one providing any extras.
I got mine in a collection of 50 “Horror Classics.”
Video
1.33:
I thought this “full-screen” presentation would be the original ratio until I saw the widescreen version being offered in the trilogy set. The video is trashy, fuzzy, and unclear though not any worse than a lot of other old movies.
Audio
2.0 mono:
The audio jumps, is out of sync, and has muted levels. It's not at all a great presentation.
Packaging
This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box though it's been repackaged in plastic. You can read about the set as a whole in great detail in the Horror Classics (50 pack) guide.
Extras
There are none.