PANIC
IN YEAR ZERO! (1962)/THE LAST MAN ON EARTH
(1964)Directors: Ray Milland, Sidney Salkow
MGM Home Entertainment
PANIC
IN YEAR ZERO! (1962)/THE LAST MAN ON EARTH
(1964)The end-of-the-world
theme has always captured the imagination of audiences for many years. Films
such as THINGS TO COME (1936), the PLANET OF THE APES saga, Toho’s THE
LAST WAR (1961), THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1959), Roger Corman’s
THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1956) and THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960), George Pal’s
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951) and THE TIME MACHINE (1960), Boris Sagal’s
THE OMEGA MAN (1971), Richard Fleischer’s SOYLENT GREEN (1973), right
up to 28 DAYS LATER (2004) and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004) have all depicted
various cataclysmic scenarios both man-made and of natural origin. Two very
interesting cinematic “what if…” tales 
were released by American International Pictures (AIP) in the 1960s at the very
height of the Cold War…PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! (1962) directed by and starring
Academy Award winner Ray Milland, and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) starring
AIP’s number one star, Vincent Price. Finally, after years of delay and
re-scheduling, these two films make their long awaited DVD release as part of
MGM’s excellent Midnite Movies series, and take it from this reviewer…they
were well worth the wait!
PANIC
IN YEAR ZERO! depicts the harrowing struggle for survival after Los Angeles
and all the other major cities of the world are victims of a devastating nuclear
attack. The story is played out through the eyes of the Baldwin family. Harry
Baldwin (Ray Milland), his wife Ann (Jean Hagen), son Rick (Frankie Avalon),
and daughter Karen (Mary Mitchell) are on their way through the California countryside
for a weekend camping trip as Los Angeles is plunged into chaos. Harry decides
to continue the trip to the secluded camping site as a way to shield and protect
his family from the nuclear fallout and the human viciousness and anarchy likely
to ensue in the city after such a brutal attack. However, as the family discovers,
brutality and anarchy lurk everywhere even in their isolated area as man battles
man in a struggle for “survival of the fittest.” The question then
posed to the viewer is…are we our own worst enemy or is it the foreign
power that attacked us our real enemy? As the doctor (played by veteran character
actor Willis Buchet) ironically puts it, “Keep your gun handy…our
country is still full of thieving, murdering…patriots.”
PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! was released just months before the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and was (especially for its time) a fairly frightening film. Naturally, director Ray Milland could not show the full force of the attack due to his very low special effects budget (although there is a fairly decent matte shot of a large mushroom cloud engulfing the city as the family stares at it in horror) and 1962 film standards would not allow for excessively violent scenes (such as radiation scarred victims). However, Milland makes his point very clear about the horror of the situation and keeps the pace moving briskly. He makes the audience care about his family and we become engrossed in their plight because it could happen in reality to any of us. All in all, the film holds up fairly well today with the only major flaw being Les Baxter’s musical score. While Mr. Baxter contributed haunting scores for AIP’s HOUSE OF USHER (1960), THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961), BLACK SUNDAY (1961) and BLACK SABBATH (1964), his score for PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! has been criticized for sounding more like a "beach party" movie than a drama about a nuclear war. Although this reviewer has no confirmation, it is entirely possible that he was told by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff (AIP executives) to keep the music upbeat because the story itself dealt with a very depressing theme.
THE
LAST MAN ON EARTH was a co-production between Robert L. Lippert’s Associated
Producers and Italy’s Produzioni La Regina. In fact, Mr. Price worked
for Mr. Lippert in 1959’s RETURN OF THE FLY (produced by Associated Producers
and Twentieth Century-Fox) and Lippert would also produce CURSE OF THE FLY in
1965. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH was shot in and around Rome, Italy (although it's
supposed to be set in California) from January to March of 1963. The movie’s
genesis was with Richard Matheson’s classic 1954 novel, I Am Legend
which also inspired Boris Sagal’s 1971 remake with Charlton Heston, THE
OMEGA MAN. In the novel, Robert Neville finds himself the sole survivor of a
nuclear war in which the resulting plague has either killed the world’s
population or turned others into murderous, zombie-like vampires. By day, Neville
goes through his daily ritual of driving wooden stakes into the sleeping vampires
while restocking his fortress-like home with mirrors, garlic wreaths and crosses
as a defense against the monsters. By night, he drowns out the frightening moans
and taunts of the vampires outside his home with loud music and alcohol as he
battles not only the vampires, but his own loneliness and deepening depression.
The novel also scientifically attempts to explain why vampires are the way they
are and why they react to garlic and mirrors and Neville seems to get used to
his existence as the years go on until he meets a young woman who may not be
as normal as she seems.
The film adaptation does follow the basic plot as Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) goes through his monotonous daily life driving stakes through the vampires’ hearts while restocking his home with supplies and at night watching old home movies of his long dead wife and child while drowning his sorrows in alcohol. Through a flashback (which is also in Matheson’s novel), the audience sees a happy Robert Morgan with a lovely home, his beautiful wife Virginia (Emma Danieli), a cute daughter named Kathy (Christi Courtland), a best friend named Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), and a job as a respected scientist at the Mercer Institute of Chemical Research. However, as the plague descends on the world (the movie’s plague just happens as there is no mention of a nuclear war or germ warfare), Morgan begins to lose everything he loves the most. First Kathy comes down with the plague and because of a health department/civil defense law that her body must be burned to curtail the spread of the plague, her body is taken from the family home and is thrown into a huge pit which becomes the final resting place for millions of other plague victims as their grieving relatives beg the army to let their loved ones be buried in peace. Next, Virginia succumbs to the disease and since Morgan wants her remains to avoid the horrible cremation of the burning pit, he does not notify the health department, but resolves to bury her peacefully in an open field near his home. Later that evening, Morgan hears a faint whispering of “let me in” and sees the doorknob turning very feebly. When he opens the door, he gets the shock of his life in a very effective and even Bava-esqe scene (which is also in Matheson’s novel).
The
rest of the film deals with Morgan’s discovery of a woman, Ruth Collins
(Franca Bettoja) who (as in Matheson’s novel) may not be all that she
seems. At this point in the film, the plot veers sharply from the novel as Morgan
gives Ruth a blood transfusion in a successful attempt to cure her of the disease.
In the novel, Ruth is depicted as being a member of a “new society”
and Matheson characterizes her as militant and ready to do anything and everything
to make sure her society survives at any cost. In the film, Ruth is considerably
softened during the last 10 to 15 minutes as is the film’s entire ending
as compared to the pessimistic climax of the novel.
Originally, Richard Matheson wrote the script for what would eventually become THE LAST MAN ON EARTH for England’s Hammer Films in 1957. However, after the release of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and HORROR OF DRACULA (1958), the British film censors constantly hounded Sir James Carreras about the content of his horror films and Mr. Matheson’s script of I Am Legend was immediately rejected as being too violent and frightening. It was later sold to one time Hammer collaborator Robert L. Lippert and he originally envisioned releasing THE LAST MAN ON EARTH through 20th Century-Fox (they released it in Europe), but in 1964, Vincent Price’s name was firmly associated with AIP and they ended up purchasing the film to exploit the viable Price name. In May 1964, it was released as part of a double bill with the British science fiction film, THE UNEARTHLY STRANGER. Later in 1964, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH was re-released to some theaters with AIP’s GODZILLA VS. THE THING.
Although
Richard Matheson’s description of the novel’s Robert Neville is
totally different than Vincent Price (Neville is described as sort of a nervous
36 year-old man…while Price was over 50 at this point…and far from
nervous), Mr. Price does his usual professional job and if anything, tends to
underplay Robert Morgan. It is hard to judge the rest of the all Italian cast
because their voices are all dubbed even though they spoke English during shooting.
The heavy Italian accents were not acceptable since the setting was supposed
to be the United States. However, one familiar face for Italian horror film
fans is Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ben Cortman. A very handsome and talented actor,
Rossi-Stuart appeared in such cult classics as Antonio Margheriti’s SNOW
DEVILS (1965) and PLANET ON THE PROWL (1966), THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE
GRAVE (1971) and Mario Bava’s KILL, BABY, KILL! He also appeared in some
American productions filmed in Europe such as Robert Aldrich’s SODOM AND
GOMORRAH and Paramount’s FIVE DESPERATE WOMEN (1960), playing the brother
of Vera Miles (Mr. Rossi-Stuart died in 1994). Franca Bettoja as Ruth and Emma
Danieli as Virginia are both beautiful 
actresses
who do what they can with the rather underdeveloped roles written for them.
Miss Bettoja is the widow of noted Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES)
and she is still active on Italian television today. She also appeared in DUEL
OF THE CHAMPIONS (1961), directed by Terence Young and co-starring Alan Ladd,
and in SANDOKAN VS. THE BLACK WITCH (1961) which was released by AIP in 1962
and co-starred Don Megowan, as well as THE DEVIL’S CAVALIERS (1958) with
Frank Lattimore. Miss Danieli died in Rome in 1998 and her brief appearance
as a vampire in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is still very memorable 40 years later.
On
the technical side, Franco Delli Colli’s eerie black and white photography
is an asset in keeping the film very stark and atmospheric and even documentary-like
at times. In particular, the opening scenes of a dead urban world are extremely
chilling (especially the church sign: THE END HAS COME!). Also, the scenes with
Vincent Price driving through the deserted streets are particularly well done.
The actor later recounted that they had to go out early (5:00 am) on Sundays
to film the deserted street scenes. He also remembered that there was an unseasonable
cold spell in Rome during this January and February of 1963 and “we worked
in a studio that was so cold that we used to put ice water in our mouths so
the audience wouldn’t see our breath” and “that I would tip
my driver a large sum to keep the car warm” while filming the outdoor
scenes. In addition, the music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter is particularly
eerie and sets up the appropriate mood. Some of the musical cues are echoed
from their scores for THE FLY (1958) and RETURN OF THE FLY (1959). Also on the
creative staff was Giorgio Giovannini who was the art director for Mario Bava
on BLACK SUNDAY (1961), THE EVIL EYE (1962), BLACK SABBATH (1964) and PLANET
OF THE VAMPIRES (1965), and U.S. director Sidney Salkow handled Mr. Price’s
scenes and the dubbed version while Ubaldo Ragona handled the Italian version.
As always, MGM has done another impeccable job with this latest installment of their Midnite Movies series. Both PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH are presented in the widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic format, with gloriously clean and sparkling black and white transfers and English mono soundtracks in Dolby Digital. Both soundtracks are excellent, but THE LAST MAN ON EARTH in particular is well done. For all you genre fans who have suffered through countless cheap bootlegs of this film, you are in for a real treat as finally, we get an audio track that is crisp and clear and professionally done. Both films feature subtitles in English, French and Spanish. PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! runs 92 minutes and features the original 1962 theatrical trailer (which includes a bit of dialog not in the finished film!), while THE LAST MAN ON EARTH runs 87 minutes and has a featurette, “Richard Matheson, Storyteller.” Mr. Matheson has never been fond of this adaptation of I Am Legend (he had even less kind things to say about THE OMEGA MAN) and one gets the sense that he has not really softened his view after 40 years, but maybe if he watches MGM’s DVD presentation the way it was intended, he can make a re-evaluation. It certainly is ready for rediscovery especially since it inspired George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the recent 28 DAYS LATER. (Joe Cascio)