SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Maidexpl
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
mgconlan-1
"Last Woman on Earth" was produced and directed by Roger Corman for American International Pictures in association with his own company, Filmgroup (one word, though an Allied Artists TV reissue spelled it as "Film Group"), and was based on a script by Robert Towne - who was also in it, more on that later. Towne went on to a distinguished career as a writer and a less distinguished one as a director - his best known credit was probably the screenplay for "Chinatown" (though Towne was disgusted when director Roman Polanski changed his ending), and he's one of the many talents both in front of and behind the camera who went from a Corman apprenticeship to a major career. "Last Woman on Earth" was apparently a project Corman threw together because he was already organizing a location trip to Puerto Rico to shoot "Creature from the Haunted Sea" and he wanted to get the most bang for his buck while there by making a second film - the way he would allow Francis Ford Coppola to shoot his first film, "Dementia 13," with the same cast and crew as his own production "The Young Racers;" and why he would squeeze two days' extra work out of Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson by finishing the 1963 version of "The Raven" early so he could make another film with them, The Terror. It helped that Towne's plot features only three on-screen (live) human characters: New York financier Harold Gern (Anthony Carbone), his wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones Moreland) and his tax attorney Martin Joyce. The performance of the actor playing Joyce is credited to "Edward Wain," but that was actually a pseudonym for ... Robert Towne. It seems that he hadn't yet finished the film by the time Corman and his crew were set to leave for Puerto Rico, so Corman had to bring him along so he could finish the script on the spot. Rather than pay for two people to come to Puerto Rico, Corman decided to save plane fare and living expenses for one by drafting Towne to play the part himself. Like Blake Edwards in Frank Wisbar's 1940's "B" "Strangler of the Swamp," Towne's performance proves that his real talent lay in writing, not acting. It also is an early indication of the flaw that would sink a lot of Towne's later major productions: a gift for pseudo-profundity which led him to write things that pretend to intellectual sophistication but really don't achieve it. One suspects that Corman told Towne, "Write me an Ingmar Bergman script - only make sure I can slap an exploitation title on it so I can sell it to the drive-ins." What Towne came up with was a profoundly uninteresting romantic triangle between Harold, Evelyn and Martin that turns into a post-apocalyptic movie when, vacationing on Puerto Rico while Harold's latest IRS investigation gets sorted out, Harold takes Evelyn and Martin deep-sea diving with SCUBA gear - and while they're underwater a sudden interruption in Earth's oxygen supply takes place, just long enough to wipe out all other humans and land-based animal life. They come to life but keep breathing through their diving masks until they realize that whatever happened to the air that annihilated the rest of humanity is over and they can once again breathe safely - and the rest of the plot deals with Harold's attempts to lord it over the other two and insist that Evelyn doesn't have sex with Martin even though she's been clearly restive in her trophy-wife status and genuinely attracted to him. The main problem with this film is that the three people are relentlessly uninteresting and we really don't like any of them. It's possible Corman could have improved this film greatly if he'd been willing to pay salary, expenses and travel for an actual actor to play Martin, and it's pretty clear whom that should have been: the young Jack Nicholson, who was under contract to Corman at the time and could have brought an explosive romantic and sexual intensity to the character that clearly eluded the writer playing him. "Last Woman on Earth" is yet another bad film in which one senses a good film struggling inside it to get out.
kkonrad-29861
This is one lesser known and underappreciated Roger Corman's classic. The ending is kind off silly, but rest of the film is actually good. The story is intriguing - two men and one woman survive mysterious apocalypse. Screenplay is quite well drawn out (if you consider the fact that they started shooting with unfinished script), dialogue quite snappy and interesting, and all the three main characters are actually someone you care about. The characters are multi layered, as none of them are clearly a bad guy, they all have some morals, principles, and very valid points in arguments. Most of this is thanks to the great talents of screenwriter Robert Towne (who also played Martin Joyce as Edward Wain and went on to win an OSCAR for 'Chinatown'). Acting by Betsy Jones-Moreland and Anthony Carbone is fantastic and very naturalistic. Robert Towne (or Edward Wain) on the other hand is not painfully bad, but definitely he's not mach for these two. Occasionally it made me wonder - have Robert Towne ever given acting lessons to Nicolas Cage?Anyway, 'Last Woman on Earth' is much better movie than one can expect from its ratings, and it is much thoughtful movie than one can expect from such low budget B-grade disaster movie.
Theo Robertson
Businessman Harold Gern , his wife Evelyn and friendly lawyer Martin Joyce meet at dinner one night in Puerto Rico and arrange a diving holiday . The next day after scuba diving they emerge on to their boat only to find the captain of the boat dead and the air around them to be oxygen thin . What has happened and are they the only survivors ? This is a B movie premise but what attracted my attention to it was the screenplay was written by Robert Towne . Woe betide anyone who has the temerity to suggest that Towne wasn't the greatest screenwriter in the history of cinema . One time during a university film class I suggested that William Goldman might have been the premier screenwriter of 1970s Hollywood and I just got away with it . Considering Town wrote CHINATOWN anyone suggesting he wasn't all that great will be burned at the cinematic stake as a heretic . The fact that art is entirely subjective and a matter of opinion doesn't come in to it . Everyone thinks Towne is the screen writing God and that's the end of it Despite this hyperboyle he also stars in this Roger Corman production so you've got the double whammy of seeing a film written and starring Towne even though he uses the screen name of Edward Wane . Watching LAST WOMAN ON EARTH you can understand perhaps why he decided to give up acting and become a screenwriter although you'd have no idea he'd one day be held in such high regard . The film has a very short running time which means the characters and situations are very underdeveloped and motivations either disappear or come out of nowhere . The 1980s New Zealand film THE QUIET EARTH which had an identical premise was far more effective in its themes Of course since it's a Roger Corman production Towne should be allowed an apology of sorts not only because its his debut screenplay . As mentioned the running time is too short to give the plot justice but it's fairly badly directed with too much static camera work , an annoying , intrusive and often inappropriate soundtrack but perhaps worst of all some badly realised cinematography . Honestly the cinematography changes scene from scene and you often think you're watching a movie shot in monochrome
drystyx
Corman could do some good things. He could do some bad, but at times, such as "I Hate Your Guts" and this film, he could do quality.The film's title may be just a bit misleading. The three world disaster survivors are isolated, and imagine they "could be" the last of the human race, but aren't completely convinced.Except for one disillusioned character, who does indeed believe the woman with them is the last woman on Earth.This is a psychological drama, and well written. The scenery is interesting enough to keep the story flowing, as Carbone generally seemed to be in Caribean milieus.Even when I watched it as an adolescent, and even though I hadn't seen it for forty years or so, I still remember the final scene and words of the last man standing. He, like the other two, was not a likable character, but each character had multi dimensions.Looked to be a small budget film, and yet it sill worked better, and entertained more than most large budget films today.
