THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964)

A bargain-basement & painfully sobersides version of Richard Matheson’s influential novel. (Matheson disowned his own screenplay after it was largely reworked.) Re-filmed as THE OMEGA MAN/'71 and recently under the original title of I AM LEGEND/'07, the viral epidemic/end-of-the-world scenario needs a lot more style then megger Sidney Salkow brings to the mix. The budget & narrative structure might have served for a half-hour TWILIGHT ZONE episode, but spread over an hour & a half, with a restrained Vincent Price taking the lead as well as narrating, it’s as draggy as the all Living Dead supporting cast.