Beginning with King Dinosaur in 1955 through Earth vs the Spider in 1958, filmmaker Bert I. Gordon earned his moniker of Mr. BIG. Big monsters terrorizing small towns was his stock in trade. As were slow plots and literal garage-level special effects. Alas, everyone’s salad days come to an end, and once the public’s appetite for big monsters was satiated by the end of the ’50s, Gordon’s output slowed. He never left the world of b-movies, bouncing around all sorts of different genres. Eventually he returned to big monsters with The Food of the Gods in 1976, and I like to think that was because today’s film was the last straw. He had had enough and wanted to get back to what he did best. Continue reading “The Mad Bomber, aka The Police Connection, aka Detective Geronimo”
Some of Those Responsible: Gene Ruggiero
The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, I Am Legend
The three films adapted from Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend vary widely in scope, story, and distance from the original source material. They are all shaky and mostly forgettable, but The Omega Man maintains a special place in cinema as one of star Charlton Heston’s many 1970s forays into post-apocalyptic science fiction. For that, it is the most interesting of the three adaptations, if not the best, edging The Last Man on Earth by a close margin.
The Last Man on Earth was the first of the adaptations, released in 1964. It was an Italian production following the spaghetti western model, and was credited with two directors, Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow. The film stars Vincent Price, at his Priciest, as it were. Price’s acting style takes some getting used to. He was a consummate professional who was more than capable in most of his roles. In Theatre of Blood, he was excellent. But he was victimized not just by type casting, but his own insistence on becoming a caricature of himself at times. The Last Man on Earth is b-cinema, and unfortunately, Price, playing protagonist Robert Morgan, fits right in. His many solitary scenes all seem to play like the boat deck scene in King Kong, where Robert Armstrong screen tests Fay Wray, giving audible directions for her first off camera encounter with a wild beast, finally yelling for her to “scream, Ann, scream for your life!” Continue reading “The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, I Am Legend”