FILM · 1964 · ITALY
The Last Man on Earth
20 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
20 Interesting Facts About The Last Man on Earth
Interesting Facts (18)
- #001
Many critics, director George A. Romero among them, see The Last Man on Earth as the visual blueprint for Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- #002
In later years, Vincent Price admitted a soft spot for the film and rated it above The Omega Man (1971).
- #003
To show how grueling his character's survival was, Vincent Price insisted on hauling real people rather than dummies in the back of his car, which is why he seems to handle the bodies so carefully; for the pit scene, though, he used mannequins for obvious reasons.
- #004
It's considered the most faithful version of the novel, but there are notable differences: the vampires here are slow and clumsy, whereas in the novel they were fast and agile.
- #005
Richard Matheson co-wrote the screenplay but was unhappy with the result and asked to be credited as "Logan Swanson."
- #006
It disappointed at the box office but later became a cult classic.
- #007
Though far more faithful to the book than the other adaptations, The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007), it renames the hero Robert Morgan instead of Robert Neville, while the other two keep the original name.
- #008
Richard Matheson first wrote the screenplay in 1957, when Hammer Films was set to produce it with Fritz Lang directing.
- #009
Vincent Price is the only cast member who isn't dubbed in English.
- #010
A typo let the film's copyright lapse, so it's now in the public domain and has come out in countless cheap home video editions, though Richard Matheson's source novel is still under copyright.
- #011
It's the first of three feature adaptations of Richard Matheson's novel, before The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007); the book was also adapted as the short film Soy leyenda (1967).
- #012
Britain's Hammer Films was originally going to make it but dropped the project and passed the script to its American partner, Robert L. Lippert, who produced it in Italy.
- #013
Richard Matheson was disappointed when director Fritz Lang was replaced shortly before shooting.
- #014
Richard Matheson thought Vincent Price was miscast as Robert Morgan.
- #015
The story is set in 1968.
- #016
The music during the vampire attacks on Morgan is almost identical to the score for the attack of Cormoran the giant in Jack the Giant Killer (1962).
- #017
In the English version, Dr. Mercer (Umberto Raho) was apparently dubbed by Jack Klugman.
- #018
One of the cars Morgan looks at when picking a new one is a 1961-4 Ford Consul Capri, very different from the later and far better-known Ford Capri.
Production Story (1)
- #019
In late 1959, the film was announced as part of a fourteen-picture deal between Associated Producers, Inc. and 20th Century-Fox, to be made over nine months at an average of $300,000 each; nearly three years later, however, the Los Angeles Times reported that API boss Robert L. Lippert had bought the film rights and would shoot in Rome with American and European actors.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #020
The odd, tall, UFO- or mushroom-shaped building behind Dr. Robert Morgan is Rome's "Ristorante Il Fungo," built in 1957 and restored in 2013-14, which also appears in L'Eclisse (1962).
Related pages
- Charlton Heston — The Last Man on Earth comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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