The Last Woman on Earth (USA, 1960) 64 – 71 min color DIR: Roger Corman. PROD: Roger Corman, Charles Hannawalt. SCR: Robert Towne. MUSIC: Ronald Stein. DOP: Jacques Marquette. CAST: Betsy Jones-Moreland, Antony Carbone, “Edward Wain” (aka- Robert Towne). (Filmgroup)
Ever the cost-cutter, Roger Corman shot The Last Woman on Earth in Puerto Rico for two reasons: 1) tax incentives. 2) The Screen Actors Guild rules were not effective there. No wonder they say that Corman’s name on a film is the mark of quality! This movie is also notable as the film where Robert Towne, future writer of Chinatown and Shampoo, made his screenwriting debut, apparently typing the script during filming. In the film, all the oxygen in the air is temporarily depleted, and only Anthony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland, and Towne himself (under the pseudonym Edward Wain) survive because they were wearing scuba gear. It doesn’t take long for Towne’s script to veer into predictable territory – gee, I wonder if the fact that there’s one woman and two men will cause a problem. The acting by the three leads is adequate, but the sound quality is miserable, and Corman’s direction is surprisingly pedestrian when compared to the then-recent A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors. Collectors should be particularly careful with this title; the most common running time is 71 minutes, which derives from expanded black and white TV prints from the 1960s. My DVD from Alpha contains the theatrical version, which runs only 64 minutes and is in colour.
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Will Sloan
Will Sloan first encountered ESR at Word on the Street circa 2004 (age: 15) and started contributing not long after. He is now a fully-grown writer and raconteur, and hosts two film-related podcasts: The Important Cinema Club and Michael & Us. You can follow him @WillSloanEsq on Twitter and at willsloanesq.wordpress.com.