Le dernier homme sur terre

The 1924 silent movie 'The Last Man on Earth' is one of those ideas that just won't go away: suppose there was only one fertile male on Earth, and all the women fought over his services? This same gimmick showed up again in the 1933 semi-musical film "It's Great to Be Alive" and yet again in Pat Frank's 1946 novel 'Mr Adam', which was briefly a best-seller. 'The Last Man on Earth' is better than the former but definitely inferior to the latter.

This movie takes place in the far-future year of 1960, when women wear strange Jetsons-like outfits. A mysterious plague, called male-itis, has ravaged the Earth, killing all males over the age of 14. (This arbitrary age in the silent-film intertitles is obviously a circumlocution for puberty.) A female scientist named Dr Prodwell develops a serum which will immunise prepubescent boys, but it also ensures that they'll remain sterile.

Womankind takes over the Earth, and of course it gives this movie (made only 5 years after women got the vote) an opportunity for some witless jokes about women's ability to govern themselves. The United States is governed by a "Presidentess" who is also the First Lady. With no men handy, she lets the White House lawn grow unkempt and weedy (apparently lawn-mowing is men's work) while the White House is over-run by cats. (Anticipating 'Logan's Run', in which the Senate is over-run by cats.)

An aviatrix (Grace Cunard), flying over a remote area in the Ozarks, spots a smoking chimney. Landing to investigate, she discovers Elmer Smith, a bearded hillbilly in his thirties ... apparently fertile and immune to male-itis. But Elmer would rather stay in the sticks with his sweet-patootie Hattie, so some tough women knock him out and sling him into the, erm, cockpit of a waiting aeroplane.

There's a very kinky sequence in which Elmer is taken to a hospital with an all-female staff, where he is forcibly shaved, stripped and subjected to a medical examination under the stern gaze of Dr Prodwell. This is followed by a semi-kinky gymnasium sequence in which a couple of fetching damsels put on boxing gloves and beat the bejeezus out of Elmer while Dr Prodwell watches approvingly. Next thing we know, the "Senatoress" from Massachusetts and the "Senatoress" from California are posing in bathing cozzies, urging Elmer to choose one of them as his consort. Elmer just wants to go home to Hattie.

This is a weird movie. I laughed through most of it, but I don't think I was laughing for the reasons which the makers of this movie originally intended. I'll rate 'The Last Man on Earth' 7 out of 10, but you're much better off reading Pat Frank's novel 'Mr Adam'.

Given the many errors in his review, the late F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre had obviously not seen this film. It's therefore a shame that decided not to give this enjoyable curiosity the benefit of the doubt.

The film starts in deceptively conventional fashion. Hapless little Elmer (Buck Black) is in love with Hattie (Jean Johnston), who declares that she would not marry him 'even if he were the last man on earth'. The devastated Elmer swears off girls for life.

The fun really begins when we skip to the distant future of 1940, when the major threat to mankind is not World War but 'masculitis', a disease that has wiped out the whole adult male population. Men are but a distant memory, gangs of skirted thugs fill the speakeasies, and the President (female, of course) is more interested in her cats than in running the country.

By 1950, the brilliant scientist Dr Prodwell (Clarissa Selwynne) has found a cure, but the fact remains that the women are now pining for the company of men, and none more so than the doctor's flapper daughter (Marie Astaire) - and yes, there are still flappers in 1950!

When an aviatrix finds the now-grown Elmer living in the wilderness as a hermit, his discovery is a sensation. Ernest is no less terrified of women than he ever was, but before long, his hand in marriage is being auctioned to millionairesses and fought over by congresswomen, who stage an all-ladies boxing match on the floor of Congress! The riotous conclusion makes Buster Keaton's 'Seven Chances' look like 'The Dating Game' - and of course, the grown-up Hattie (Derelys Perdue) finds herself revising her opinion of Elmer ...

Despite some gutsy female characters it's a stretch to find any feminist message lurking behind this film, and the concept doesn't quite stretch to fill the full seven reels (in particular, the aforementioned boxing match would have benefited from cutting), but its offbeat nature and outlandish future fashions are so much fun that it hardly matters.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and totally unpredictable romp. Given that its sound remake, 'It's Great To Be Alive' (1933) is a lost film, I can guarantee that you'll never see anything else quite like it.

In the distant future year of 1950...

That doesn't make any sense, does it? OK. It's 1924: little Elmer Smith loves little Hattie, but she despises him because he's a sissy. In 1940, Elmer has grown up to be Earle Foxe and Hattie to be Derelys Perdue. When she still doesn't love him, he climbs into his airplane and goes to hide. Meanwhile, a germ is spreading across the earth that kills all men over fourteen.

In the distant future year of 1950, the Teahouse Gang locates Earle living in a tree. He is the last man on earth. They bring the timid creature back to a world of women that can't keep their hands off him. When the cat lady who is the President finds out about it, she arranges a boxing match between two junior senatoresses, winner take all.

Some parts of this silent comedy have not aged well, but there are some good gags and sequences in it.... just the idea of Earle Foxe as the beau ideal is image to make anyone snicker. The costume designers also had a lot of fun making the clothing as ridiculous as possible. By 1940, we are led to believe, garden-party clothes for young ladies will be thigh-length hoop skirts over harem pants. Ten years later, Roman togas will also be things that the well-dressed woman will wear. And hats! Weird hats decorated with all sorts of knick-knacks; only Miss Perdue will wear fruit on her chapeau.