La Dernière Femme sur terre

This sci-fi tale examines the fate and the human struggles involved in the incredible realization that a woman and two men may be the last surviving humans on Earth, following a peculiar catastrophy.

The analysis of selfishness, love, jealousy, money, work, accomplishment and the purpose of life are very well examined. All in the context of these extreme circumstances, the issues become very vibrant. The dialogue and acting help you feel the despair and distress of the characters.

Unfortunately, what could have possibly been one of the best black & white sci-fi movies, fell short- very short- in the end. The ending is uselessly incoherent, improbable and needlessly violent (a horrible fight on top of everything).

Still worth a watch for the first hour of the film.

"Last Woman On Earth" moves along at a steady clip and has an exciting ending (with a disappointing conclusion).  It is a film that benefits from smart writing, an on location shoot, and an interesting meshing of script with Jazzy soundtrack. There is an underwater scene that was quite excellently filmed. For that matter, the whole film was quite excellently filmed.  Even though this film predates the first James Bond film, it has a bit of a "Dr. No" feel to it.  No, it is no "Dr. No", but neither was its budget a Bond budget. You're not missing much if you never see "Last Woman On Earth", but if you do see it you won't feel like you wasted 71 minutes of your life.  It's a pretty good film -- a sad little tale about good and evil.

It is certainly not a horrible movie. Leonard Maltin called it a Bomb. It has decent acting and a reasonable plot. It's very talky. Unlike most end-of-the - world movies, there are no efforts to come up with food, resist annihilation, hole up somewhere, although those things are talked about. It begins with what seems to be the death of all the people in the Puerto Rican area where this takes place. The main characters are saved because they were SCUBA diving and had oxygen while others didn't. This opens a whole can of worms. Theere are people all over with oxygen supplied for various reasons. We have three figures, a young wife who feels because of her relationship with her driven husband, she has missed out on much of life. She's really quite stunning. We have the husband, a take-no-prisoners businessman who has crossed the line many times. Finally, we have his nihilistic, whiny attorney who spouts philosophy and poetry, but is rather ineffectual. He and the wife begin a relationship, but even she tires of his ramblings and his negative discourse. There is a sad conclusion with many unanswered questions. Just a rather dull, talky movie.

"Last Woman on Earth" shows what happens as a romantic triangle plays out during an "end of the world" type of story. Harold Gern (Antony Carbone) is a shady banker enjoying the sights and sounds of Puerto Rico. Tagging along are his sexy young wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones- Moreland) and his loyal attorney Martin Joyce (future Oscar winning screenwriter Robert Towne, acting under the pseudonym Edward Wain). After a scuba diving excursion, they come out of the sea to find that some mysterious disaster has eliminated almost every living thing in sight. Harold is given to macho "this is how it's gonna be" proclamations, while Martin, who realizes that he's falling for Evelyn, acts as a voice of reason.

Towne also wrote the screenplay for this one, his first. Since he worked slowly (according to producer & director Roger Corman), his script was unfinished by the time of filming. So, in order to ensure that the screenwriter could be on set regularly, Corman convinced Towne to co-star in the film. Corman had come to Puerto Rico partly to take in the beauty of the surroundings, but largely due to "certain tax laws". By the time he and his crew left the country, they had not one film under their belt, but three: this one, "Creature from the Haunted Sea" (a remake of "Naked Paradise"), and "Battle of Blood Island".

A great film this is not, but it's a passably engrossing one, thanks to some wonderful atmosphere (Corman actually ponied up the dough to shoot it in color) and Townes' somewhat philosophical tale. There is some decent dialogue, good music by Ronald Stein, and effective cinematography by Jacques R. Marquette. The three cast members are reasonably good. Towne fares well enough, despite not being a professional actor.

The ending is abrupt, and may not be to all viewers' satisfaction. Still, Corman and Towne deserve some credit for tackling the theme of the hostility and violence ingrained in mankind, on a rather meagre budget.

Six out of 10.

I picked this slab-o cheese on a double billed disc w/ "The Attack of the Bee Girls" @ Meijer for 2 bucks. Now if you are a fan of B-Films, I highly recommend the trip to Meijer. They have a ton of cheap-o DVDs in a big crate. You can get 5 DVDs for 10 dollars. I also picked up a gem called "The Crippled Masters" (a 70s Kung-Fu Revenge flick, and yes, they are crippled). But, I'm getting way off on a tangent...

The Last Woman on Earth is an interesting film with some unintentional laugh-out-loud parts. What's interesting about it is how well mannered they are during the end of the world. There are two males and one female left alive after some kind of doomsday devise is detonated, which is never really explained. In this type of scenario you'd expect people to behave wildly; looting the electronics store, stealing Italian sports cars, driving a tank through the middle of downtown (as I believe this happened in a film called "The Quiet Earth"). Instead they wear pressed slacks, shave, mix cocktails (no one explains how they still have power, let alone ice cubes) and fight over one boat in a harbor full of 'em. This is not Corman's most entertaining film and you will find your attention slipping in and out, but for my money it beats the latest sitcom or reality show.