Panic In Year Zero & The Last Man On Earth: Midnight Movies Double Feature DVD Review

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Title: Panic In Year Zero & The Last Man On Earth: Midnight Movies Double Feature

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Thrillers

Stars: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen and Frankie Avalon/ Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart

Writers: Jay Simms/ Logan Swanson and William F. Leicester

The Last Man On Earth Is Based On The Novel I Am Legend By Richard Matheson

Directors: Ray Milland/Sidney Salkow

Feature lengths: 1 hour and 32 minutes/ 1 hour and 27 minutes

Extras: Theatrical Trailer/ Richard Matheson Storyteller: The Last Man on Earth Featurette

Languages: English Monaural Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 16 each

Sound: Monaural Sound

Year of Theatrical Releases: 1962/ 1964/ DVD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: American International Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Still perhaps the most loyal to the novel that inspired it, the original 1964 adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend was re-released on DVD through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment just as Warner Home Video reissued the second theatrical adaptation The Omega Man on high definition optical disc formats to tie in with the recently released hit film I Am Legend starring Will Smith. I was supposed to receive the recent Fox/MGM reissue, but instead received the 2005 MGM Midnight Movies Double Feature, which is probably just as well since I doubt there is much if any difference between the 2007 DVD and this 2005 DVD and you get a whole extra feature film too. Vincent Price gives a fantastic performance in this black and white low budget feature that was shot in Italy with Price being the only American actor in the cast. Yet for the most part, the film does not look all that different from the other kinds of films that were being made at that time and just as Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend inspired many writers and filmmakers, particularly horror auteur George A. Romero, one can almost get a glimpse of future armageddon themed films to come from watching The Last Man On Earth.

I will not go into another synopsis of what this film is about because odds are if you are reading this review, you probably already know. I think The Last Man On Earth may have been or could still be a film that was or is in the public domain with multiple versions of varying quality released on home video and I think some of the music used in the film might have been public domain as well because some of it sounded familiar to music used in George A. Romero’s own classic Night Of The Living Dead. I am not one hundred percent sure though so I suggest fans with both films compare and see for themselves.

Interestingly I think for a low budget midnight movie, The Last Man On Earth holds up pretty well, especially when you consider the movie is more than 40 years old. Much like the current film I Am Legend, Vincent Price really sells the film through his acting just as Will Smith carries the new film through his own performance. I would say in both cases neither film would work with lesser talents.

The Last Man On Earth is presented in an anamorphic (2.35:1) widescreen aspect ratio that captures the gloomy tone of the film beautifully. In some ways the clarity of the stark black and white photography reminds me of modern graphic novels and the films they have inspired. A clear English Monaural Soundtrack is included along with English Closed Captions for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options. A featurette with Richard Matheson discussing his experience writing the original screenplay and then having the name changed to distance himself from the feature while still being paid is included (6:25). He also discusses the non-chronological nature of the book and how it helped improve the storytelling and interestingly he considers I Am Legend to be his one true science fiction novel and he even discusses his research into the science of virology by consulting with doctors and observing the behavior of vampire bats to come up with a believable backstory for the time that could suspend readers disbelief just enough to make them wonder if a global pandemic that left some survivors as something akin to vampires could actually happen. Sadly his prediction that no one will ever be able to create a film version that is true to the novel appears to be prophetic, but one of the problems with a work like this is the fact that it has inspired so many writers and filmmakers that I’m not sure if a version word for word true to the book would garner a different reaction. Few writers have their books turned into feature films three times so I think regardless of how he might feel, there has been a lot of positive reaction to the film versions as well with the most recent version being hailed as the box office hit of the holiday season.

Ray Milland directed Panic In Year Zero, which for me I considered a bonus feature because it does not hold up quite as well as The Last Man On Earth and the themes regarding the developing anarchy in a post apocalyptic America seem to get lost under a what appears now to be an unintentionally funny film that was at the time quite scary because it was released just before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Milland is kind of a strange father knows best type who does what he must to save his family when America falls under a nuclear attack. Some of the scenes where he resorts to punching out a hardware salesman, sets a crowded highway on fire, has his son demolish a bridge at a mountain park, and pulls a gun on multiple people is hilarious because Milland plays it with little pathos. Frankie Avalon just blindly follows his father’s instructions to a point where it’s hard not to laugh at it all as some demented dark comedy. Milland’s character seems to also have a knack or just plain luck of guiding his family safely away from where the wind is blowing the radioactive fallout.

Of course what really astonishes me personally though is that I think if the screenplay was modernized it could be a good one-hour Twilight Zone type tale or at least as is the film would be perfect material for Mystery Science Theater 3000 if they have not already used it. Sadly that show is long off the air so if they have not they probably never will. Panic In Year Zero is also presented in a reasonably sharp anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with English Monaural Sound and English Closed Captions for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options. The theatrical trailer (2:23) is also included.

The menus for both films are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. Panic In Year Zero & The Last Man On Earth: Midnight Movies Double Feature is available on DVD-Video now courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.

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