MovieChat Forums > The Last Man on Earth (1964) Discussion > unintentionally funny things in this mov...

unintentionally funny things in this movie..


There are some unintentionally funny scenes in this movie, especially seen from a "modern movie watchers" perspective. For example, when Morgan enters the lab after talking to Ben at his home, he sees the three lab coats carelessly flung around. Then suddenly Morgans boss shows up, and i seriously expected him suddenly to switch over to the vampire/zombie state with Morgan fighting him off, and discovering the three slain bodies of his collagues. Well, maybe its just my imagination, fuelled by years of Hollywood cliches.

What else is there?

1) The "zompires" turning up every night, banging on Morgans door. I mean, every night for f**ng 3 years? Every single night they are coming, banging on the door, going: "Mooorgan, Moooorgan, come out! Do you hear?? Mooorgan we are going to kill you and yada yada yada. No wonder he puts a jazz record on.

2) Morgan wandering around with his espresso pot, slurping coffee with a grim, desillusionised look on his face, checking his generator, mirror and stuff.

3) As suggested elsewhere on this board: The "Looney tunes" security measures of a few pieces of wood randomly put over thin doors.

4) The directors effort to pass Morgans city of as an american city, while every building and exterior shot screams Italy.

5) The Vampire nazis trying to catch Morgan with their harpoons, looking like some kind of french beatnik whalers.

More..??

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Morgan's daughter was too funny! "Momma, momma." The dubbing and bad acting made it worse. LOL!

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how the title is basically a lie. he's not even the last man in the city. Earth???

(icheckmovies: IMDb vote history-compatible movielist host)

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Last human man.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

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Why does he bother to carry on burning the bodies? What's he hoping for? I can understand if he wants them elsewhere, but there's no need to burn them anymore.

The scene where Morgan takes his wife to be buried - in close-up shots it's pitch black outside, but in long shots it's pretty light. So bad it reminds me of Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Dog has disease but doesn't bite Morgan.

If vampires can't get into houses without being asked or the door being open, how does Cortman get in? After breaking the mirror, he merely pushes it open. Was it not locked? Also, it's convenient that he doesn't call out "Morgan" when he gets in and drags out Ruth without her calling out until she's outside or making noise in the obvious struggle.

Why is Cortman on the roof at the end? And, why does he do a somersault after being shot?

Man with stake runs after Morgan who he knows has a gun.

"You're freaks" is probably not the best thing he could have said at the end. Something like "My blood can cure you", maybe. Sure they probably would have killed him anyway, but it's worth a try. Maybe he was tired of it all.

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If vampires can't get into houses without being asked or the door being open, how does Cortman get in?


Ben Cortman was Morgan's neighbor and co-worker for years. He was invited inside in the past. Maybe Morgan never thought to revoke the invitation after Ben turned into a vampire? I dunno, that's all I've got.

Why is Cortman on the roof at the end?


While not applicable to the movie, in the book, Ben hid from the sun during the day inside of his chimney, emerging at night to climb down off of the roof, and Neville (Morgan's name in the novel) never figured it out until the end when the more civilized vampires came and he saw Ben emerging from the chimney and attempting to escape across the roof. He's then killed and falls off. So the writers depicted Ben's death correctly - they just forgot to include the reason he was up there.

And, why does he do a somersault after being shot?


Because it looked dramatic.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

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The OP commented on the zompires coming back every night for three years yet still not being able to get past his meager defenses. *I* couldn't believe Morgan *stayed in the same place* for three years! He even makes a comment about their eventually figuring out how to get in. So MOVE, already!!

Morgan checks in on his daughter, who is . . . moaning and groaning? Making *some* sort of weird noise, anyway, as someone else noted. (At first I thought she was constipated.) She appears to be semi-conscious, at best. His tells his wife, "Better not send her to school today." (Ya think?)

He later insists that his wife **not call a doctor!!** for the girl; "There's nothing they can do! They'll report it, do you want that?!" (I believe this is the scene in which the now-blind girl repeatedly calls out "Mommy! Mommy! Where are you?!" while being completely ignored by both parents.) However, when he goes to pick up Ben, who comes to his mirrored & garlic-bedecked front door in a bathrobe, he exclaims, "Ben! You're ill!! You ought to see a doctor!!

(And what happens to people who are "reported" at that point?)

Mercer tells Morgan that the fact that the two of them showed up at the lab to work is "evidence" that mankind will survive. And the place is named after this guy?

Sometimes the driver's seat is on the left side of Morgan's car, sometimes it's on the right.

The open back station wagon door bothered me, too. The first time I saw it, I figured the "bodies" would fall out, the attack him when he went back to retrieve them. (They'd moved after being put back there, after all.)

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(And what happens to people who are "reported" at that point?)


If, as Morgan insists, there's nothing that they can do, then the sick people are probably "disappeared" and end up in the giant burning corpse pits. While this doesn't exactly make Morgan look like such a swell guy to his best friend, it makes sense when it comes to himself and his family - i.e., he doesn't want his already doomed daughter to suffer the indignity of being cast anonymously into a fire pit (in the novel, it's why Neville never reports Virginia's death to the authorities and buries in a private place, because their daughter had been put into the mass grave, only for her to return as a vampire; a lesson in why sentimentality in a world ruled by the living dead is a bad idea that almost costs Neville his life).

Another concern might be that since he isn't sick, and, as far as he knows at that point, neither is Virginia, Morgan may be afraid that if they report Kathy's illness to the authorities, then he and Virginia will be killed as a precaution.

Mercer tells Morgan that the fact that the two of them showed up at the lab to work is "evidence" that mankind will survive. And the place is named after this guy?


I took it as evidence that he was tired, frustrated, at the end of his rope, and grasping at whatever faint ray of hope he could get: a few of his employees still being alive and in good enough health to come to work was the only bone life had seen fit to throw him. Give the poor man a break.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

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Garlic.

I mean, Garlic.

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The Ending,

The black shirts arriving in trucks to murder all the Zombietires(?) while searching for Mooorgan like he was a treasonous deserter, his fleeing to the armory and pulling open the cabinet, getting and throwing those smoke bombs, and ending up on the alter - wow what an ending.

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his fleeing to the armory and pulling open the cabinet, getting and throwing those smoke bombs, and ending up on the alter - wow what an ending.

seriously, DUDE! you break into an *ARMORY*, and you only take SMOKE BOMBS!?!? you deserve to die!

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