Hammer was also offered, and accepted, the screenplay for the film adaptation of the vampire apocalypse movie The Last Man on Earth, pretty much faithfully adapted from Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. Matheson wrote the screenplays for Dan Curtis' The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, his first major works after DS. The British board of censors considered the screenplay too violent and would not allow Hammer to produce it. The screenplay then went to an Italian production company, starring Vincent Price. It is now a cult classic. Despite the low budget, it is well known for being an eerie, atmospheric film. You can watch the entire film on youtube. Because of the limited budget, it was done in black-and-white and Italian towns were remotely "disguised" as Los Angeles. Italian actors and actresses stumbled through English or were otherwise dubbed. Hammer, if the then prudish British censors would've permitted the movie to be produced, obviously would've thrown every pound into it, making it in color with actual location shots and elaborate sets. But it's amazing what the cash-strapped Italians did with the screenplay. The scene where Vincent Price's character's wife returns from the dead as a vampire and attempts to attack him is blood-curdling. The scene where he has to watch the body of his seven-year-old daughter dumped into a burning pit of infected, dead humans before she "reverts" is mind-boggling. The scene where he finds a frightened, injured dog that shows up at his doorstep, where he thinks he's finally found another living thing to spend his life with, only to find it infected and he has to euthanize it is heart-breaking.
Again, another vampire movie/Dark Shadows connection.
Gerard
