The Last Woman On Earth!

When is a science fiction movie not a science fiction movie? The Last Woman on Earth directed by Roger Corman is a good example. While the poster would have the potential viewer believe they are about to see another apocalypse movie, what you actually get is a surprisingly complex character piece with three actors running the whole show because everyone else has taken their last breath.

It's never explained what happened, but for some matter of minutes all the oxygen was scrubbed from the air and most living things perished. Three people -- a gangster-like business man and his wife and his lawyer were scuba diving and so were spared and lived long enough for the air to return to normal. These three people deal with the demise of the world in different ways. The gangster goes to work immediately seeking to use constant activity to replace his confrontation of the new world. His wife suddenly realizes her new place in the world and uses that new-found power not maliciously but uses it to seek some sort of satisfaction. The lawyer is the most unstrung of the trio and has a hard time finding his footing, seeking to woo the wife but succumbing to the new world order.

We have some really deft acting here, really subtle stuff considering the speed of a Corman production and the cheapness of the movie. You might go to this movie to see the end of the world, but you end up seeing the beginning of a fairly decent love story which starts at a cockfight and ends in a church -- symbol alert.

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