Nightmare at Dollar Store Cinema!

Harold Gern (Antony Carbone), a successful businessman of questionable merit from New York is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his trophy wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones Moreland). They are joined by Gern's lawyer pal Martin Joyce (Robert Towne, who was also the film's writer). Gern invites Martin along on a scuba diving trip with him and his wife. When they resurface the trio discovers they are unable to breathe without using their oxygen tanks. They climb back into their boat and find Manuel, their servant, dead on board from asphyxiation (This is the poor bastard's only scene in the film, I might add). Unable to start the engine, they row ashore. With 40 minutes worth of oxygen left they enter the jungle, where, due to the plants giving off oxygen, they can soon breathe normally again (and light up cigarettes to calm down their nerves). It gradually dawns on them that they might be the only survivors in the area, maybe even the world. Very soon the trio can no longer cope with the developing love triangle and you can pretty much guess how it ends. Or can you?

What separates this 1960 Roger Corman gem apart from almost any "end of the world" film I've ever seen is the dialogue. It's razor sharp, although some of it poorly delivered. Martin delivers probably the best lines when he's paired off with Evelyn, but I suppose if I were writing a movie for myself, that's how I'd do it too. Moreland's performance is probably the best of the three and she ain't hard to look at either. One other notable difference between this film and others of its ilk is the fact that the trio continue to dress in that snappy, sharp as a tack 1960s style, right down to ties and necklaces.

Like I said, this movie doesn't end like you think it will, but don't look for mutants or gangs of vampire bikers in this one. This one's a philosophical drama, or at least it tries to be. If you've got 75 minutes to kill, make yourself a martini, put on some Brubeck and enjoy The Last Woman on Earth.