It established the tone for subsequent movies and television programs.
A woman was elected president of the United States one hundred years ago. Naturally, this didn’t actually happen, but one of the first surviving on-screen representations of a woman in that position is a fictional female president who made an appearance in a movie published precisely one hundred years ago, in 1924.
JG Blystone is the director of the silent comedy The Last Man on Earth, which stars Earle Foxe. In the year 1954, Foxe portrays Elmer, the lone adult guy who hasn’t been extinguished by.
Luckily for him, he was living alone in a forest when the virus struck, so when he is brought back to civilisation, he is a sought-after specimen. The government buys him for $10m and two “senatresses” have a boxing match for the right to marry him – but Elmer only has eyes for his childhood sweetheart.
Adapted from a short story by John D Swain, The Last Man on Earth is really an excuse to have some risqué fun with the male fantasy of being pursued by countless women. “Little, if any, attempt is made to conceal the fact that they are impelled by sex impulse,”
