Funny Future Shock

By J.C.

THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH

Directed and Written by ROBERT FUEST

The computer that can save the world is in Lapland, stashed in a hidden, subterranean laboratory. Just so there should be no mistake, the thing bears this sign, discreet but emphatic: THE MOST COMPLEX COMPUTER IN THE WORLD. DO NOT TOUCH. The trouble is with those who are allowed to touch it, three slightly awry scientists and their collaborator, a splendidly long and sexy programmer, openhanded but calculating about distributing her favors. The world is coming to an end, and this quartet is the only hope. At least, that is what they say.

Our hero, a Nobel-prize winning researcher named Jerry Cornelius (Jon Finch), is rather skeptical about it all or, more properly, about the scientists and the girl. There is no doubt that the world is ending. There are riots, famine and martial law in Calcutta. Amsterdam has just been accidentally A-bombed into, as an American major (Sterling Hayden) puts it enthusiastically: "Twenty-eight square miles of white ash." The U.S. magnanimously offers to pay reparations to the five survivors, but settling of accounts is of secondary importance in such parlous, fissile times.

Cornelius, the programmer (Jenny Runacre) and the three scientists rather tentatively join forces to avert Armageddon and usher in a new age. It will be the time of what Cornelius' ex ophthalmic guru (Hugh Griffith) calls a "new messiah, born of an age of science." At the end of this giddy, spectacular and sometimes quite funny fantasy, the neo-messiah makes his debut.

A bit of a letdown -- he would almost have to be -- he is also guaranteed to be what you would hardly expect.

The Last Days of Man on Earth is decked out with an abundance of style by Robert Fuest, who designed, direct ed and wrote it, somewhat overreaching himself in that last department. The movie, even though adapted from a nov el by Science-Fiction Specialist Michael Moorcock, is chaotic for most of its first half. It is also a great deal of fun.

The film is a mad send-up of future shock and the trappings of conventional scifi, but it works as a kind of crack-brained adventure. Fuest, who made his reputation with a couple of fang-in-cheek vampire flicks, has a good time parading Hero Jon Finch about in black -- a color scheme observed even in his nail polish and toothbrush but modified in his shirts, which are sparkling white and ruffled, like a lapsed romantic poet's. It is comforting to know, how ever, that when some heroics are required, Finch can rise to the occasion, or at least get himself up on one elbow.

The cast, besides the commendably sardonic Finch, includes some always reliable character types (Griffith, Hayden, Graham Crowden, Patrick Magee, George Coulouris), and Miss Runacre, a skillful actress, who looks smashing into the bargain. The Last Days of Man on Earth, fractured and funny, is an authentic curiosity. Pace Woody Allen, it is a true sleeper, a movie both of substantial flaw and surprise. When one of the scientists announces with pride that the group has "the best brains in Eu rope working for us," and when it is shown just what he means, Allen would recognize a kindred anarchic spirit.

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