Dr. Ruehl schools LA Times on true 'Legend'

As we've told you before, Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and Television & Film Personality of 2007, Dr. Franklin Ruehl Ph.D, is a man of letters-- having had 26 of his letters to the editor published by the Los Angeles Times alone. But his latest note of outrage to the lax lady's calendar section was left unrun (and we hope it's not because of his connection to Tabloid Baby!) So here it is, concerning an error of omission in the Times' review of the new blockbuster film, I Am Legend:

Dear Editor:

Absolutely unconscionable! No acknowledgment whatsoever was made of Vincent Price's tour de force performance in 1964's "The Last Man On Earth" (the first cinematic incarnation of the novella, "I Am Legend") in Carina Chocano's critique of Will Smith's new movie (Calendar, December 14, "The Last Man is a 'Legend'").

Price's entry was shot in black-and-white to create the apropos film noir ambience and was abetted by an ideal hauntingly eerie musical score. Price exquisitely conveyed the gut-wrenching trauma of a father trying to prevent his plague-ridden child from being tossed into a mass grave. Then, he expressed unrelenting grief as he buried his dead wife in a secret grave followed by sheer terror as she returned as a vampire thirsting for his blood.

Finally, as he lay mortally wounded with a spear lodged in his chest, he proclaimed that he, indeed, was "the last man on earth."

So, I submit that any discussion of "I Am Legend" is pitifully incomplete without inclusion of this 1964 masterpiece!

(For the record, I personally felt that Charlton Heston's 1971 color version, "The Omega Man," laden as it was with a heavy dose of violence, could not compare.)

May the Power of the Cosmos be with You!

Dr.Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

(Note: I am host of the cable access show, "Mysteries From Beyond The Other Dominion," where I regularly critique entries from the horror/sci-fi/mystery genre.)