It's Great to Be Alive

IT'S GREAT TO BE ALIVE if you're THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. In this sound remake of the 1924 comedy, Raul Roulien is engaged to Gloria Stuart, but his numerous ex-girlfriends won't take "No" for an answer, particularly Joan Marsh. When Herbert Mundin puts Roulien in the wrong bed room, Gloria calls off the wedding. Roulien stomps off to make a daring cross-Pacific flight. His plane goes down in the middle of nowhere as a plague emerges that kills all the men on Earth.

Some time later, Roulien is discovered, captured by gangsters -- the etymologically feminine ending applying -- but taken by scientist Edna May Oliver for an international congress to decide what to do.

Fox was trying to make a Chevalier-style comedy, but Roulien lacks the personality for it. In addition, there is no explanation of how Roulien is going to avoid being infected for the women-carried germ and dying. The comedy is competently executed by director Alfred Werker, as is the over-the-top choreography by Sammy Lee (think "Freedonia's Going to War"). There are some competent but unmemorable songs by William Kernell that make this a decent but unremarkable time-waster.