Product Details

• Actors: Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
• Directors: Ranald Macdougall
• Producers: George Englund
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MGM
• DVD Release Date: January 24, 2011
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004H0M32M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,894 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Millions Flee from Cities! End of the World!" From a Manhattan skyscraper, Ralph Burton (Harry Belafonte) surveys the emptiness announced by that chilling newspaper headline. Nuclear doomsday has come. Ralph is sure he is the last person alive. Then a woman (Inger Stevens) appears and the two form a cautious friendship that's threatened when a third survivor (Mel Ferrer) arrives. Unlike other post-apocalyptic thrillers from The Time Machine to I Am Legend, there are no external monsters to battle here. Instead, the monsters - fear, intolerance, jealousy - lurk inside the all-too-human human beings. And heightening the intensity of writer/director Ranald MacDougall's suspenseful and unsettling movie are stunning vistas of an unpopulated New York: vast, empty and soulless.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting movie. December 28, 2010

By Deborah E. Smith

Format:DVD

I first saw this movie on late night television over 35 years ago. I was haunted by the story of three people who seem to be the only survivors of nuclear holocaust. At the time (early 70's) nuclear annihilation was a very real threat. We were still required to watch "Duck and Cover" civil defense films at school. The movie is shot in black and white which ads to the desolate eeriness.

The World, the Flesh and the Devil rates right up there with other world annihilation movies of the time. On The Beach was filmed the same year (1959) and has a simular theme. Both are great movies because they touched on subjects that were very real at the time.

As far as I know, this is the first time this movie has been offered as a DVD or video tape. I do own a recorded copy from television, but was very excited to learn this movie was finally offered on DVD. With all the garbage that is offered on DVD, more of these older classics should be made available.

This is a great movie with great actors and performances. A very true example of the mindset of the country and our politics in 1959. I have been haunted by it ever since.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the greatest of all post-apocalyptic films January 17, 2011

By Muzzlehatch VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Ralph (Harry Belafonte) emerges after being trapped in a mine for several days in a small town in Pennsylvania to find a world gone silent. There's nobody around, no electricity, and no telephone or radio. He spies the last newspaper - the world was on the brink of war, and a cloud of radioactive, lethal gas had been released. But Ralph can't be the only one left - he decides to drive to New York City to find other survivors. After a few weeks there, as he alternates from hope to madness, he meets a young woman, Sarah (Inger Stevens). Perhaps the two of them could...but wait, (this is 1959 after all) Ralph is black! No, that won't work, they'll have to wait until Benson (Mel Ferrer) comes steaming up the river - now there's an appropriate white man for Sarah to marry and to start to repopulate the world...

What's remarkable about the THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL on a narrative level is that it deals with the racial and gender issues that it does - though it certainly isn't as forceful in dealing with racial issues as we might hope it to be, or as it no doubt would have been had it been made a decade later. Deep in the midst of the Civil Rights battles, here was a film in which Sarah's subtle, fairly passive racism, and Ralph's consciousness of race are acknowledged, in which Benson - seemingly a good man at heart - is willing to use his whiteness to his advantage, if he's allowed to - and in which all of the characters battle with what these identities mean in a world where they might be the only people left to care, and to pass on their prejudices to the future.... There are some awkward and corny lines here and there to be sure, but on the whole this is an honorable film that really tries I think to show just how silly all these barriers are that we have, when there is no earthly reason left to have them anymore.

If honorable intentions were the only element of note, this would still be a memorable film, but as it is the filmmaking overall is of a high enough calibre that we have here a minor classic verging on real greatness in many areas. The early sequences, with Ralph alone and trying to comprehend this new and lonely world around him, are simply enthralling and very moving - though the film never succumbs to glumness or cynicism, largely because of Belafonte's great charisma and dynamic, generally optimistic performance. The scene as Ralph first enters the city, running through the empty streets, calling out and hearing the echoes of his voice, over and over, are eerie and gripping, and a scene when he figures out how to get the electricity going in the hotel he's living in, and dances and sings out in the empty street with a spotlight throwing his giant shadow on the buildings across the way offers an opposite emotion - the ecstasy of freedom and a man's confidence in his abilities. And though in many ways this is Belafonte's show, all three actors shine, and it's very much to the film's credit that they all develop as fairly complex and engaging personalities despite the fact that we never get to learn much about any of their backgrounds.

The film was adapted by writer-director Ranald MacDougall from a novel by M.P. Shiel ("The Purple Cloud") and a story by Ferdinand Reyher ("End of the World"); I haven't read either source but it doesn't appear that the film is very close to the Shiel novel (published in 1901). MacDougall only directed a few films; he's better known as a screenwriter most famous for MILDRED PIERCE and a few other noir-tinged melodramas; at times this film has a noirish edge to it, particularly in the tense last scenes as the tensions between the three survivors come to a potentially violent head. The writer-director also has a phenomenal visual eye, and this film, photographed in B/W Cinemascope by Harold J. Marzorati, offers one of the more stunning depictions of a large, empty city that I've ever seen. Much more of it was shot on location than I would have believed possible - even in 1959 it must have been very difficult to get several shots of an empty Times Square. The wide frame, the small figures within it, and a hugely impressive use of sound (echoes going on forever, the sounds of footsteps heard blocks away in the silence) all add up to a compelling portrait of the puniness of man next to the hard and unyielding world he has created - and destroyed. The musical score is by Miklós Rózsa. 'Nuff said.

Why this film isn't better known is a mystery to me. It is certainly one of the best - if not the best - films of it's kind, ever. Now that we have this lovely new Warner Archive disc - absent extras as usual with this series, but presenting an excellent transfer - I hope more people will get to see it; it's been a missing piece of the puzzle of 50s science fiction greatness for too long, and it stands near the apex of the great work in the genre in that decade. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I watched several NYC scenes being filmed August 30, 2011

By Lennart Gadde

Format:DVD

Only recently did I find the wonderful flick on DVD. Unlike others I spent some time traveling around NYC watching some of the filming. Most went without incident BUT. Several of my friends and myself were at the Wall Street filming and a very funny incident occured. While Ralph Burton ( Harry Belefonte ) was pulling his wagon down Wall St from Broadway and shooting off his pistol and calling out for a never to be heard answer, LO and behold someone working in one of the buildings on Wall Street opened their office window and shoited back for him not to make so much noise that everyone in the area could hear him. Needless to say shooting stopped and someone from the film crew was dispatched to silence the person in question. Of all the places we went to watch the filming in the city I believe this was really the one incident that stood out. But it let Harry sigh many autographs including one for me. Lennart C Gadde

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Post-Apocalyptic Film of All Time February 24, 2011

By Dena Korsgard

Format:DVD

It is also one of the most finely crafted films of any genre, and it seems incredible that it has taken so long for it to be released. It is intelligent without being pedantic, multi-layered without being heavy-handed or convoluted. I hesitate to give examples, as I do not want to spoil any moment of the film for first time viewers and so much has already been described. If nothing else, a look at the cast list should be enticement enough. Belafonte, Stevens, and Ferrer could lift any work above it's failings, and, in this case, everything about this film matches the talent of the phenomenal cast. I have waited years for this to be released, and now everyone on my gift list can expect to receive this in 2011!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best old films September 4, 2011

By Davis Pierce

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

The quality of this film was excellent better than i could have hoped for being an old film excellent picture

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Memory Plays Tricks April 2, 2011

By Uncle Harry

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I remember watching The World, The Flesh And The Devil when I was 12 years old (1967). Some of the details were right on target and others had gone out of whack. But this is quite a thought provoking film of what it would be like if a major catastrophe were to occur. The message remains the same over the years. Be prepared!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of Kind; Thanks for Making It Available March 11, 2011

By V. Risoli

Format:DVD

"The World, the Flesh and the Devil" (1959) has numerous distinctions. It is the best of its kind, stories about the apocalypse of the end of the world. It starred Harry Belafonte, the charismatic star of "Carmen Jones" who really should have had been used more often as the world with a man like Harry Belafonte is sadly too going out of style. It also starred Inger Stevens who died way too soon. Mel Ferrer brings in monstrous feelings in his jealousy of another man and only one woman that serves as villain in the story. The film for its limited premise is filled with imagination that makes an apocalyptic film today like "The Book of Eli" with its ultra-violent limited premise seem hokey. Writer/director Ranald MacDougall should be congratulated for handling such a human story in heightened awareness of the lack of other people so masterfully. To think a director today can not make so worthy a film of half as much story is discouraging. Many thanks to Warner Archive for bringing this film out as it is truly rewarding.