The World, The Flesh and The Devil
1959
Director: Ranald MacDougall
Cast Includes: Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
MS Cinemania 1994:
Belafonte and Stevens are only survivors of worldwide nuclear accident; their uneasy relationship is jarred by arrival of Ferrer. Intriguing film starts well, bogs down halfway through, and presents ridiculous conclusion. Best scenes are at beginning, when Belafonte is alone in an impressively deserted Manhattan.
The Primal Screen:
An intelligent film .... was The World, The Flesh And The Devil. Written and directed by Ranald MacDougall, it was based very loosely on M P Shiel's 1901 novel The Purple Cloud and concerns three survivors of an atomic war who meet up in an empty New York (the city appears remarkably undamaged). Conflict begins when the woman (Inger Stevens), who is white, chooses the black man (Harry Belafonte) instead of the white racist (Mel Ferrer). The two men hunt each other among the empty buildings of Manhatten but, surprisingly, the film ends with all three of them walking off into the sunset together - a rare movie example of rationalism winning out over human nature. A polished, well-crafted piece that is quite subversive for its time.
The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction:
As in Arch Oboler's Five (1951), thir wordy film tells of a tiny group of survivors in a nuclear-bomb ravaged USA. In this case there are three: a young white woman, a black man and a cynical adventurer (white and male). The film is evocative, as in the black man's entry into the empty metropolis (although no explanation is offered for the lack of bodies) and in the final hunt through the deserted streets of New York. The plot is simple: black man finds white woman but hesitates to form relationship with her; white man finds both of them and wants woman, who is willing to remain with black man; a running duel takes place between the men. Eventually they realise the futility of it all, and the film ends with all three walking off (rather daringly for the time) hand in hand. The script is more sophisticated than the banality of the plot would suggest, but the treatment of the racial theme is embarrassingly tentative, and compromised by the use of so handsome and light-skinned a black as Belafonte. There were just two survivors in Shiel's The Purple Cloud on which the film is based only remotely.
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updated february 2010