The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

"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 postapocalyptic 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 beings. And heightening the intensity of writer/director Ranald MacDougall's suspenseful and unsettling movie are stunning vistas of unpopulated New York: vast, empty and soulless.