The World, the Flesh and the Devil

Ralph Burton, a miner, is working underground when a cave-in traps him there for several days. Once he digs himself free, he discovers that a nuclear war appears to have wiped out almost everyone. He makes his way to New York City and finds it entirely deserted, with no sign of destruction, and settles into an empty life among the abandoned buildings. Eventually he meets Sarah Crandall, another survivor, and the two build a close friendship. Their relative peace is disturbed by the arrival of Benson Thacker, who has sailed a small boat into the harbor. With three people left in the city, tension grows between the two men, and race becomes the fault line running through their competition for Sarah's attention.

This 1959 American production was directed by Ranald MacDougall, who also wrote the screenplay, working from a story by M. L. Shulman and Ferdinand Reyher. It was only MacDougall's second film as director, following Queen Bee in 1955. Harry Belafonte stars as Ralph and also produced alongside George Englund, with Inger Stevens as Sarah and Mel Ferrer as Benson; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film, which runs 95 minutes and mixes drama, romance and science fiction.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.8 from roughly 3,900 votes, while on TMDB it scores 6.4 from a much smaller base of 82 votes.