The World, the Flesh and the Devil

‘I’ve got work to do…’ utters Ralph Burton, mining engineer-turned-handyman, in this dystopian melodrama. The population has seemingly melted into thin air leaving not a trace behind. Burton is the only Black person among three urban survivors. With its themes of Cold War-era paranoia, fears of miscegenation and racist vigilantism – all speaking to our current era – this was a bold choice by Belafonte and he excels in it, all within the capacious breadth of cinemascope.

35mm print courtesy of the Paul Rayton Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Contains terms of racial abuse that viewers may find upsetting.