The World, The Flesh and The Devil Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The End of the World" )

directed by Ranald MacDougall
USA 1959

“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.

***

Pennsylvania miner Harry Belafonte emerges from a cave-in to discover the coal field, and indeed all of Pennsylvania, deserted. By the time he reaches the eerie empty streets of New York City (these scenes were filmed at daybreak, just before the Friday "rush hour"). Belafonte has pieced together the situation: a mysterious radioactive cloud has killed off everyone else on Earth. After an hour or so of singing to himself and conversing with department store mannequins, Belafonte discovers that another human being, beautiful Inger Stevens, has survived the cataclysm. Tentatively overcoming inbred racial considerations, Belafonte and Stevens make the best of their situation (he even throws her a birthday party). But when Survivor No. 3 Mel Ferrer shows up, all the old hostilities and suspicions that have plagued Mankind for centuries are brought to the fore.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 23rd, 1959 (USA

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner Archive Collection - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

Box Cover

Distribution	Warner Archive Collection Home Video - Region 0 - NTSC	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:34:33	1:34:43.719
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.73 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 28,585,077,398 bytes Feature: 27,681,134,592 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1972 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1972 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical Trailer (2:10) DVD Release Date: December 14th, 2010 Keep Case Chapters 29	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 28,585,077,398 bytes Feature: 27,681,134,592 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Theatrical Trailer (2:13) Blu-ray Release Date: November 12th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 30

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (November 2019): Warner Archive have transferred The World, The Flesh and The Devil to Blu-ray via their Archive Collection label. Some of the marks present on the DVD (see last matched captures) are unseen and there is more information in the frame - as well as a crisper, sharper image with superior contrast. It has a slight gloss and looks fabulous - like it was shot recently - not in the 50s.

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. It is another advancement in the film's audio and score by iconic Miklós Rózsa (A Woman's Vengeance, The Killers, The Lost Weekend, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity) sounding deeper establishing a desolate atmosphere. Warner Archive offer optional English subtitles (in a yellow font) on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray has the same extras as their DVD from 2010 - a lone trailer. MEH.

I'm huge on the Apocalypse genre of films (see our article HERE) and The World, The Flesh and The Devil is a gem of one. Very reminiscent of 2015's Z for Zachariah, that surely used he World, The Flesh and The Devil as an inspiration. It's a film I am very happy to own on Blu-ray. and re-watch for the rest of my days. We are disappointed by the continued bare-bones status - but the film is recommended in this vastly superior HD format.

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: The World, the Flesh and the Devil is an excellent end of the world drama with just 3 characters. You can see its influence as recent as this year's pilot episode of zombie series The Walking Dead. The CinemaScope black-and-white feature would have looked excellent in restored high definition, but this remastered release from Warner Archive Collection is more than acceptable. The single-layered progressive transfer looks crisp and detailed (see Harry Belafonte's reflection in the third capture). There are some instances of dirt and marks, like in the last capture, but they are very rare.

The film is presented with Stereo Surround soundtrack, but, per usual for these made-on-demand discs, there are no subtitles. The disc has 29 chapters and a trailer (I used the title for the film from the trailer since the film itself only has one word at a time). There is also a Spanish disc released this December, but with didn't have a chance to compare it to this release.

Gegory Meshmane