''On the Beach'' is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

from

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

, produced and directed by

Stanley Kramer Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a libera ...

, that stars

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins.Mitchell 2001, pp. 177–183. This

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

film is based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war.Weave
2011, pp. 62–71.
/ref> Unlike in the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting the war; the film hints that global annihilation may have arisen from an accident or misjudgment.

Plot

In 1964,

World War III World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...

devastated the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

, killing all humans there due to nuclear fallout. The only habitable areas are in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, but air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south. Australian survivors detect an incomprehensible

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

signal coming from the West Coast of the United States. The American nuclear submarine USS ''Sawfish'', now under

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister o ...

command, is ordered to sail north to locate the source of the signal. The submarine is commanded by Capt. Dwight Towers, who leaves behind a new friend, Moira Davidson. A scientific theory postulates the radiation levels near the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

are lower than the mid-Northern Hemisphere, possibly indicating the radiation could disperse before reaching the Southern Hemisphere. Arriving at

Point Barrow, Alaska Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow). It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at , south of the North Pole. (The north ...

, the submarine discovers radiation levels are inexplicably intensifying. ''Sawfish'' arrives in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

Bay area; the crew finds a city devoid of any signs of life. Ralph Swain, a crewman with family in San Francisco, deserts the submarine and swims ashore. Scientist Julian Osborn informs Capt. Towers that Swain's contact with the radioactive environment will quickly make it impossible for him to return without killing everyone aboard. The next morning, through the periscope, Capt. Towers observes Swain fishing in the bay. He apologizes for deserting, explaining he preferred to die in his hometown. Towers understands, bids him farewell, and departs for

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. Near San Diego, communications officer Lt. Sunderstrom goes ashore wearing radiation and oxygen gear to search for the source of the signals. He has just one hour, and is alerted by a horn blast from ''Sawfish'' every 15 minutes, and must return immediately upon hearing the third horn blast. At an electric station running on automatic control, he finds the telegraph, and discovers a tilted soda-pop bottle hanging by its neck from an open window shade's pull cord; random ocean breezes bump the bottle against the live

telegraph key A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to transmit text messages in Morse code in a telegraphy system. Keys are used in all forms of electrical telegraph systems, including landline (also called wir ...

, sending out random signals. Sunderstrom uses Morse code to send a message, describing the bleak situation. Before returning to ''Sawfish'', Sunderstrom shuts down the power station's generators. ''Sawfish'' crew returns to Australia to enjoy what pleasures remain. While reuniting with Moira at her father's farm, Towers hears all US Navy personnel stationed at their base in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

are dead. Towers is promoted to Admiral of the remaining US Navy personnel in Australia. Osborn wins the

Australian Grand Prix The Australian Grand Prix is an annual motor racing event which is under contract to host Formula One until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venu ...

in which many racers, with nothing left to lose, die in various crashes. With the fishing season starting sooner than normal, Towers and Moira begin a fishing trip. At a country stream, drunken revelers surround them. From their resort room, they can hear more boozy fishermen singing a version of "

Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) ...

". Towers and Moira share a romantic interlude, while outside a gathering storm howls. The fishermen sing an a capella rendition of the song's foreboding final verse. Returning to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, Towers learns one of his crew, Sunderstrom, who investigated the signal in San Diego, has radiation sickness, meaning the deadly radiation has arrived. Osborn closes himself in a sealed garage with his championship racing car, electing to die from

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...

as he revs the engine. Others queue to receive suicide pills issued by agents of the Australian government. Towers wants to stay with Moira, but many of his remaining crew want to head for home to die in the US; he chooses his duty over his love for Moira, joining his crew as they attempt to make it back to a radioactive America. Moira watches ''Sawfish'' leave Australia and submerge for the final voyage home. Within a few days, the last pockets of survivors in Melbourne are dead. The empty windblown streets of Melbourne are punctuated by the rise of dramatic, strident music over a single powerful image of a previously seen Salvation Army street banner: "There is still time .. Brother".

Cast

as Commander Dwight Lionel Towers, USS ''Sawfish'' * Ava Gardner as Moira Davidson, Towers' Australian love interest * Fred Astaire as Julian Osborn, Australian scientist * Anthony Perkins as Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes, Royal Australian Navy *

Donna Anderson Donna Anderson (born September 5, 1939) is an American character actress, active primarily in television during the 1960s and 1970s. Early life Anderson was born Donna Knaflich in Gunnison, Colorado, the daughter of Wenona Hanly-Knaflich and Lo ...

as Mary Holmes, Peter's wife *

John Tate John Tate may refer to: * John Tate (mathematician) (1925–2019), American mathematician * John Torrence Tate Sr. (1889–1950), American physicist * John Tate (Australian politician) (1895–1977) * John Tate (actor) (1915–1979), Australian a ...

as Admiral Bridie, Royal Australian Navy * Harp McGuire as Lieutenant Sunderstrom (ashore in San Diego) * Lola Brooks as Lieutenant Hosgood, Bridie's secretary *

Ken Wayne Ken Wayne (1925–1993) was an Australian actor of radio, theatre, film and television. He made his film debut in ''Sons of Matthew'' (1949) and appeared in a number of movies including '' Dust in the Sun'' (1958). He was also well known for hi ...

as Lieutenant Benson *

Guy Doleman Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. Early life Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand, later moving to Australia. Career During the 1 ...

as Lieutenant Commander Farrel *

Richard Meikle Richard Meikle (10 October 1929 – 2 June 1991) was an Australian actor who worked extensively in film, theatre, and radio. He was the father of writer Sam Meikle. Career Meikle began his career as a stage actor. His first recorded role was i ...

as Davis * John Meillon as ''Sawfish'' crewman Ralph Swain (ashore in San Francisco) * Joe McCormick as Ackerman, radiation sickness victim *

Lou Vernon Lou Vernon (26 June 1888, Brisbane – 22 December 1971, Sydney) was an Australian actor of stage, radio and screen and producer. He started his career in musical comedy, and was particularly noted for his versatility and ability as a character a ...

as Bill Davidson, Moira's father * Kevin Brennan as Dr. King, radiation diagnosis doctor * Keith Eden as Dr. Fletcher (beach scene) * Basil Buller-Murphy as Sir Douglas Froude * Brian James as Royal Australian Navy officer * John Casson as Salvation Army captain * Paddy Moran as Stevens (club wine steward) * Grant Taylor as Morgan (Holmes party) * George Fairfax (Holmes party guest) * Earl Francis (Holmes party guest) * Pat Port (Runner on Beach) * Cary Peck (uncredited)

Production

As in the novel, much of ''On the Beach'' takes place in

, close to the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. Principal photography took place from mid-January to March 27, 1959 in Australia. Beach scenes were filmed at the foreshore of Mount Eliza. The film was shot in part in Berwick, then a town outside Melbourne and part in Frankston, described in the film as 45 minutes away from Melbourne. The well-known scene where Peck meets Gardner, who arrives from Melbourne by rail, was filmed on platform #1 of Frankston railway station, now rebuilt, and a subsequent scene where Peck and Gardner are transported off by horse and buggy, was filmed in Young Street, Frankston. Some streets which were being built at the time in Berwick were named after people involved in the film. Two examples are Shute Avenue (Nevil Shute) and Kramer Drive (Stanley Kramer)."Melbourne: Melway street map".
''

Melway Melway, colloquially referred to as Melways or The Melways, is a street directory for Melbourne,Riverside Raceway in California and at

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is a motor racing circuit located near Ventnor, on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. The current circuit was first used in 1956. History Road circuit Motor racing on Phillip Island began in 1928 with t ...

, home to the present-day Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, conveniently located near Cowes at Phillip Island. These scenes include an array of late-1950s sports cars, including examples of the Jaguar XK150 and Jaguar D-Type, Porsche 356, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing", AC Ace, Chevrolet Corvette,

Swallow Doretti The Swallow Doretti is a two-seater British sports car built on Swallow's own design of box-section tube chassis using Triumph TR2 mechanicals, made between 1954 and 1955. It was intended for the U.S. market and to be a more refined two-seater t ...

and prominent in sequences was the "Chuck Porter Special", a customized Mercedes 300SL. Built by Hollywood body shop owner Chuck Porter and driven by a list of notable 1950s to 1960s west-coast racers, including

Ken Miles Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was a British- American sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an induct ...

and Chuck Stevenson, who purchased and successfully raced it in the early 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense refused to cooperate in the production of the film, not allowing access to its nuclear-powered submarines. The British submarine HMS ''Andrew'' was used to portray the fictional

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

nuclear-powered submarine USS ''Sawfish''. Additional resources were supplied by the

, including the use of the aircraft carrier, HMAS ''Melbourne''.Gillett 1980, p. 29. It has often been claimed that Ava Gardner described Melbourne as "the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world."Thompson, Nathaniel
"Articles: On the Beach (1959)."
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: January 1, 2015. However, the purported quote was actually invented by journalist Neil Jillett, who was writing for ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' at the time. His original draft of a

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...

piece about the making of the film said that he had not been able to confirm a third-party report that Ava Gardner had made this remark. The newspaper's sub-editor changed it to read as a direct quotation from Gardner. It was published in that form and entered Melbourne folklore very quickly."Review" (lift-out magazine). ''The Weekend Australian'', December 18–19, 1999. Frank Chacksfield's orchestral performance of the love theme from ''On the Beach'' was released as a single in 1960, reaching #47 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.

Differences between the novel and film

Nevil Shute was displeased with the final cut of the film, feeling that too many changes had been made at the expense of the story's integrity. After initial collaboration with Kramer, it was obvious that Shute's concerns were not being addressed; subsequently, he provided minimal assistance to the production. Gregory Peck agreed with Shute but, in the end, producer/director

's ideas won out. Shute felt that Captain Towers and Moira having a love affair ruined a central element of the novel, that is, Towers' fidelity to his long-dead American wife.Dawson-Taylor, David
"On the Beach."
''Nevilshute.org''. Retrieved: January 1, 2015. In the beginning of the novel, it is stated that World War III started when Albania launched a nuclear attack against Italy. Afterwards, Egypt used Soviet built aircraft to make nuclear bombings on the United States and the United Kingdom, which, in turn, provoked the US and NATO to launch retaliation attacks against the Soviet Union, thus triggering the slow and painful death of the human race as the radiation from the attacks began to spread south. In the beginning of the movie, no nuclear attacks are shown, but the action opens on the USS Sawfish as it makes its way towards Melbourne. Later on, after the Sawfish leaves Ralph Swain in San Francisco and heads towards San Diego, the crew makes discussions on how a book about World War III could be written, but as details of the war to them are sketchy, they are at a loss as to who started the war (though one crewman states that America didn't start the war and another crewman wishes that somebody could've prevented the war before it broke out) and make jokes about Martians, who might know the answer, but take over Earth once the radiation levels drop. When they ask Osborn for his opinion on who started the war, Osborn first answers

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

, blaming him for finding the equation that resulted in the discovery of atomic power and the creation of nuclear weapons, but comes up with a better hypothesis on how the war could've started accidentally. In Osborn's hypothesis, somewhere in one of the Eastern European nations, a man on radar duty saw incoming objects on the radar screen and mistook them for missiles launched by their enemies (though it's likely the incoming objects may have been a flock of birds) and, without hesitation (for doing so, he feared, would've resulted in his nation getting hit) pressed the button that launched the first nuclear missiles of the war. Upon finishing his hypothesis, Osborn then comments on how mankind by that time had become stupid enough to cause his own extinction through weapons they couldn't use responsibly without regarding the consequences first. In the novel it has been two years since the last nuclear attacks, and small pockets of human survivors are mentioned in several areas of the Southern Hemisphere. Australia is in radio contact with places such as

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

, on the east coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

, and

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, on the southern tip of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Commander Towers is in communication with the only other remaining active-duty

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

vessel, another nuclear submarine, USS ''Swordfish'', on duty in the Atlantic, which, at the end, is based in Montevideo. Melbourne, where much of the novel is set, is the southernmost major city in the world. It will be the last such to die, but people in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, Tierra del Fuego and other, more southerly points than Australia, are said to have a few additional weeks left to them. In the film an unidentified radio newscaster says that, as far as is known, Australia is home to the last human life on the planet. This to possibly build hope that the San Francisco expedition will result in the discovery of other survivors, adding a sense of urgency and importance to Melbourne's survivors. In the film there is no USS ''Swordfish'', only the submarine USS ''Scorpion''. For the film, ''Scorpion'' is renamed ''Sawfish'', and the boat comes to represent the last (known) hope for humanity. The film's production crew was forced to use a non-nuclear, diesel-electric

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

submarine, HMS ''Andrew'', as a stand-in for the nuclear-powered ''Sawfish''.Bartlett, Andrew
"Nuclear Warfare in the Movies".
''Anthropoetics'', Volume 10, Issue 1, 2004. ISSN 1083-7264. Several major and minor characters were altered, removed, or created specifically for the film adaptation. The novel's Moira Davidson, a slender, petite pale blonde in her mid-twenties, was portrayed by the tall, curvaceous, 36-year-old brunette Ava Gardner. Nuclear scientist John Osborne, a 20-something bachelor in the novel, is portrayed in the film by 60-year-old Fred Astaire and is named Julian Osborn. Moira and John are cousins in the novel, while Moira and Julian are former lovers in the film. Admiral Bridie and his secretary, Lieutenant Hosgood, are film characters not in the novel.Lindsey, D
"“Book vs. Film: On the Beach.”
''themotionpictures.net'', August 7, 2013. In the film random Morse code radio signals coming from San Diego give rise to hope that there are survivors on the U.S. west coast. In the novel the signals are coming from a naval training base farther north, near

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

. The idea of a survivor sending random signals is forthrightly dismissed in the novel as ridiculous. Towers says that even someone who didn't know Morse code would sit there with a Morse book and send at about five words per minute. The film's characters, however, hold out hope that there could be a person on the other end of the telegraph (this is possibly used as a plot device to build suspense and hope). The main reason in the novel for the expedition is to learn if there are indeed survivors. Rather than a telegraph operator, the characters hold out hope that, without the intercession of technicians and maintenance workers, the possibility of telegraph power being supplied after all that time would be remote at best. It turns out that, as in the film, the power station has been running on its own since the war, but it is beginning to break down from lack of maintenance, particularly the lubrication needed to prevent overheating. Just as in the film, the power station is shut down before the submarine sails for home. During Lt. Sunderstrom's search in the film for the signals' author, he is given just one hour, while in the novel, he is given two hours to find the source. Just like the novel, Sunderstrom's radiation suit doesn't have a wrist watch to help him keep track of his time ashore, so the submarine crew alerts him with horn blasts every quarter of an hour. In the film, a single horn blast was given every fifteen minutes, and Sunderstrom is ordered to return immediately after hearing the third blast. In the novel, the submarine crew gives one horn blast for a quarter of an hour, two for half an hour, three for three quarters, and four for a whole hour. He's ordered to stop what he's doing at five horn blasts (1 1/4 hours) and return at six horn blasts (1 1/2 hours). In the novel, Sunderstrom finds several bodies during his search, while in the film, there are no dead bodies at the power station. While Sunderstrom finds the source of the signals, he discovers in the novel that it's a window shade cord caught on a telegraph key. In the film he finds it's an overturned Coke bottle snagged in a window shade cord above the telegraph key. Ocean breezes, in both cases, are blowing through an open window making the window shade disturb the telegraph key. Sunderstrom sends a proper Morse message to describe how they have traveled all that way for nothing. In both the novel and the film, while Sunderstrom receives his return orders, the captain also warns him not to bring any souvenirs aboard, as they could be contaminated with radioactivity. In the novel, after Sunderstrom shuts off the power station, he explores a bit and defies his orders by bringing aboard three of the last printed issues of the '' Saturday Evening Post'', so he catches up on a serial that was running when the war started. In the film, after Sunderstrom sends his message, he follows Towers's orders to not bring aboard any souvenirs and is already en route to ''Sawfish'' when he hears the final horn blast. In the film San Francisco's buildings are completely undamaged, with one memorable shot occurring when ''Sawfish'' first passes under the intact Golden Gate Bridge. In the novel the city has been largely destroyed and the bridge has fallen into the bay. In the novel, the northernmost point of the submarine's journey is the Gulf of Alaska, while the film uses Point Barrow. Towers and Moira attend the Australian Grand Prix and go to the mountains afterwards in the film. In the novel, they are vacationing in the mountains on the day of the race, and they hear a radio report of John Osborne's first-place finish. The novel ends with a dying Moira sitting in her car, having taken her suicide pills, while watching ''Scorpion'' head out to sea to be scuttled. Unlike the novel, no mention of scuttling the submarine is made in the film. Instead, Commander Towers's crew asks that he attempt to take them back to the U.S., where they can die on their home soil. Although he realizes that they probably will not survive a second passage north, he does as they request. In the film Ava Gardner is merely watching the submarine submerge and disappear beneath the sea and is not shown taking her suicide pills.

Release and reception

''On the Beach'' premiered simultaneously in 18 theaters on all seven continents on December 17, 1959. The Hollywood premiere was attended by the film's stars, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins, director Stanley Kramer, in addition to other celebrities, including

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of ...

. The New York premiere was attended by Mayor

Robert F. Wagner Jr Robert Ferdinand Wagner II (April 20, 1910 – February 12, 1991) was an American politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965. When running for his third term, he broke with the Tammany Hall leadership ...

. The London premiere was attended by Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom Yakov Malik. Star Ava Gardner attended the Rome premiere. The Tokyo premiere was attended by members of the Japanese Imperial Family. The Stockholm premiere was attended by King Gustav VI Adolf. The Melbourne premiere was attended by Premier of Victoria Henry Bolte. Other premieres were held in West Berlin, Caracas, Chicago, Johannesburg, Lima, Paris, Toronto, Washington, D.C. and Zurich The film was even screened in a theater at the Little America base in Antarctica. Although the film did not receive a commercial release in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, a special premiere was unprecedentedly arranged for that night in Moscow.

and his wife traveled to Russia for the screening, which was held at a workers' club, with 1,200 Soviet dignitaries, the foreign press corps, and diplomats including

U.S. Ambassador Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U. ...

Llewellyn Thompson attending. ''On the Beach'' recorded a loss of $700,000. Despite this, the film was praised in its day and in later years. It also acquired a fan base that agreed on many of the issues presented. Bosley Crowther in his contemporary review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' saw the film as delivering a powerful message. The review in '' Variety'' was not as positive: "''On the Beach'' is a solid film of considerable emotional, as well as cerebral, content. But the fact remains that the final impact is as heavy as a leaden shroud. The spectator is left with the sick feeling that he's had a preview of Armageddon, in which all contestants lost". Stanley Kauffmann of

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

wrote: "When the film hews close to its theme, it is effective and valuable; when it deals with its characters as characters, it is often phony. Just as we are gripped by horror, along comes a pure Hollywood touch to remind us that what we are watching is only a movie". In a later appraisal of both novel and film, historian Paul Brians (''Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1964'' (1987)) considered the novel "inferior" to the film. His contention was that the portrayal of nuclear annihilation was more accurate as it was clear that the world was coming to an end. At the film

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds a 77% approval rating based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10.

Awards

Stanley Kramer won the 1960 BAFTA for best director and Ernest Gold won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Score. It was also nominated for

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

in two categories:

Remake

''On the Beach'' was remade in 2000 as an Australian television film by Southern Star Productions, directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Armand Assante, Bryan Brown, and Rachel Ward.Turegano, Preston
"Beach's passion doesn't run deep, as radioactive love boat founders"
'' The San Diego Union-Tribune'', May 28, 2000, p. TV3. It was originally aired on Showtime.Moliltorisz, Sacha
"TV & Radio: On the Beach"
''

'', April 19, 2007. Retrieved: January 11, 2015. The remake of the 1959 film was also based on the 1957 novel by Nevil Shute, but updates the setting of the story to the film's then-future of 2005, starting with placing the crew on the fictional ''Los Angeles''–class USS ''Charleston'' (SSN-704) submarineKronke, David
Beach': It's the end of the world as we know it"
'' Los Angeles Daily News'', May 28, 2000. Retrieved: January 11, 2015. and also changing the final actions of Towers.

Documentary

The 2013 documentary ''Fallout'' by Melbourne filmmaker Lawrence Johnston explores Shute's life and Kramer's making of ''On the Beach'', with interviews of Shute's daughter, Kramer's wife, Karen, and

, one of the film's last surviving cast members. ''Fallout'' was produced by Peter Kaufmann.Philippa Hawker
Fallout endures from '50s classic
''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', October 31, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2015.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Balio, Tino. ''United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry''. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. . * Fishgall, Gary. ''Gregory Peck: A Biography''. New York: Scribner, 2002. . * Gillett, Ross. ''HMAS Melbourne: 25 Years''. Sydney, NSW: Nautical Press, 1980. . * Lind, Lew. ''The Royal Australian Navy: Historic Naval Events Year by Year (2nd ed.)''. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed Books 1986, First edition 1982. . * Mitchell, Charles P. "On the Beach (1959)." ''A Guide to Apocalyptic Cinema''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001. . * Shute, Nevil. ''On The Beach''. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1957. * Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching The Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 1950s'', Vol II: 1958 - 1962. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1982. . * Weaver, Roslyn. "Nevil Schute: On the Beach (1957)." ''Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film: A Critical Study''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011. .

External links

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Geoff Stanton, "Apocalypse Then: the Making of On the Beach", ''Filmink Magazine'' 2010

''On the Beach: Filming the 1959 Feature Film''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

''On the Beach''
at Oz Movies
Waltzing Matilda Finale
at YouTube {{Authority control 1959 films 1950s disaster films 1950s science fiction drama films American disaster films American science fiction drama films Apocalyptic films 1950s English-language films American black-and-white films Films scored by Ernest Gold Films about nuclear war and weapons Films about suicide Films based on Australian novels Films directed by Stanley Kramer Films set in 1964 Films set in Victoria (Australia) Films set in California Films set in Melbourne Films set in the future Films shot in Melbourne American post-apocalyptic films Science fiction submarine films United Artists films Films about the United States Navy Films about World War III Films produced by Stanley Kramer American survival films 1959 drama films Films set in San Diego 1950s American films