On the Beach (1959)

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writers:

Nevil Shute (novel)
John Paxton (writer)

Release Date:

17 December 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The residents of Australia after a global nuclear war must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.

Plot Keywords:

Post Nuclear | San Francisco Bay | Anti War | Southern Hemisphere | Deserted City

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers, USS Sawfish
Ava Gardner	...	Moira Davidson
Fred Astaire	...	Julian Osborne
Anthony Perkins	...	Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes, Royal Australian Navy
Donna Anderson	...	Mary Holmes
John Tate	...	Adm. Bridie
Harp McGuire	...	Lt. Sunderstrom (ashore in San Diego)
Lola Brooks	...	Lt. Hosgood (Bridie's secretary)
Ken Wayne	...	Lt. Benson
Guy Doleman	...	Lt. Cmdr. Farrel
Richard Meikle	...	Davis
John Meillon	...	Ralph Swain (ashore in San Francisco)
Joe McCormick	...	Ackerman (radiation sickness)
Lou Vernon	...	Bill Davidson (Moira's father)
Kevin Brennan	...	Dr. King (radiation diagnosis)

Runtime:

134 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #19372) | Germany:16 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Canadian Bay, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Stanley Kramer Productions

Trivia:

According to Philip R. Davey, author of the book "When Hollywood Came to Melbourne: The Story of the Making of Stanley Kramer's 'On The Beach'", director Stanley Kramer experienced many problems with the thousands of bathers who stood in shoulder-deep water to watch the proceedings, and who applauded the cast after each take. Their enthusiasm was gratifying in this respect if not in others, such as when thousands of people began crowding forward to get a closer look at Ava Gardner, they repeatedly moved into camera range, thus necessitating many frustrating retakes.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Farm in Harkaway. Dwight returns to Moira, Julian rolls in in the Monza. Being August in Victoria the sun is too steep. Must have been filmed on a summer day.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dwight Towers: Prepare to surface.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999)

Soundtrack:

WALTZING MATILDA

The last shore

The French title is "le dernier rivage"(the last shore)The intellectuals dismiss this movie in France and I've always thought they were wrong.Ava Gardner had never been better with the eventual exception of Huston's "night of the iguana".My favorite part is the central one:one of the soldiers tries to find the cause for the strange Morse signals.He crosses bleak dead San Francisco harbor (the camera takes prodigious high angle shots of him,making us share his loneliness and his hope against hope)Hope that was to be short-lived!What a symbol,this equivalent of a bottle thrown into the sea!So few special effects,ans so much emotion.Stanley Kramer's peak.