On the Beach (1959)

The BFI are releasing producer-director Stanley Kramer’s film of Nevil Shute’s novel which, written in 1957, attempted to predict how people might behave when faced with the inevitability of death due to radioactive fall out. The film is getting a Blu-ray release but it’s not a restoration so be aware the print does look a little spotty from time to time. 

It’s 1964 (ie five years in the future) and most of the world has just been destroyed in a nuclear war. The radioactive residue has yet to reach Australia but it’s on the way, with an estimate of five months before it gets there. US submarine commander Dwight (Gregory Peck) arrives in Melbourne in denial that his wife and children are no more. At a party Moira (Ava Gardner) tries to cultivate a relationship with him. Meanwhile Dwight has been given a mission: he and his submarine crew are to travel to the west coast of America because a random morse code signal has been picked up in San Diego. Could there still be life there?

His team includes his lieutenant, Peter, (Anthony Perkins) whose wife Mary (Donna Anderson from COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE) is having trouble coping with the idea of imminent death, and scientist Julian (Fred Astaire in his first non-dancing role). As the months pass it becomes obvious that there is no hope for humankind. At all.

A lavish, serious, big budget look at the end of the world, ON THE BEACH takes its time (134 minutes in all) painting you a picture of a society deciding what to do with its last months on earth. The overriding message here seems to be that humans will face their final days with dignity - something of a a far cry from Val Guest’s THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1961) and Australia’s own THESE FINAL HOURS (2013) which felt very much like an updating of ON THE BEACH albeit with a different cause for the catastrophe. Performances are solid and perhaps the biggest difference between this and other imminent apocalypse movies is that ON THE BEACH does not have a ‘moment of revelation’ that everyone is going to die. That knowledge is already set in stone before the film begins and it’s mentioned so casually that you actually wonder if you heard correctly. Like all armageddon movies ON THE BEACH is a sobering movie experience, and, with its over-riding theme of quiet dignity, quite a rare one.

Extras on the BFI’s Blu-ray include two commentary tracks, one by Dr Phillip Davey who wrote When Hollywood Came to Melbourne, and a new commentary by Scott Harrison. Both are sober and packed with interesting observations. Making ON THE BEACH is nine minutes of 8mm footage shot by amateur film-maker Richard Goslin with an entertaining voice over dubbed on. 

Kim Newman gives us a talking head piece in which he discusses apocalypse cinema (21 minutes) and he’s quite right that modern audiences worry too much about zombies and not enough about nuclear war. There’s a piece on Ava Gardner’s costumes for the film (16 minutes) that contextualises them within the world of Australian fashion at the time, and there’s a short tribute to director Kramer (14 minutes) from 2004.

There’s a new interview with Donna Anderson which concentrates on the movie, although at the end she admits she went on to star in some “terrible” films, but doesn’t mention any titles, so perhaps she doesn’t mean WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS. Finally we get OPERATION HURRICANE (1952) which is a 33 minute short film about Britain’s nuclear testing on the Monte Bello islands. There’s also a booklet with new writing on the film from Christina Brennan, Barry Forshaw and Vic Pratt.

Stanley Kramer’s ON THE BEACH is out on Blu-ray from the BFI on Monday 27th July 2026