On The Beach (1959)

On the Beach 1959 lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Stanley Kramer and United Artists delivered On the Beach to Cold War movie audiences in 1959. Gregory Peck plays an American submarine commander in a dying post-nuclear war Australia, with Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire as fellow survivors.

Nevil Shute’s On the Beach

On the Beach is based on the 1957 novel of the same name by British-Australian writer Nevil Shute Norway (1899-1960). A veteran of World War I, Shute’s other works include What Happened to the Corbetts (1938), Pied Piper (1942) and The Chequer Board (1947).

Stanley Kramer produced and directed On the Beach for his own Stanley Kramer Productions. John Paxton wrote the gripping screenplay, with Ernest Gold creating the original music score and Giuseppe Rotunno serving as cinematographer.

Gold made extensive use of the popular Australian country folk ballad “Waltzing Matilda,” originally authored by Andrew Barton ”Banjo” Paterson and published in 1895.  

Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner Head Cast

Gregory Peck (Commander Dwight Lionel Towers) and Ava Gardner (Moira Davidson) head the strong cast. Other players include Fred Astaire (Julian Osborne), Anthony Perkins (Lt. Commander Peter Holmes), Donna Anderson (Mary Holmes), John Tate (Admiral Bridie), Harp McGuire (Lt. Sunderstrom), Lola Brooks (Lt. Hosgood), Ken Wayne (Lt. Benson), Guy Doleman (Lt. Commander Farrel), Richard Meikle (Davis), John Meillon (Ralph Swain), Joe McCormick (Ackerman), Lou Vernon (Bill Davidson), Basil Buller-Murphy (Sir Douglas Froude) and Paddy Moran (Stevens).

On the Beach Filmed in Australia and the United States

Much of On the Beach was shot on location in Australia (Melbourne, Frankston, Port Phillip Bay). The chaotic Australian Grand Prix automobile race was lensed in part at Phillip Island and Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California.

Nevil Shute was reportedly not happy with Stanley Kramer’s interpretation of his novel, and the two had a falling out over the script. The acrimony subsequently prevented Shute from making a possible cameo appearance in the film as a race car driver.

On the Beach: Australia and Nuclear Holocaust

On the Beach opens in the year 1964, with the American nuclear-powered submarine USS Swordfish pulling into Melbourne Harbor. A radio announces that the atomic war is over, with the only known survivors now living in Australia.

The Swordfish’s skipper is Commander Dwight Towers, whose wife Sharon and their two kids are back in Connecticut in the kill zone, victims of the recent nuclear war. Assigned to the Swordfish as liaison officer is Lt. Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy.

At a party given by Holmes and his young wife Mary, the subject eventually turns to the deadly radiation that is slowly makes its way down to Australia. Physicist Dr. Julian Osborne tells the assembled guests that radiation levels are already nine times higher than normal.

Commander Towers, Dr. Osborne and Lt. Commander Holmes are later ordered to check out Arctic radiation levels as well as a mysterious radio signal emanating from the northern kill zone. The Swordfish sets sail, making its bleak findings in the Arctic Ocean. On the return trip they surface off San Francisco, where life has ceased to exist. 

The Swordfish returns to Australia, where the government is making arrangements for the end. In order to spare the surviving population the agonies of radiation sickness, suicide pills are dispensed by the authorities.

Commander Towers, who has fallen in love with a local woman named Moira Davidson, elects to return to the United States with his crew and die there. With a forlorn Moira looking on from the shore, the Swordfish departs Melbourne and heads for home.

On the Beach Release and Reviews

On the Beach opened in over 20 major cities around the world, including New York, London, Paris, Lisbon, Stockholm and Moscow, on December 17, 1959.

“Deeply moving…The great merit of this picture, aside from its entertainment qualities, is the fact that it carries a passionate conviction that man is worth saving, after all…” reported Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (12/18/59).

“Deserves to be seen. It is an honest and provoking picture…” observed Variety (12/2/59).

Film Analysis

On the Beach is a disaster movie of sorts, but don’t expect scenes of mass carnage and a panicked population. Instead, director Stanley Kramer trains his story on the aftermath of a nuclear war, the deadly, viral radiation that will soon envelop the Southern Hemisphere and claim the last human survivors in southern Australia.

Gregory Peck is superb as the American submarine commander, first seen majestically riding high atop the conning tower as the USS Swordfish docks in Melbourne. Ava Gardner is surprisingly good as Peck’s love interest, with Anthony Perkins (with a bit of a slip here and there in his affected Aussie accent) and Fred Astaire also turning in excellent performances.

On the Beach features stunning black-and-white imagery and an array of memorable scenes. One of the best sequences is the final running of the Australian Grand Prix, where Fred Astaire competes in a wild, crazy automotive free-for-all. Astaire captures first prize and later goes out on his own terms, happily sitting in his race car and revving the engine as toxic carbon monoxide fumes fill the enclosed garage.

On the Beach is a sad, moving film with no happy ending. For anyone who sees the movie, one thing is pretty much guaranteed: “Waltzing Matilda,” the unofficial national anthem of Australia, will take on a new and decidedly haunting meaning.

On the Beach Notes, DVD

• Academy Award nominations: Best Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson), Best Music Scoring (Ernest Gold).
• Both the United States Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense refused to cooperate in the making of On the Beach. Thus, the Royal Navy’s diesel-powered HMS Andrew was used for filming.
• Overflow crowds of curious onlookers coupled with temperatures often topping one hundred degrees made filming difficult in Melbourne. Another problem: the pubs closed at 6 PM sharp, greatly inconveniencing the dedicated drinkers among the cast and crew.
• The New York Daily News condemned On the Beach in a 1959 editorial, calling it “a defeatist movie.” 
• The mysterious radio signal emanates from a San Diego oil refinery. A Coke bottle, a window shade, a stiff breeze and a telegraph key combine to create the nonsensical message in Morse code.
• Despite the nature of the movie, only one case of radiation sickness is actually shown, that of a crewman aboard the Swordfish.
• Television remake: On the Beach (Showtime, 2000) starring Armand Assante, Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown.