On the Beach (1959) is a post-apocalyptic drama film based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name. The film features Gregory Peck (USS Sawfish captain, Commander Dwight Lionel Towers), Ava Gardner (Moira Davidson), Fred Astaire (scientist Julian Osborn) and Anthony Perkins (Royal Australian Navy lieutenant Peter Holmes). It was directed by Stanley Kramer, who won the 1960 BAFTA for best director. Ernest Gold won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Score. It was remade as an Australian television film by Southern Star Productions in 2000.

Plot summary[link]

The story is set in a future 1964, in the months following World War III. The conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all life. While the bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south. The only areas still habitable are in the far southern hemisphere, like Australia.

From Australia, survivors detect an incomprehensible Morse code signal from the United States in San Diego. With hope that someone is alive back home, the last American nuclear submarine, USS Sawfish, under Royal Australian Navy command, is ordered to sail north from Melbourne to try and make contact with the signal sender. The captain, Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), leaves behind his good friend, the alcoholic Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner), despite his feelings of guilt about the death of his wife and children in Connecticut. Towers refuses to admit they are dead and continues to behave accordingly.

The Australian government arranges for its citizens to receive suicide pills and injections, so that they end things quickly before there is prolonged suffering from the coming radiation sickness. An Australian naval officer, Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), has a baby daughter and a naive and childish wife, Mary (Donna Anderson), who is in denial about the impending disaster. Assigned to travel with the American submarine for several weeks, Peter tries to explain to Mary how to euthanize their baby and kill herself with the lethal pills in case he's not yet home. Mary, however, reacts violently at the prospect of killing her daughter and herself.

One scientist's theory is that the radiation near the Arctic Ocean could be less than that at mid northern hemisphere. If so, this would indicate the radiation could disperse before reaching the southern hemisphere. This was to be explored along with the submarine's main mission.

After sailing to Point Barrow, Alaska, they determine that radiation levels are intensifying. The submarine next stops at San Francisco. The views through the periscope show no signs of life and no damage to buildings. One crewman jumps ship to spend his last hours in his hometown. After attempting to convince the crewman to return, Towers accepts his decision. The crewman is last seen fishing and awaiting his death as the Sawfish submerges, never to return.

Sawfish then travels to an abandoned oil refinery in San Diego, where they discover though everyone is dead, the hydroelectric power is still operating. The ship's communications officer is sent ashore in a radiation suit to investigate. The mysterious signal is the result of a Coca Cola bottle being bumped by a window shade fluttering in the breeze and tapping a telegraph key. Bitterly disappointed, the submariners return to Australia to live out the remaining time before the nuclear fallout arrives.

They make their best efforts to enjoy what time and pleasures remain to them before dying. Scientist Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire) and others organize a wild motor race that kills several participants. Moira only sees the senselessness of the race, but when she asks Osborn why he is taking part, he responds, "because I want to".

Prior to the submarine voyage to America, Towers told Moira about his enjoyment of the relaxation from fishing. During his absence, Moira gets the fishing season set earlier so Dwight will get one last chance to fish. With Towers now accepting the death of his family, they embark on a weekend trip. Retreating to the resort for the night, Dwight and Moira share a romantic interlude inside their room as outside a gathering storm howls.

Returning to Melbourne, Towers is told one of his crew has developed radiation sickness. The deadly radiation has arrived. Some citizens seek spiritual guidance from the Salvation Army. They hang a banner from the public library exhorting that "There Is Still Time . . . Brother".

Osborn, proud and satisfied after winning the Australian Grand Prix, seals himself and the car, engine running, inside a garage to set up his presumed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Others line up to receive their suicide pills. Later, Mary Holmes (Donna Anderson) becomes emotionally unbalanced and must be placed under sedation. She regains lucidity, and she and Peter share a tender moment together before Mary decides that she has been "foolish and impractical" and asks her husband to "take care" of her and their daughter. "I'd like that cup of tea now," she tells him.

Dwight wants to stay with Moira, but his remaining crew want to head for home and die in the United States. In the end, Commander Towers chooses not to stay but rather to lead his crew back to the States. Moira watches from the shore as the Sawfish submerges beneath the waves. The end shows the deserted, abandoned streets of Melbourne. The last shot, punctuated by emphatic music, is of the "There Is Still Time . . . Brother" banner.

Cast[link]

• Gregory Peck 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 Peter Holmes, Royal Australian Navy
• Donna Anderson as Mary Holmes, Peter's wife
• John Tate as Admiral Bridie, Royal Australian Navy
• Harp McGuire as Lieutenant Sunderstrom (ashore in San Diego)
• Lola Brooks as Lieutenant Osgood, Bridie's secretary
• Ken Wayne as Lieutenant Benson
• Guy Doleman as Lieutenant Commander Farrel
• Richard Meikle as Davis
• John Meillon as Sawfish crewman Ralph Swain (ashore in San Francisco)
• Joe McCormick as Ackerman, radiation sickness victim
• Lou Vernon as Bill Davidson, Moira's father
• Kevin Brennan as Dr. King, radiation diagnosis doctor
• Basil Buller-Murphy as Sir Douglas Froude
• John Casson as Salvation Army captain
• Paddy Moran as Stevens (club wine steward)
• Grant Taylor as Morgan (Holmes party)

Production[link]

Like the novel, much of the film takes place in Melbourne, close to the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. Beach scenes were filmed at the foreshore of Cowes on Phillip Island. The racing sequences were filmed at Riverside Raceway in California. 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 and prominent in sequences was the "Chuck Porter Special," a customized Mercedes 300SL. Built by Hollywood bodyshop owner Chuck Porter and driven by a list of notable 1950s to 1960s west coast racers including Bob Edmison, Ken Miles, Bill Krause, Chuck Stevenson and Peter Culkin who purchased and successfully raced it in the early 1960s.

The U.S. Department of Defense as well as the United States Navy refused to cooperate in the production of this film, not allowing access to their nuclear-powered submarines. The film production crew was forced to use a non-nuclear, diesel-electric Royal Navy submarine, HMS Andrew. An additional scene was shot in Melbourne night-club Ciro's. Among the audience in the scene were several popular Melbourne television personalities, most notably Graham Kennedy. The scene was not used in the cinema release of the film, and does not feature in the various DVD releases. It is not known if the scene was included in any released version of the film. The movie was shot in part in Berwick, then a suburb outside of Melbourne and part in Frankston, also a Melbourne suburb. The well-known scene where Peck meets Gardner, who arrives from Melbourne by rail, was filmed on platform #1 of Frankston railway station, now demolished, 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, as shown in Melway Edition #1 (1966), [1]. Some examples are: Shute Avenue (Nevil Shute) and Kramer Drive (Stanley Kramer).

Frank Chacklesfield's love theme from the film, was released as a single in 1960.

The song "Waltzing Matilda" became more popular all over, as a result of the film, with many folk singers recording their own versions, including Harry Belafonte, Jimmie Rodgers (who had recorded 2 different versions of the song), and Tim Morgan. The Seekers, who are from Australia, have recorded this song several times.

Release[link]

On the Beach premiered simultaneously in several major cities around the world, including Moscow.

Differences between novel and film[link]

• Nevil Shute was displeased with the final version of the film, feeling that too many changes had been made at the expense of the story's integrity.^[1] Gregory Peck agreed with him, but in the end, producer/director Stanley Kramer's ideas won out.

• In the novel, there are people still alive elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, and Australia is in radio contact with other places such as Montevideo and Cape Town. Commander Towers is in communication with the only other remaining active-duty U.S. Navy vessel: another submarine, USS Swordfish, which has been on duty in the Atlantic and, at the end, is based in Montevideo. Melbourne, where much of the novel is set, is the southernmost major city in the world and so will be the last such to go, but people in New Zealand, Tierra del Fuego and other, more southerly points 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, and there is no USS Swordfish.

• In the novel, the submarine is named Scorpion. In the film, she is called Sawfish. This may be because there was an actual USS Scorpion under construction at the time the film was made. A nuclear submarine like her fictional counterpart, USS Scorpion was in service from 1960 to 1968, when she was lost with all hands, cause unknown.

• The novel describes Moira Davidson as a slender, petite pale blonde in her mid-twenties. In the film, she is portrayed by the tall, curvaceous, brunette 37-year old Ava Gardner.

• A naval training base near Seattle is the location in the novel where the strange Morse signals are detected. The film uses an oil refinery in San Diego as its location.

• Buildings in San Francisco are shown as undamaged in the film, while in the novel the city has been largely destroyed with the Golden Gate Bridge having fallen.

• The northernmost point of the submarine's journey in the novel is the Gulf of Alaska, while the film uses Point Barrow. In reality, ice cover would have made it impossible for the submarine to have surfaced off Point Barrow.

• The nuclear scientist in the book is named John Osborne, a twenty-something bachelor. In the movie, he is portrayed by 60-year old Fred Astaire, and is named Julian Osborn. The first name may have been changed and the surname spelled differently in the film to avoid any unintended reference to contemporary English playwright John Osborne.

• Moira Davidson and John Osborne are cousins in the novel, but Moira Davidson and Julian Osborn are former lovers in the film.

• Admiral Bridie and his secretary, Lieutenant Hosgood, are in the film but not in the novel.

• Moira and Dwight never sleep together in the novel; Dwight remains faithful to the memory of his wife. Moira, though disappointed at first, comes to respect his stance. Film director Stanley Kramer believed that audiences would not believe that Dwight, as played by Peck, could resist the charms of sex symbol Gardner, so a love scene was inserted. Shute disliked this change to his original storyline.

• The novel ends with a dying Moira sitting in her car, taking her suicide pills, while watching Scorpion head out to sea to be scuttled. Unlike the book, no mention of scuttling the sub is made in the film; instead Commander Towers' crew asks that he try to take them home to the United States, where they can die on home soil. Although he realizes that they probably will not survive the passage, he does as they request. In the film, Ava Gardner is seen merely watching Dwight's submarine disappear, and is not seen to commit suicide at that time.

• Unlike the novel, no blame is placed on whoever started the war; it is hinted that it may have been an accident, a few faulty vacuum tubes or transistor circuits as in the similarly-themed film Fail-Safe (1964).

• Dwight and Moira do not attend the Australia Grand Prix in the novel, unlike the film. This was due to the fact that they were vacationing in the mountains that day. However, during a radio news broadcast, they hear about John Osborne's first-place victory.

Academy Awards[link]

The film score played heavily on the motif of "Waltzing Matilda".

Gardner's alleged Melbourne remark[link]

It has often been claimed that Ava Gardner described Melbourne as "the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." However, the purported quote was actually invented by journalist Neil Jillett, who was writing for the Sydney Morning Herald at the time. His original draft of a tongue-in-cheek 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.^[2]

See also[link]

• On the Beach (novel)
• On the Beach (2000 film)

Notes[link]

The American government complained of Kramer’s On the Beach (1959) that it inaccurately presented the threat of extinction from nuclear war because they did not, nor have they ever, had enough nuclear weapons to cause human extinction[2]

External links[link]

• On the Beach at the Internet Movie Database
• On the Beach at AllRovi
• On the Beach at the TCM Movie Database