A massive cloud of radioactive fallout is headed toward Melbourne, Australia, all but ensuring the last known survivors of the human race are doomed. Set in the aftermath of a nuclear conflict that’s wiped out the rest of the planet, and based on the 1957 novel by British author Nevil Shute, On the Beach sees Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins, and Fred Astaire simply try to go about their everyday lives for as long as they can.
Directed by Stanley Kramer and released 65 years ago today, On The Beach is notable in that it doesn’t contain scenes of missiles launching, cities disintegrating, or ravaged survivors clawing at each other to stay alive amid the ruins of civilization. Some of this may simply be down to budgetary limitations; when a surviving American submarine searches the West Coast for the source of a mysterious Morse code signal, we see an intact but eerily empty San Francisco, which Shute’s novel describes as destroyed. But the focus here is on Melbourne as the survivors try to deny their imminent demise.
