On the Beach

Director Stanley Kramer's 1959 movie version of Nevil Shute's 1957 novel—dramatizing the dying plight of humanity's last remnants in the aftermath of a nuclear war—was hailed as a powerful challenge to the madness of “mutually assured destruction.” More than half a century later, On the Beach feels heavy-handed, stilted, and verbose—especially when compared to a masterpiece like Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove—but it still retains a certain grim power. Gregory Peck stars as American submarine commander Capt. Dwight Towers, who sails from his refuge in Australia—the only region not yet affected by fatal fallout—back to San Diego in order to determine the source of a radio signal that might indicate some life still exists in the Northern Hemisphere. Peck is his usual stiff self, and his doomed romance with Ava Gardner's alcoholic Moira Davidson is the stuff of soap opera; but there are impressive supporting turns by Anthony Perkins, as Lt. Peter Holmes, an Australian officer trying to prepare his wife for the inevitable, and Fred Astaire, in his first dramatic role, as fatalistic scientist Julian Osborn, who decides to take some risks in the face of annihilation. Ultimately, Kramer's earnestness in treating the subject goes a long way towards compensating for any shortcomings. Recommended. (F. Swietek)