On the Beach (1959 film)

On the Beach is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film in which, after a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
 * Directed by Stanley Kramer. Written by John Paxton, based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name.

The Biggest Story Of our Time!taglines

Julian Osborne

 * The trouble with you is you want a simple answer. There isn't any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained - - by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use - - without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb, and counter-bombs, and counter-counter bombs. The devices outgrew us; we couldn't control them. I know, I helped build them. God, help me. Somewhere, some poor bloke probably looked at a radar screen and thought he saw something. He knew that if he hesitated one-thousands of a second - his own country would be wiped off the map. So - So, he pushed a button - and the world went - - crazy. And, and...


 * I shouldn't drink, you know. I inevitably say something brilliant.


 * Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the Earth?


 * In the end, somehow granted the time for examination, we shall find that our so called civilization was gloriously destroyed by a handful of vacuum tubes and transistors. Probably faulty.

Moira Davidson

 * There isn't time. No time to love... nothing to remember... nothing worth remembering.


 * I wouldn't really mind... if you could forget entirely who I am... I don't like myself very much anyway.

Dialogue

 * Julian Osborne: There was a choice. It was build the bombs, and use them - or risk the United States, the Soviet Union, and the rest of us, would find some way... to go on living
 * Morgan: [scoffs] That's wishful thinking if ever I heard it.
 * Julian Osborne: [softly] I'm not against wishful thinking. Not now.


 * Morgan: They pushed us too far! They didn't think we'd fight, no matter what they did!
 * Julian Osborne: And they were wrong. We fought. We expunged them. And we didn't do such a bad job on ourselves.


 * Moira Davidson: All I want to know is: if everybody was so smart, why didn't they know what would happen?
 * Dwight Towers: They did.
 * Moira Davidson: Well, I - I can't take it. I - oh, yes, I can take it! But, it's unfair. It's unfair because I didn't do anything. And nobody I know did anything.


 * Peter Holmes: Now, this is a special kind of - - sleeping pill. I had a devil of a time getting 'em. But, I wanted you to have them on hand and to make sure you knew how to use 'em. - - What happens with the radiation is that you get - you get ill - and you start feeling sick and then you are sick and you go on being sick. You can't keep anything down. You may feel better for awhile; but, but it always comes back. You get weaker.
 * Mary Holmes: And this cures it.
 * Peter Holmes: Darling, you know nothing cures it. This ends it.


 * Julian Osborne: We're all doomed, you know. The whole, silly, drunken, pathetic lot of us. Doomed by the air we're about to breathe. We haven't got a chance!
 * Mary Holmes: Stop it! I won't have it, Julian. I won't! There is hope. There has to be hope. There's always hope. We just can't go on like this. We can't. We - we...


 * Dwight Towers: Well... how'd you recognise me?
 * Moira Davidson: I love Americans. They're so naïve.


 * Peter Holmes: You remember when we first met? It was on the beach. I thought you were everything I'd always wanted.
 * Mary Holmes: I thought you were underfed.
 * Mary Holmes: It's all over now isn't it?
 * Peter Holmes: Yes. It's all over.


 * Peter Holmes: Darling.
 * Mary Holmes: God, God forgive us. Peter, I think I'll have that cup of tea, now.

Taglines

 * The Biggest Story Of our Time!


 * IF YOU Never See Another Motion Picture In Your Life You Must See ON THE BEACH

Cast

 * Gregory Peck - Commander Dwight Lionel Towers
 * Ava Gardner - Moira Davidson
 * Fred Astaire - Julian Osborn
 * Anthony Perkins - Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes
 * Donna Anderson - Mary Holmes
 * John Tate as Admiral Bridie
 * Harp McGuire - Lieutenant Sunderstrom
 * Lola Brooks - Lieutenant Hosgood, Bridie's secretary
 * Ken Wayne - Lieutenant Benson
 * Guy Doleman - Lieutenant Commander Farrel
 * Richard Meikle - Davis


 * John Meillon - Sawfish crewman Ralph Swain
 * Joe McCormick - Ackerman, radiation sickness victim
 * Lou Vernon - Bill Davidson
 * Kevin Brennan - Dr. King
 * Keith Eden as Dr. Fletcher
 * Basil Buller-Murphy - Sir Douglas Froude
 * Brian James - Royal Australian Navy officer
 * John Casson - Salvation Army captain
 * Paddy Moran - Stevens (club wine steward)
 * Grant Taylor - Morgan