Thursday, May 28, 2026

Burn Beach Burn


Have any of you seen Stanley Kramer's 1959 post-nuclear-apocalypse movie On the Beach? I used that handsome foot-fetish photo of Gregory Peck during the filming of it to grab your attention, but besides him it's got an all-star cast including Fred Astaire, Ava Gardner, and Anthony Perkins. I haven't seen the film but I just saw that it's getting a blu-ray release from BFI in July and I was curious whether I should blind-buy the disc or not. I do love movies about people dying from radiation poisoning and madness after all! So I am looking to you, the people, the peanut gallery, my favorite perverts, for advice. Below is the trailer; if you've seen the movie sound off in the comments please and thank you.

10 comments:

MovieNut14 said...

Oh, it's absolutely worth blind buying.

mac20 said...

It happens to be showing this Saturday at 12:15 am on TCM.

Anonymous said...

Definitely watch this.

Anonymous said...

This movie is a monument to melancholia

Anonymous said...

Was on TCM recently. It’s really good, but the ending (well decide for yourself)

Shone said...

I personally was really disappointed in "On The Beach", found it kind of boring and sluggish which was surprising given the premise and all the performances were dialed way up, not in a good way. Peck's grounded and tortured performance was the best thing about it though!

Clay Poupart said...

The musical track REALLY beats 'Waltzing Matilda' to death. For all the film's star power and scale, it pales in comparison to a simpler film like 'Testament' (1983).

Anonymous said...

I saw it as part of a Ban the Bomb protest many years ago. I suspect it's very dated. But still relevant.

par3182 said...

i love a dystopian pic so it worked for me, plus it has the bonus of seeing 1959 melbourne on screen. there's a great doco called 'fallout' about the book and the film, which was released in 2013 - but i don't know where you'd find it

FatFairy said...

One of the best dystopian classics out there. Love Ava Gardner in it. I'll be getting the Blu-ray for the collection. I may just have to watch it again this weekend.