On the Beach

“The Biggest Story of Our Time!”

In 1964, an American submarine slips into Australian waters after atomic war has emptied the northern hemisphere. Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) goes about his duties and refuses to speak of the wife and children he left behind, even as Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) starts to draw him out. Stanley Kramer lets Melbourne carry on with its dinners and parties, and Towers keeps his grief shut away, unwilling to count his family among the dead.