Stanley Kramer Presents The End Of The World

A 1959 All-Star Cast Waits On The Beach For Doomsday

Movies began confronting the unthinkable by a late 50's juncture, the what-if here being nuclear annihilation and survivors waiting out poisoned wind headed their way. For Beach's top-rung cast, you'd think it was just bright light names who'd lasted so long, their all seeming to come together for Armageddon Of A Thousand Stars. It's a downer for our knowing producer/director Stanley Kramer won't let any of humanity off the hook. I looked for politics and found On The Beach surprisingly shy of it --- did Kramer avoid the trap or was that just my being obtuse? A world's devastation is conveyed by last radio broadcast from affected sites, Kramer and writers depicting well the creep of doom. There is spooky visit to civilized enclaves now deserted, On The Beach wisely avoiding body piles so we can imagine where victims went to die. All this must have terrified patronage during height of a Cold War. Did On The Beach score repeat bookings during the Cuba Missile Crisis of '62? Tino Balio's United Artists book (excellent) says the pic lost $700K. I'm surprised it wasn't worse than that. How do you sell an entire cast's 134 minute march to the grave? Maybe patrons figured this cautionary tale was good for them. Critics gave Kramer a rap, but I wonder if it wasn't because they were genuinely disturbed by On The Beach and blamed him. There was a splash opening in Moscow; was this to bring Soviets to their senses before it was too late? Who knows, maybe On The Beach did some good. We're still here, after all.