A Day at the Beach

For the video, see Barney and the Backyard Gang. For the album by Sonia Dada, see A Day at the Beach (album).

A Day at the Beach
Directed by	Simon Hesera
Written by	Roman Polanski
Produced by	Gene Gutowski
Starring	Mark Burns Beatie Edney Maurice Roëves Jack MacGowran Eva Dahlbeck Graham Stark Fiona Lewis Peter Sellers
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Edited by	Alastair McIntyre
Music by	Mort Shuman
Production companies	ASA Filmudlejning Paramount British Pictures
Release date	1970 (1970)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

A Day at the Beach is a 1970 British film based on the 1962 book Een dagje naar het strand by Dutch author Heere Heeresma. The screenplay was written by Roman Polanski, who was originally intended to be the director, although most of the direction was finally done by first-timer Simon Hesera.

Plot

Set in a rundown Danish seaside resort, it depicts a day in the life of Bernie, a self-destructive alcoholic, as he takes Winnie, a young girl with a leg brace, to the resort despite constant rain. Though Winnie calls Bernie "uncle", he is likely her biological father. Over the course of the day, they encounter various people whom Bernie alternately berates and scams for alcohol, while Winnie is often left alone to fend for herself.

Cast

• Mark Burns as Bernie
• Beatie Edney as Winnie
• Fiona Lewis as Melissa
• Maurice Roëves as Nicholas
• Jack MacGowran as ticket seller
• Eva Dahlbeck as café proprietress
• Thomas Heathcote as dice player (credited as Tom Heathcote)
• Joanna Dunham as Tonie
• Graham Stark as Pipi
• Peter Sellers as stallholder (credited as "A. Queen")

Release

The film was never released in theatres at the time of its completion, but has seen limited runs at film festivals since then.

Reviewing a preview of the film, Variety wrote: "In his first feature, director Simon Hesera concentrates so much on his portrait of the poetry-spouting, beer-guzzling Bernie that he forgets the little girl for long stretches. The audience will do the same, and there goes the suspense. ... Peter Sellers gives a short (noncredited) lecture in acting as a homosexual kiosk-keeper on the beach. Everything else about the film winds up looking as though it had been left out in the rain, too long."

A small clip of the film appears in the documentary The Unknown Peter Sellers (2000): Sellers has a cameo role as a small shop owner with his partner (played by Graham Stark), and both are homosexual.

Restoration

The film spent two decades in a vault at Paramount in London and was restored in 1993 by its director and shown at the American Film Market. It had been lost due to a paperwork error.

Home media

The film is available on DVD in the U.S from Code Red DVD. It is available for streaming on Fandor.

External links

• A Day at the Beach at IMDb
• Review at DVDTalk