| A Day at the Beach | |
| Director: | Simon Hesera |
| Producer: | Gene Gutowski |
| Starring: | Mark Burns Beatie Edney Maurice Roëves Jack MacGowran Eva Dahlbeck Graham Stark Fiona Lewis Peter Sellers |
| Music: | Mort Shuman |
| Cinematography: | Gilbert Taylor |
| Editing: | Alastair McIntyre |
| Studio: | ASA Filmudlejning Paramount British Pictures |
| Runtime: | 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.[1] 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.
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.
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."[2]
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.
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.[3]
The film is available on DVD in the U.S from Code Red DVD. It is available for streaming on Fandor.