Product Details

• Actors: Peter Sellers, Graham Stark, Beatie Edney, Jack McGowan, Mark Burns
• Directors: Roman Polanski
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Code Red
• DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001AY0FV4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,818 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "A Day at the Beach" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Roman Polanski wrote the screenplay for this bleak drama with a hauntingly accurate look at alcoholism. Bernie (Mark Burns) plays a rootless wanderer with a fondness for drinking and no clear goals in life. Bernie stumbles into a seaside resort community with his daughter, Winnie (Beatrice Edney), a young girl in leg braces. As Bernie starts hitting the bottle, his physical and emotional stability starts to crumble, until he finally collapses and Winnie is left with no one to look after her.

In one of his most inventive roles, Peter Sellers makes a brief cameo appearance as a gay stall owner who sets up a booth to take advantage of the beach traffic.

While Polanski originally intended to direct A Day At The Beach, he later turned over the reigns to filmmaker Simon Hesera due to the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson family. A Day At The Beach was Hesera's first dramatic feature, and also his last.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Film Could Drive You to Drink or Away From Alcohol Forever..., January 6, 2010

By 

Kenneth A. Nelson "Just Being Ken" (Pensacola, FL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Day at the Beach (DVD)

Watching anyone self-destruct is a sad subject for entertainment, but two (2) films come to mind about the self-hating alcoholic's love affair with the bottle. "The Days of Wine and Roses" is one of those films and "A Day at the Beach" is the other, with the latter far more extreme and memorable (for me).

The entire location setting is a drizzle/rain day at the Beach (the atmospheric filming is spectacular) with father visiting his daughter on a visitation visit (daughter lives with Mother and her new husband). The daughter wears leg braces, which even expands her sympathy value and it worked. I was a crying mess by about the halfway mark in the film. Daughter watching father sinking lower and lower is horrorfying. He can't seem to be able to control himself and she can't do a thing to help him.

Whether you are a drinker or not, it matters none. All you need is an interest in a very disfunctional father/daughter relationship and have the strength to witness an extremely emotional story with excellent Actors all around.

Oh Waitor, I'll have another Vodka Martini please. Make it a double.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SEE IT FOR MARK BURNS!!!, February 15, 2011

By 

Scott Benkel - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Day at the Beach (DVD)

I have seen hundreds of classics, foreign films, art house movies, etc.....there never has, nor there ever will be, an acting performance as superb as that put in by Mark Burns...and everything else about this movie is phenomenal! I hope one day this film is made available to a wider audience, perhaps through Criterion. Offbeat, dreamy and unique---this is a film not to be missed!!!!...ScottyB