A Day at the Beach

Code Red has released Roman Polanski's "lost masterpiece" (as it states on the DVD front cover), A Day at the Beach, the 1970 adaptation of Heere Heeresma's 1962 novel about a day in the life of a spiraling-down alcoholic (which in turn was remade as Een Dagje Naar Het Strand in 1984 by slain Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh). Written by Polanski and directed by first-time director Simon Hesera, A Day at the Beach was apparently never released in the U.S., and subsequently "lost" by Paramount (some kind of legal glitch?), and has had only sporadic film festival showings since 1970. Intended as Polanski's directorial follow-up to his previous Paramount smash-hit, Rosemary's Baby, Polanski withdrew from the project after the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and their baby (it's been written that the film was subsequently suppressed by the studio out of respect for Polanski). These notoriety factors, along with the promise of seeing a cameo by Peter Sellers during the nadir of his film career, have kept A Day at the Beach a cult title that many film fans have heard about, but very few have seen.

Set near an unnamed British seaport (although the film looks like it was filmed in Denmark), A Day at the Beach follows alcoholic, failed intellectual Bernie's (Mark Burns) day trip with his "niece," Winnie (Beatie Edney, already a gifted actress here). Arriving in a miserable, drizzling rain, Bernie isn't exactly welcomed by either Winnie's mother, Melissa (Fiona Lewis), nor her husband, Carl. At times both insulting and threatening, he obsequiously bums money off Carl, so he can take Winnie out in a proper fashion...which really means money he'll use to buy alcohol. A look of absolute dread crosses Melissa's face when she sees Bernie, but Winnie, who appears to be around six-years-old, is delighted to see her beloved uncle. But this show of affection - as with any sign of anything civilized coming from anyone Bernie encounters - is met with selfish cruelty. Winnie, who wears a leg brace due to some unnamed handicap, is asked by Bernie if she doesn't have any trousers "to hide those irons." Winnie dutifully trots back to change, but Bernie hurries her into her yellow rain slicker and they're off for the day.
And what a miserable, wet, cold day it turns out to be for them. Constantly raining, the two grab a train for the seaside (but not before Bernie is smacked around by loan shark Louis, played by Bertel Lauring) where Bernie spends the entire day boozing it up every chance he gets, insulting the various tradesmen he encounters while scamming alcohol off them, and ignoring Winnie to the point where we often fear for her safety. A chance meeting with a "friend," Nicholas (Maurice Roeves), a former poet and now teacher, leads to more drinking with Nicholas and his wife, Tonie (Joanna Dunham), who responds sexually to Bernie's insulting behavior, and more neglect for Winnie, who's locked in a car with Nicholas' and Tonie' small son. Fueled by self-pitying rage and alcohol, the night spins further out of control for Bernie, despite the totally inadequate reassurances by small child Winnie that everything will be alright...