It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Despite being centred around English characters and attitudes and comprising mainly British actors, this off-beat film is set and filmed in Denmark which gives it an intriguing air of quirkiness. The film maintains interest, even if the main character is too prone to making lengthy theatrical speeches. Ultimately though, the film does not satisfy because whatever message the film is putting across is too obscure.Technically the film is a bit disappointing. Scenes do not flow well and the dialogue sounds as if it was almost entirely post-dubbed (not surprising because the film was shot mainly on location in pouring rain). Other than interior scenes, the dialogue has an unpleasant "dead" studio sound.Roman Polanski's script has similarities with the dialogue contained in some of his other off-beat films such as Knife in the Water, Cul-de-sac but the direction, by Simon Hesera, lacks the sort of flair and style which Polanski always brings to his films.

Being a great fan of European cinema in the early 60s, I loved Polanski's, Knife in the Water, Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac but was initially very disappointed with the full on colour film, Rosemary's Baby. Having now seen the most impressive A Day At The Beach which should have been released before Rosemary's Baby, I would certainly have been happier back then if the order of release had not been so drastically changed by circumstances. This great little film is much more akin to the director's early b/w features, although this is in colour, and is bleak indeed. Seemingly shot in a single day in the pouring rain on some desolate Danish beach we spend some time with a little girl and her 'uncle' who spends most of the time trying to get another drink. Despicable, though the lead often appears, there is an palpable bond between the two and it is quite startling that when others try to relate to the child, our hero seems peerless. Fascinating, dark and with a brilliant performance from the young girl, this also has some surprisingly horrific sequences (not counting the true horror of Graham Stark as some horrible underling of a gay Peter sellers!). Well worth searching out.

I saw this film at Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver around 1994/95. The lead character is a pathetic drunk who takes his daughter for a day out. I believe it is set in a Danish seaside town. Certainly northern European of some sort. It is a series of episodes in a search for drinks, and the little girl ends up having to rescue her drunk dad. An allegory of life and the parent/ child relationship, perhaps. Peter Sellers is hilarious as a homosexual stall keeper. The atmosphere is relentlessly bleak, dark, ominous, and finally it rains. Could be depressing if the viewer has a family member similarly afflicted by alcoholism. Too bad it is not available. Would love to see it again.

This very peculiar movie, undoubtedly the most obscure in Roman Polanski's filmography, surfaced from its vault at Facets Multimedia in Chicago for a week's run a number of years ago. I don't believe it had ever been released before, and not too many people saw it in Chicago either. The extremely savvy film buff that I saw A Day at the Beach with hated the movie; but I, perhaps perversely, kind of liked it for its offbeatness and shabby atmosphere. Polanski wrote the screenplay and was originally set to direct this tale of a man wandering through a rundown British seaside resort and encountering odd characters. Although it can't be considered a major or fully successful piece of work, the movie deserves to be available. It continues to nag at my memory in a way that many better films don't. Its "lost" status lends a certain mystique to the film in and of itself, of course; we buffs are always intrigued by the fruit just out of reach.