Sex, fun and nuclear apocalypse: beaches provide the backdrop for some of the most memorable scenes in film. Our critics get out their buckets and spades and dig out their favourites
50 Becket (1964)
Two men meet on a blustery beach. It's not so much a scene as a moment, a piece of history. Fresh out of the sands of Arabia, Peter O'Toole played Henry II and Richard Burton at his most dashing took on his recalcitrant Archbishop Becket, in Peter Gleville's adaptation of Jean Anouilh's play. Lots of smouldering, and Bamburgh Sands' finest screen moment.
Wish you were here? Forget the gale and the medieval politics, this white sand makes you want to wrap up and enjoy a brisk walk. SC
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49 The Seventh Seal (1957)
It's often a good idea to take games with you on a long journey, and luckily Max von Sydow's medieval knight has his travel chess with him as he returns from the Crusades only to run into Death (Bengt Ekerot) on a rocky Scandinavian shore. Thinking quickly, he challenges the Grim Reaper to a match on the understanding that if he wins, he lives.
WYWH? No sand, no prom, no pier, no ice cream, no kiss-me-quick hats? Sounds deadly. ML
48 Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Sand, sand and more sand in this hypnotic drama by Hiroshi Teshigahara. An entomologist misses a bus after a trip collecting insects and is forced to lodge with a widow whose cottage lies at the bottom of a sandpit. Local villagers force him to stay there in order to extract water. He begins a dark, erotic relationship with the widow.
WYWH? No film has ever made sand so scary or so sexy. SS
47 And God Created Woman (1956)
Red-blooded male viewers of Roger Vadim's borderline exploitation film, featuring his 21-year-old wife Brigitte Bardot, must have felt like scooting down to St Tropez to see if the beaches there had any other Juliets like the impossibly wilful and busty free spirit she played. A critic once claimed the sight of her in a bikini was a reward for the austerities post-war Europeans were forced to undergo.
WYWH? Men will enjoy the moment when Bardot silently strokes a prone man's face with her sandy foot. SS
46 Gallipoli (1981)
Peter Weir's tale of war and friendship in 1915 reaches a devastating finale in the clash between Australians and Turks on the shore of the Dardanelles. Mel Gibson's race through the trenches with a crucial message - ignore the last order! - is more pulse-quickening than a dozen Bravehearts.
WYWH? Only if you have a loudhailer to help out poor old Mel. TR
45 Zorba the Greek (1964)
Big-hearted Zorba (Anthony Quinn) can't resist rushing on to the beach and tearing his clothes off in joyful moments. "Teach me to dance," says his uptight Brit friend Basil (Alan Bates) in the liberating final scene, before they shimmy (fully clothed) across the sand to the accelerating strum of Mikis Theodorakis's bouzouki.
WYWH? This sun-baked cauldron is ideal for simmering Mediterranean passions. ML
44 Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
In the fourth instalment of their beach-movie series, teen idols Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are hip to the beat in sun-kissed Malibu, where their adventures involve a singing starlet kidnapped by a motorcycle gang, sky-diving surfers, a mermaid - and even a brief appearance by the silent era's coolest daddio, Buster Keaton.
WYWH? This is a shore where froth meets surf. ML
43 Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The climax of Robert Aldrich's scalding noir is apocalypse at the seaside. A box full of mystery - something to do with America's atomic-energy programme? - gets opened inside a Malibu beach house. And the world turns white hot as Mike Hammer and his secretary stumble out towards the surf, looking over their shoulders in horror.
WYWH? Malibu's as hot a destination as ever, but that radioactive fallout may be off-putting. TR
42 Castaway (1986), Cast Away (2000)
Company makes all the difference on a desert island, as Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe discover during many a sandy roll in Nic Roeg's romantic folly. They're certainly better off than Tom Hanks, who has only a volleyball called Wilson as his Man Friday, and comes across as very short-tempered for a latter-day Crusoe. Still, he'd win the contest of the wild-man beards, hands down.
WYWH? You'd need the right partner, preferably not one stitched together from synthetic leather. TR
41 Miami Vice (2006)
It's a trait of Mann's heroes - in Manhunter (1986), Heat (1995) and The Insider (1999) - that they live in ludicrously desirable minimalist mansions right on the sea, an ever-present metaphor for careers on the edge. In his messy update of the 1980s TV smash, the waves roll as Colin Farrell and Gong Li go in for the clinch, entire subplots left dangling.
WYWH? Wear designer shades, please, with plenty of synth-rock on your iPod. TR
40 Imitation of life (1959)
Douglas Sirk's majestic weepie begins with a vision of teeming daytrippers on the Coney Island waterfront - it's here that Lana Turner loses her daughter and finds her in the care of kindly African-American Juanita Moore. It's a vivid postcard of an era - stripy trunks, hats and parasols as far as the eye can see, on a hot summer weekend with everyone out to play.
WYWH? It would be hard to find a spare patch of sand in all the bustling and sprawl. TR
39 Blue Hawaii (1961)
Not long out of military service, a cheery and super-buff Elvis starred in the first and the best of his three Hawaii films, playing a pelvis-shaking, demobbed GI who just wants to hang out with his old beach-bumming friends and his girlfriend Joan Blackman on this sunny island paradise.
WYWH? Who wouldn't want to be serenaded under palm trees by the King? SS
38 Splash (1984)
After falling drunkenly out of a boat on an ill-advised trip to Cape Cod, Tom Hanks is found spreadeagled on a glorious stretch of sand, fully clothed and shouting "Ouch". A naked Daryl Hannah appears from the bushes behind him, kisses him tenderly, then vanishes into the lapping waves. We see her tail; he does not. But it is an idyllic start to a goofy romance that introduced the directorial talents of Ron Howard.
WYWH? How good can it get? Sun, sand, a kiss and a mermaid. SC
37A Star is Born (1954)
Crashing waves punctuate the second and best telling of this old story wherein a successful movie star (James Mason) helps an aspiring starlet (Judy Garland) find fame as his own career flounders. They marry and live the idyllic life on the West Coast, the beach below their window. But when he finds himself washed up and pulling her down with him, he walks out into that bitter sea, leaving her to tearfully renounce her stage name and announce: "This is Mrs Norman Maine."
WYWH? A dreamy Hollywood beach but best to stick to daytime swimming. SC
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36 Point Break (1991)
Kathryn Bigelow's wildly homoerotic daredevil thriller divides its time between bank raids, sky-diving and the edge of the Pacific - there's many a significant chat over a campfire as the sun goes down. Keanu Reeves knows where to find a fugitive Patrick Swayze when the tallest waves ever hit Bells Beach, Australia - and lets him vanish right into them.
WYWH? For the ultimate surfing high, travel light, as you won't be coming back. TR
