 Also released in 1959 was "On the Beach", directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire.Based on the eponymous novel by Nevil Shute, the film deals with the citizens of Australia as they await radioactive fallout, a result of a catastrophic nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere.The French author Stefan Wul's 1957 novel "Niourk" provided a portrait of New York after World War III.