On the Beach
Collection of scanned images from a complimentary picture book given to crew members when the Hollywood film 'On the Beach' was shot in Melbourne in 1959.
Director: Stanley Kramer
Cast Includes: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, Fred Astaire
On the beach was a major after-the-bomb movie of the fifties. Based on the bestselling novel by Nevil Shute, it was a serious attempt by producer/director Stanley Kramer to treat the subject of nuclear war in a realistic and unsensational manner.
The scenes showing the people of Melbourne queueing for death pills still have a special impact today as we queue for PCR's and RAT kits.
It was claimed that Ava Gardner described Melbourne as 'the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world'; the purported quote was actually invented by journalist Neil Jillett.
Much of the novel's action takes place in Melbourne, Phillip Island and Frankston. Shute is said to have despised the first movie version (which was released little more than a month before he died), feeling that his characters had been altered too greatly. However, the film shot in and around Melbourne (with some of the racing action shot at Riverside Raceway) was a great novelty for that city at the time.
The film has a special resonance for me as my deceased father was in the crew. He can be seen in the last image helping Anthony Perkins get up after he fell from his bike. In fact, that’s where i got these picture. All the crew were given a complimentary photo-album which i scanned for this post.
