On The Beach

On The Beach,(1959)Based on a novel by Neville Shute, director Stanley Kramer, was on t.v. last night. Starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire.
Set in Melbourne Australia, ran with the premise that nuclear fallout had rendered the northern hemisphere uninhabitable, leaving an American submarine (captained Gregory Peck) stranded in Melbourne. Melbourne shows off her Victorian buildings, Port Phillip Bay look totally lush, H.M.A.S. Melbourne features, Waltzing Matilda rings out (a little too often), and the blue suburban trains( I remember them still running in the mid 80s) seem the picture of modernity.
Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire all play Australians, Anthony Perkins a young husband and father, the model of hetrosexuality, (ha!) was perhaps the best with the accents, Fred Astaire wore many hats,(and a terrible hairpiece) one being a racing car driver competing in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, and Ava Gardner played her usual flirtatious (American) self, though there is a great scene where she drives a horse and buggy down the main street of Frankston.
On The beach addresses some concerns of the day, the arms race, the notion that having weapons that can destroy the planet will bring about peace and how people react when confronted with nuclear apocalypse.
AND it was reported that Ava Gardner said if you want to make a film about the end of the world Melbourne was the place to do it. Harsh words indeed!