On The Beach (1959) FILMING LOCATIONS PART 2
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I continue to search for the locations of On The Beach. From the streets of Melbourne to Geelong, Phillip Island, Berwick, Queenscliff and even Marysville. (which is not technically in Melbourne)
It was a great project and I discovered some great places I had never been to.
This is a brilliant documentary. It should appear as an extra on all future DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film.
What appalling architectural damage the intervening years have inflicted on poor Melbourne! I was saddest of all to see the wonderful open countryside of Berwick turned into an anonymous suburb.
One (very) small cavil: the submarine was called the USS Sawfish in the film, not the Swordfish (in the novel it is called USS Scorpion). Still, this is one of the best location documentaries I have ever seen, if not *the* best!
🔹️ I have a signed copy of Paul Davies book. Went all the way from Berwick to a house in Langwarrin to pay for & recieve the book. Mr Davies wasn't home, he was teaching at a local college that day, but I paid his wife for the book. I was born in that old Queen Victoria building in August 1965 & I currently reside in Berwick about 750 metres up the hill from Kramer Drive not far from Brisbane Street, in fact, on a nice day, I could walk there. I used to work in the old Telstra building on the corner of Swanston Street & Victoria Parade, Carlton, right opposite the City Baths. I was in an office overlooking the top of the City Baths towards the RMIT building & beyond, Melbourne Central. I commend you on your efforts of retracing all the locations of the film shoot ( well, most of them ). They filmed on the old Wilson farm on the Wilson hill. Unfortunately the house was demolished due to wood rot & in the 1970s, suburbia has since crept in to this once quiet, beautiful town
Good job! I enjoyed this mini "making of" series. I was born the year this film was made. My mum and dad went to watch the filming of some of the scenes just before my birth intervened. The film caused quite a stir in Melbourne back then.
As to the nuclear/biological/chemical threat to humanity...it still exists, even more today than it did back then and looking at current events that threat has only become stronger. Perhaps world leaders should be chained to cinema chairs and made to watch this film for the message to sink in. I hope there is still time...brother.
Thank you Paul for this excellent work of yours.
I saw the movie shortly after it came out and found it scary, I was a teenager.
Today, I'm an old man and the reality of March 2022 is worse.
I get really too old for these kind of silly situations.
Tomorrow's my 74th birthday.
God bless you all.
Thank you Richard. You’ve cheered me up today 👍☺️👌
Belated Birthday Wishes Richard🤗
@@suzie8patrickstreet Thank you Maria.
Take care,
Richard
Wow. Thank you Paul, for battling the heat, flies, threats of arrest, river overgrowth and spider webs for us. It was fantastic to see these locations come alive. 'On the Beach' is one of my favourite books and the movie did it justice. You are right though, in saying that Shute objected strongly to the ending. His character Dwight never would have consummated his love for Moira. He was straight arrow through and through, and it completely changed his character in doing so. Although I'm glad they DID consummate in the movie, as a writer I can understand Shute's fury. It completely changed the character of Dwight, and who he was as a man. And yes, he should' not have gone away on his sub. He should've stayed with Moira. ❤
I've had issues with security but no arrests... amazingly (Knock on wood). Thanks for your awesome feedback.
"In the event of nuclear war noone can be the winner" - Profoundly and accurately put!
A great doco! Well done indeed!
Our family moved from Canada to Geelong in 1958, and we stayed at the Carlton Hotel for several weeks until my father bought a house on Skene Street. The Carlton had a suite, number 1, that featured a lounge, gas fireplace and ensuite bath. I was in room 2, and my sister in room 3. We used the shared toilets and showers across the hallway. My younger brother stayed with my parents in number 1. The staff were very welcoming to our family, and we had our own alcove in the dining room. At age 11, I even learned how to operate the telephone cord switchboard in the office. On visits back to Geelong over the years, I learned that Ava Gardner stayed at the Carlton Hotel in Suite 1 during filming of On The Beach. Queen Elizabeth II had stayed there as well. My parents attended the premiere of the film in Melbourne, and when they returned Mum looked very glum, and said it was a sad film.
Thanks, that's interesting to know. I didn't know she stayed there.
Melbourne looks great.
I was very apprehensive about watching the 1999 remake, but I did.
It is surprisingly good and stands on it's own as a good movie, and not a copy, as such.
Don't knock it until you watch it.
George Wilson was an ancestor. We have photos of crew taken on the farm. Sorry I don't know much but my Mum, who is in her 90s, probably knows more. I echo other's comments - you have done an amazing job. Thank you.
Janet Forrester Thank you for that. It would have been amazing for her back then.
Thanks very much for these highly entertaining and informative videos. Your presentation is very professional and I hope to see you on TV someday. Watching these 6 years after they were made, Melbourne has changed still more, so I recognise their value as a historical record also. Those eerie scenes at the end of On the Beach, were later played out for real during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Unthinkable when this film was shot and when these documentaries were made. A great watch.
Thanks 😀 Channel Nine News did a story on this video during Covid. It's in my channel under Community. Brett McLeod contacted me for an interview. It turned out ok.
I saw “On The Beach” the first it was shown on national TV in the USA in 1962 or ‘63. I was only 8 or 9 years old, but it deeply affected me because nuclear war was still a real threat. I had gone through “duck & cover” exercises at school and my parents had started planning a fallout shelter. We didn’t build one, but my grandparents did.
The shots of Melbourne deserted at the end of the film gave me a lifelong fascination with empty cities. I am now seeing these in the COVID-19 pandemic. I never imagined such things would ever occur in real life - although of course everyone’s not dead.
I have just read the book - one of the saddest books ever. Thank you for these great videos. I visited the car park at Queens cliff in 2018 and had no idea that the Ava Gardiner scene was shot there. There was no reference to the film amongst all the plaques. . I am going to write to the mayors of Geelong and Queenscliff. Amazed that the film is hardly commemorated anywhere.
That would be good of you to do that. I wasn't acting when I said there should be a plaque. I was very surprised there wasn't something, even at the racing circuit.
@@PaulHagl I didn't think you were! And I agree with you 100 per cent!
Ive read the book at least 8 times and it has me in tears every single time. In a way it’s a pity they couldn’t have stayed true to the book, I think the fact there was no way Moira could have Dwight because of his love and loyalty to his family made him the man he was. Made the whole story even sadder. In the book he only kisses her the once and says that he knows his wife Sharon wouldn’t have minded as the kiss was from her too. But of course Hollywood had to made the romance sexual. I’m sure I would have liked the film better if I wasn’t such a huge fan of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad people loved the film.
Very nice; thank you. That last scene of Ava is memorable.
They should at least have a plaque in that exact location.
I believe there is a Gardner street in Melbourne. The is also a statue of Ava Gardner in Tossa de Mar, Spain.
Again; thank you!
Dude, Excellent work. Congrats.
Just found this. I was 7 years old living in Mt. Eliza and we used to go to Canadian Bay etc. My parents went to watch the filming. Wonderful doco for me and so many memories of all the places. Yes, the old architecture was much more appealing. Thank you for making my day Paul.
A friend (now retired) worked for Shute for a few years, on his Langwarrin farm, while still in his teens, about the same years when this and other stories were written. He has some interesting tales about the author and those times. Shute also donated a good portion of the funds used to build the funky looking church on the corner of Warrandyte Rd and Nth Road, Langwarrin.
That would be the Anglican church, where another famous Langwarrin resident, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (R.I.P.) used to attend - not far from her & her husband's Cruden Farm property on Cranbourne Road. I lived in Langwarrin ("Langy" to the locals) from the late 1990s for about 16 years. It certainly grew a lot in that time. I never met Dame Elisabeth, but I hear she was a very kind, generous & benevolent person who was always giving money back to the community - increasingly rare for someone so incredibly wealthy...
@@bury_the_elite65294 Yep, I knew the area over a similar time frame and agree with your assessment. it is a pity that Rupert became such a media mongrel.
I did some work on Shute's house in the early 80's when a Doctor bought the property, i only lived about a Klm up the road just of Westernport Highway ( Dandy- Hastings road )
This was pure gold! Watching "One the Beach" when I was a kid inspired a desire to visit Australia. I've been many times and have often wondered about the locations. You undertook this with some serious effort -- hiking about looking for the fishing scene is vivid testimony to your pursuit of accuracy. I'm just sorry you didn't have a scene with the two old guys in the gentlemen's club fussing over the wine stocks and the steward shooting pool at the end, but that's just me. This was brilliantly executed and satisfied an itch. Thank you for making it.
A fabulous then and now documentary - thanks. I first saw the movie at my local cinema in the UK. I was with my teen-squeeze of the day and we saw around half the film from the back row. I've seen the movie many times now and have the DVD. In 1969 I emigrated to Melbourne as a ten pound POM and ended up living in Golf Links Road, Berwick in a WW1 resettlement house. Shute Drive was a brisk walk away. I love the film for all its cinematic and artistic brilliance, but it's also a poignant walk down memory lane for me as I recall all of the wonderful people and places I encountered during my six years in and around Melbourne. I was lucky to arrive in Australia when it was still a very much self-contained continent with the red-rattler commuter trains, In Melbourne Tonight, and petrol was 33c a gallon. My first car was an FJ Holden. Waltzing Matilda has to be one of the most beautiful and haunting songs ever written. I used to sing it at school but couldn't figure the lyrics - all remedied now. Happy days. 😉
Thanks Julian 👍👍👍
@@PaulHagl Thank you for your kind response, Paul. I would dearly like to get a copy of 'When Hollywood came to Melbourne' but Goggling has revealed nothing. Would you have any suggestions as to how I might find a copy. Many thanks.
@@julianbonser6091 It's a hard book to find. The author sent me a PDF copy of it which I'm happy to forward a copy to you. Send me an email at phaglproductions@gmail.com if you want it. The book itself sometimes shows up on ebay for a high price. I paid $400 for it 5 years ago.
Petrol at 33c/gallon would have been in the mid-late 70s, I think. This is because around that time, my mum once nearly ran out of petrol (in New Street, North Brighton) and we could only afford to buy one gallon, which was 33c (we also had to put our hands down the backs of the car seats to find lost 1c and 2c coins to pay for some of it)
@@maddyg3208Happy days, Maddy.
Very kind of that person to let you into the apartment building for the shot. What a beautiful comparison shot. I agree the RMIT building is a monstrosity, was shocked when it was built... they could have done so much better with that site! Who knows, perhaps in another 60 years, future generations will look to your video project and compare the Melbourne of 1959, 2019 with 2079!! Wouldn't that be something nice.
Hello,
Considering the situation today, March 28 2022, I hope with all my heart that people will watch this document in 2079.
Good luck to all of us. 🙏🏼
Great video .. lots of details ... thanks for making this.
The first VHS I ever purchased was this movie. Great movie.
Hi Paul . I really enjoy watching your videos. This might be of some interest.. The Austin Healey 100/6 Ava Gardner in the movie still exists in Geelong but needs restoration. Dad’s long time friend is the third owner . Previous owner took the Austin badge off the dash board which featured in the movie . My dad owned a Healey long time ago . 🙂 watching from Brisbane .
Thanks Paul, I watched both parts after seeing the film last night. Your work and commitment are much appreciated.
Good stuff! As a Melburnian it is great to see all the landmarks as they were and as they are today. I rarely go in the city anymore preferring to keep out in the suburbs so watching it on youtube suits me fine. My Dad used to talk about this movie and how they filmed it in the city, I think he may have been working in there at the time I wasn't born until 1964 so before my time and he has passed on now so I may never know.
A big thank you to all involved in this project. I have been a fan of this movie for a long time and having visited Melbourne recently with my family, I would often reflect upon those images from the movie. You have done a fantastic job with so much detail, I love then and now shots with interesting facts thrown in.
I was just searching for the odd image relating to the movie but this presentation really enhanced my holiday. Please keep up the great work.
Stephen Hall Thank you for your kind words. It was literally one year in the making. Hope you visit again.
@@PaulHagl Good video...well done. Did you know that the people who drove Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner around during filming in their taxi are still alive and living in Mt Eliza. Said they were lovely people.
Brilliant!
This is a late comment but it's relevant:
We lived in Gould St, Frankston next door to Neville Shute's secretary Sally Bessant. In 1959 during the making of the film the whole cast came to her house for a party. Down the pathway came all these movie stars. Over at Canadian Bay we played on the sand and in the shallows throwing a tennis ball during the filming. For a fresh pound note each. They sprayed white smoke to discourage the flies as the actors couldn't be seen doing the Aussie wave. When the train came in to Frankston station we saw the local chemist get off just in front of Greg Peck "There's Mr Hanton we said". Astaire was reputed to have bought a racehorse during his stay in Melbourne. What do want to name him asked the trainer? Call him anything Astaire said so they named him "Anything" and he won a few races. Sinatra followed Ava Gardner to Australia and later in 1974 had his famous run in with the local female reporters who he called "hookers" and promised never to return, which he did a few years later.
Very interesting first hand experience! Thank you for sharing!
@@patriciasee2797 We saw the film at the Frankston drive-in theatre on Skye Road. As a teenager I used to work there 3 nights a week washing up from the cafeteria and delivering hot food to the cars. X-rated was not on screen but what took place in some of the cars was.
Nice relentless pursuit in finding that fishing location.
Thanks 🙏 It’s an impossible challenge but fun to do.
@@PaulHagl ; I think you nailed it.
Excellent, thank you! I saw this film when I was about 10 years old (1966) and it had a profound effect on me, especially the ending scenes of Astair in his car and the Point Lonsdale scene.
You've gone to a lot of effort to make these videos. Thank you! I really enjoyed watching.
Greetings from Sweden! Thank you for your work, this was "something else". I've been looking for the original movie but only found some scenes. In the end, Anthony Perkins is with his wife on their bed and talks about how they first met: "It was on the beach". I think the name of the book and movie comes from that scene. Again, thank you for making these clips.
Maria Olsdotter Thanks. You’re probably right about that.
Thanks for the excellent video!!! One thing bothered me was that the submarine's name was not the Swordfish but the Sawfish. Ava Gardener meets Gregory Peck on the dock and asks him "where's the Sawfish". He tells her that it is over at the fuel dock. Love the music Waltzing Matilda.
Brilliantly done! I enjoyed this video so much! Thank you! 😀
Thanks for that. I used to live in Berwick and Melbourne and boy have things changed - hard to locate old places. I am an old person now so it was fun looking back at all the old locations and buildings.
Across the road from QV in the film the camera shows Golden Square car park on Lonsdale St. it’s still there today, identical.
What a delight to have this video. Thank you so much.
Read the book at 16..my dad was a naval man...I coulnt out it down ,then the film came on tv...I am so glad that others are interested in this film ...saw the 2000..edition...it was good too...critics will notice that in the 2000 version.it was the Chinese and US went to war over Taiwan ..no Russia ..a different take ,,same names for the character's though ..modern fashiondjnthe street scenes ..
Worth a watch ..but this is the best..the book is horrifying though ...
@Johnhewlett, I really liked the 2000 version too, I found some of the filming locations for that movie, it was surreal to visit Peter and Mary’s house (which actually does stand on the beach) it looks haunting just to see it!
Just watched this after watching the first one. Excellent !!! Entertaining, fascinating, so much effort, time and money gone into putting them together. Much appreciated. And the relevance today? I was shocked looking through the old clips of the film how mankind has traded one piece of madness for another. Nuclear is still a big threat but it is not talked about so much anymore. The Big Noise now is about Global Warming. You could trade much of this story for a movie about Global Warming - quite shocking - especially the ending. Thank you so much for the effort in putting this together.
Nick Morse Thanks very much. Much time, money and effort did go into this one. Glad you liked it.
@@PaulHagl As a matter of interest, the husband and wife couple who acted as taxi for Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner during the filming are still alive and well and living in Mt Eliza. They still have a high regard of them.
Have just watched both parts and well done. Loved the way you put the old and the new together in the shot. I haven’t watched the movie as every time I try I get cross they didn’t stay true to the book as the book is one of my favourites and I’ve read it many times and it never grows stale. Shute is a terrific storyteller. The first I read the book I kept looking up at the sky expecting to see a radiation cloud heading my way.
Thanks a lot for making this! On The Beach is one of my favorite movies and this was a really cool and entertaining watch :D
Janni Pedersen Thank you 🙏
I love the movie and this was a very interesting documentary on its making...well done and thank you for posting it on TH-cam!
I used to live in Mt Eliza as a young boy and recently found out On The Beach was partly filmed there so I went in search of the movie to see if I could recognise anything. Thankfully I came across this Then & Now doco of the film which has done all the comparisons for me which was fantastic as I also love looking at Then & Now pics of places all over the world, particularly Australia. Well done and thanks ! ps I was also born in 1959, so a couple of connections to the film.
Chris Gill thanks
I was born in Frankston in 1953 & my Father used to talk about On the Beach a bit. I worked @ a property in Glen Shein lane named Glen Shein, the owner told me it was originally a farm & was pretty big, he also told me they shot a few scenes for On the Beach there.
@@briansmale5457 The beach at the bottom of Glen Shein Rd is Canadian Bay Beach where the sailing boat clips are shot. Our family beach from 1961 to the 1980s. Canadian Bay Yacht Club was motor boats only back in the day so a poke in the eye to the snootier yacht clubs.
The stone steps were still standing by the club as late as 2013.
@@carolsimon9203 What i meant was, some of the shots from On the beach, were shot inside the house known as Glen Shein.
This was so well done! Thank you for the hard work you've done. I always wondered and now I know.
Aww you missed that a carpark opposite the Lonsdale street entrance of the Queen Vic is still there and operational in all its old age glory. Love that the GPO was used and the London Stores building on cnr of Bourke and Elizabeth is still there. Also I think you can see the huge Mazda Cat advertising on a wall along Elizabeth Street that also is still there today.
Great work as usual. Thanks
Thank you for this
Great work. Well done. Thanks.
i enjoyed this presentation thanks well done mate
Community Tours Australia Thank you for watching.
waiting for your next project :)
I used to live in Ripponlea. There used to be a tea room adjacent to the railway crossing (south east corner)
I was told Ava Gardner took tea there during the shooting of On The Beach
Well done! Thank you.
Nice work mate... you have the passion and dedication to find these locations.. Well done
Thank you so much for this awesome work.. For some time I have been collecting pictures , movies and information about Ava Gardner. " On the beach " is my favorite movie of Gardner.I first watched it nearly 45 years ago and still watching .The last was today and I looked for some " behind the scenes" of the movie .Only a few short clips did I find. It was really so nice to see the beach where Gregory Peck chases Ava Gardner , the fig tree where Ava rests under and many other locations made me fell as if they are still alive , suddenly they will come up and the director will shout "action". It is hearth breaking that they are all gone.It was great job, thank you again.
Thanks, I was down at the old quarantine station today wondering which side of the heads was “on the beach”, now I know! 16:00
Berwick is huge now, but yes it used to be farming land. the Wilson house is definitely still there.
Love your work! Thank you. 🙂👏💜
I have a strong memory of Harkaway from when I hiked through it as a Boy Scout in the early ‘60s ( up Harkaway rd , along King rd and Holden drive and then on through the bush ). It was all total countryside then and a long way from suburbia. So, it was pretty vivid when it when it appeared in the book when I read it a few years later.
Thank you for all your hard work and perseverance and all that shoe leather.
Great stuff!
I'd heard that Harkaway near Berwick was involved too.
I was born at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Lonsdale street Melbourne in February 1959. It's gone now but I can't help but wonder if I was squalling 4 floors above in a humi-crib at the time of filming.
You and 3/4 of Melbourne.
Just watched the movie yesterday (was even thinking of doing my own commentary) then found and watched both of your videos. Excellent! Excellent movie cast. But I'd say that the top two stars, which were also a couple, were the sub and the music Waltzing Matilda (instrumental). We had all four of the top stars at the ending "on the beach" scene with Ava watching Gregory and the sub sail by...music playing. Intended to watch the remake (Assante/Ward) back-to-back; I don't know, may still do so. Saw both years ago.
I've watched this movie many times... It's one of my favorites. I thought the title of this book/movie referred to the scene near the end where Peter and Mary talk about the day they met "on the beach". Such a poignant movie.
Loved the bleak humour ? at the end leaders of "sound mind" and "I'm sure the world is in good hands." Hilarious 🤣 satire ?
I'm pretty sure it was sarcasm even though satire sounds better. My humour is usually bleak, so this was a good subject for me.
"Looks like they're still building it." LOL!
This is fantastic!
There is a small street in St Kilda East called Celeste Court. There used to be a large house now demolished for flats. A local guy told me when he was a kid they were filming there. From memory it is near the end and was meant to be in the Dandenongs. They go away for the weekend and are shown climbing in a carriage and driving away from the house. I borrowed the film to watch but it is only about 4 seconds.
yep. you remind me . . . of me. i have traveled to various places to locate where movies were made.
Thank you for these 2 excellent filming locations videos Paul and crew. You all did a great job. I am currently researching feature films made on Phillip Island Victoria and was interested to see the segments you featured from the racetrack here. And yes, the noise is pretty bad these days! Roll on electric vehicles, ha ha. I haven't been to the museum there for some years but I was also surprised there was no mention of the film. Perhaps a bit political? Just saying.
*** I refer to the submarine as the USS Swordfish when it's actually called USS Sawfish. In case you're wondering, I have booked myself in for a hearing test***
For people in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, this is a fantastic edition of On the Beach on Region B complete with great extras.
www.amazon.co.uk/Beach-Special-Blu-ray-Gregory-Peck/dp/B010SRZFGS/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1540462521&sr=1-2&keywords=on+the+beach
For people in North America this is your release for region A (with no extras)
www.amazon.com/Beach-Gregory-Peck/dp/B00KOW4B0E/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1540462669&sr=1-3&keywords=on+the+beach
I would recommend that anyone in a region A country get a multi region BluRay player and get the Region B from England.
Thank you, watching the San Diego scenes I could tell it was really Victoria.
Somebody has probably mentioned this but l am not going through the comments. Another important part that wasn‘t the same as Shute‘s book was the ending. Dwight stayed with Moira. The later TV Oz version ending with Armand Assante was correct.
It was great and thank you - my father waved the flag to finish the race at the end.
Was he a Melbourne actor or one of the Phillip Island locals please? I am researching an essay on feature films made on Phillip Island, so I would like to know if the flag waver was a local mind telling me. Thanks
@@OliveJusticeMemories Na just a Hawthorn local that had connections to the track
At 15:54 you can see the chimney stack from the Melbourne city council power station which was demolished in 2007.
Well done mate
What else can be added. Everything that was said at the end of this trip down memory lane was said.
For many of us of my age, nearly seventy, it is the second time we have had the threat of neuclear war
thrust upon us.
Never in human history have people had to face annihilation globally by other humans.
Shute and Kramer thought they were making a sobering film from a novel.
It could now possibly be our epitaph.
Recently in a comments section on you tube i told poeple to view this film because
no one survives, that was then, the fifties. The weapons today are more numerous more powerful,
and in the hands of gangsters and despots.
Today we are scanning the universe to find life elsewhere, it is there somewhere.
Maybe they know about us humans already on earth, but do not want anything to do
with such a violent species. So this great revelation we will never know and and lost to us.
All they will maybe find is the last surviving life on earth,cockroaches.
They can survive between six and fifteen times the lethal radiation dose for humans.
Thank you for the tour of where the film was shot.
You're welcome and thanks for watching.
Swanston Street is now full of horrible cheap shops, hideous stench. You would not know you are in Australia. I'm amazed they filmed in beautiful Berwick. Don't worry, there's plenty of beautiful green pastures just down the road full of bloody Cockys. 😁
Interesting. I don't remember the main entrance of Flinders St Station having a flashing neon sign over The Clocks in the 1960s.
Another deviation from the book is the crew of the Sawfish sail for America at the end of the movie so they can die at home. In the book, they scuttled her off the coast with all hands on board. Frankly, I prefer the movie version, as it is just slightly less depressing.
Great Review ! Great Look Back ! Love the Movie BUT "Love the "BOOK" !!!
one key point is that the US Navy would not approve or cooperate or assist with the movie !!! HUGE thanks to Royal Navy of Australia !!! also, original name of Sub was change for the movie ! ?
John King I think the sub was the HMS Andrew. The Australian Royal Navy agreed to participate with the approval of PM Menzies who thought the movie would be good for the economy. Thanks for watching 🙏
@@PaulHagl Yes HMS Andrew. HMS means Her Majesties Ship so the British Royal Navy. HMAS means Her Majesties Australian Ship so the Royal Australian Navy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Andrew_(P423)
Maybe the Royal Australian Navy participation was at the Australian Navy's Williamstown Naval Dockyard piers etc.
Bigger story is that the US Navy would likely not wanted the topic Nuclear end of the world thought about to much, so no participation from them.
From memory, in the novel Dwight wanted to take his men out to sea and sink his sub, he knew there was no point staying on land, maybe sink the sub to crush depth and they'd all die instantly?
Yes, they talk about "going home", but it's a metaphor for the afterlife.
Moira hopes to coordinate her suicide with Dwight, as he scuttles his boat.
Thanks for the detective work for On the Beach, the movie that dramatized the catastrophic result of nuclear war, and taught us that Waltzing Matilda is the only song ever written about Australia. FYI, the title can't refer to Moira watching the Swordfish depart, because in the book she is on board. Also in the book, the Swordfish isn't returning to the U.S. but is going out to sea to be scuttled by the crew.
You need to read the book again! Moira is only on the sub once earlier in the film and definitely not when it's heading off, in the book to be scuttled outside the heads and in the film to return to the USA
OK, I'll take your word on that; it's been years since I read the book.@@judepower4425
Remember the scene, said to be Long Beach CA USA with the telegraph key? That was at Shell oil refinery Geelong, AU. and my office in 1970 for 2 months.
Thank you for this wonderful video - I adore this movie too. The threat of nuclear warfare is always there - nothing has changed since the Cold War - it's just been dormant for a while like a sleeping dragon. The threat of world annihilation is never far away because of the greed & stupidity of the human race.
Really fascinating stuff. Though in a way it does tend to unravel the spell of the movie. But then again, it also reminds us that it WAS just a movie; the dreadful scenario depicted never actually happened. A bit like waking from a dreadful realistic nightmare...
Fresh country air in Berwick. Lol.
Emma James I didn’t consider progress out there 🤔
Phagl Productions I don’t know that I’d call it progress either.
I think On The Beach had more impact in black and white. Dwight was taking Swordfish out beyond the territorial limits to sink her in open water. The scene where the bridge officers are looking at the sun for the last time before they dive is pretty powerful
"On the beach" probably refers to a sailor who has no ship and is "beached", on land.
And yes, there were changes, as you say, in the romance.
In the book, Towers is a stickler for US navy discipline. He is also faithful to his wife, even though he must know she is dead.
Moira accepts this and doesn't try to seduce him.
Two excellent docs!
Thanks.
It's fuckin' haunting, it is.
I grew up and fished in and around the Marysville area. I would sometimes stop at the Igloo Roadhouse for the famous, big Bucky burger in Buxton. Now over twenty years ago, the owners told me that Gregory and Ava stayed at the Igloo when it was a motel. I was pretty thrilled at the time having seen the movie, and my mother even named me after a character in one of Peck's films.
It would make sense for the proximity of the shoot, as you did follow the Stevenson downstream. I anticipated that you would keep going, and you were probably closer to the Maroondah hwy side in the end. Am I correct?
Yes I think so. We started at the Main Street and went north ending up in Buxton. The footage is in the right order. The last bridge was more film crew friendly than the others.
@@PaulHagl ah brilliant, just realised you replied to this. I was excited to think that I was eating at the same place as them potentially. Not sure about the Narby though. Thanks.
HI
Great effort ! Thanks heaps. But it wasn't Marysville [ 75 km from Melbourne!] It was the Yarra in Warrandyte [Don't know the Km But on outskirts of Melbourne] I recognised the bridge and the island in the river. Shalom to us only in Christ Yeshua
Toosiya Brandt I thought the same thing as I live near Warrandyte. According to the book When Hollywood Came to Melbourne it was Marysville. The author had access to Stanley Kramer’s records.Not sure what your last sentence means 🧐
In the footsteps of...Nevil Shute
Thank you for these two doco's, which I found after watching the movie (for about the tenth time) on TV this afternoon. I'd forgotten how awful the soundtrack is, Waltzing Matilda over and over and over again, but apart from that it's a great movie, even when broken up by TV ads. I haven't read the book for a while, so that's next on the list. The only changes from the book to the film which I regret are the young couple planning the future garden they won't be alive to see, Moira finding the pogo stick for Dwight to take home to his daughter and the omission of showing the actual progressive symptoms of radiation sickness - everyone looks so healthy right up to the end of the movie. I do think both the book and the film are VERY unrealistic about how well behaved and civilized people would be with the end of their world approaching. My mother and I both read the book when it first came out (I was in my early teens) and for a while we both had the experience of thinking briefly that anyone we knew who wasn't well was coming down with radiation sickness!
Tip. If you want to see Gellibrand wharf : search in Google maps. Switch to satellite view. There it is. Looks like it’s no longer timber of course.
Hi. As a Melb/Vic resident I enjoy your videos, and am fascinated with the “then and now”. Any reason why you left out the Frankston shots? (Or did inJust miss it).
Thanks.
The Frankston shots are in part 1 👌👌
I was sure he was “accidentally” going to fall in the stream as Gregory Peck did in the movie.
Such a creepy movie especially for 1959.
13:13 So you think the leaning tree in the film is the fallen tree now forming the log bridge?
FUN FACT : Ava Gardner did NOT say "Melbourne was the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world"... the author of the piece in the Sydney Morning Herald that contained the quote, Neil Jillett, admitted that the quote was fabricated. He was writing a tongue-in-cheek piece about the filming at the time, and attributed the quote to Gardner in a friend of a friend way, and then his editor changed it to a direct quote from Gardner.
Did you see the 2000 version with Armand Assante and Rachel Ward? (Vastly inferior, in my book). I wonder if it was also filmed in Australia.
Yes, some of it was filmed in the old Dog's Bar in St Kilda
Excellent work. And yes remember we still have nuclear weapons. But why ?
fordlandau Glad you enjoyed it, thank you 🙏