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'On the Beach'


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#51 ed holly

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Posted 23 May 2015 - 21:44

Watched the movie yesterday too. The threat of nuclear war thing did have an impact on young minds in those days.

 

Pity the movie was black and white, must have been one of the last made that way I would have thought, especially with high profile stars.

 

The race sequences - I have my doubts - are they are Philip Island ?   



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#52 GMACKIE

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Posted 23 May 2015 - 22:02

It may have been made in B&W deliberately - as was 'Psycho'.

 

I think the race sequences were made at Riverside, USA. There was a Swallow Doretti in there...if you didn't blink.

sd-beach-2_zpswboxffcj.jpg



#53 275 GTB-4

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 00:18

Lots of makes racing including a 356 crashfest (3 at least) and lots of Loti looking devices, a runaway Aussie looking MG, M-B 190s and Jag.

20150523_185251%20Fred%20356_zpsbtwdnsy6

20150523_185431%20Jag_zps6lfbowx5.jpg

The mountainous landscape was certainly not Phillip Island, but, this looks like it...

20150523_185555%20PI_zpsmqxdyu1c.jpg

My Dad was on HMAS Melbourne during the filming and did some film star wrangling onboard etc...he said that the majority of the stars were good people, his comments about the difficulty of working with Anthony Perkins are NFP...ohhhh dear!

R21%2020150523_165425_zpsohhhiexs.jpg

[Trivia: Berinthia "Berry" Berenson Perkins was an American photographer, actress, and model. Perkins, who was the widow of actor Anthony Perkins, died in the September 11 attacks as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11]


Edited by 275 GTB-4, 24 May 2015 - 00:28.


#54 Ian G

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 03:28

Certainly not a bland movie,the Ava Gardner "end of the world" quote about Melb. was a classic and although originally attributed to an Oz. Journo. she didn't back away from it in interviews in the 1960's much to her publicists/manager's grief.

 

http://delarue.net/beach.htm#island



#55 john medley

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 05:11

The stories used to abound about the swathes cut through some of the film stars and film workers by Melbourne's likely lads back then. Let's just say Lou Molina was a friend, apart from being like Austin Miller a stand in for the stars.

 

"On The Beach" was filmed partly at Phillip Island, main straight shown in pic above, and also at Riverside



#56 Piquet959

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 06:41

It was also filmed at Point Nepean and I think that the scene with the Oil installation in the background is Williamstown area. I can remember seeing Gregory Peck on Queenscliff pier during the filming. My parents used to holiday at both point Lonsdale and Queenscliff from the early 1950's till the mid 1960's. I was a young kid sitting on my Dads shoulders.

#57 275 GTB-4

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 06:50

Racing scenes here...


Edited by 275 GTB-4, 25 May 2015 - 00:05.


#58 RA Historian

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Posted 24 May 2015 - 14:33

 

 

Pity the movie was black and white, must have been one of the last made that way I would have thought, especially with high profile stars.

 

 

Every now and then a movie is filmed in b/w. Usually to evoke a period atmosphere. Most notable recent such effort won the Academy Award as Best Picture in 2011 --"The Artist"

 

Tom



#59 275 GTB-4

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 00:02

another great filum on the Armageddon theme was The Bedford incident...



[OTB Trivia: a fella named Bill Hunter was John Meillon's swim-double as he struck out for shore!]

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 25 May 2015 - 00:02.


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#60 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 02:22

Racing scenes here...

A bit weird, the start finish and pit lane is PI but most of the rest seem to be in the US. In some scenes you see tall buildings in the background! The book had it in a remote location, I suspect that PI was the inspiration.

The 'hero, footage is so poor too. mostly done in the studio with a screen in the background.

PI has improved sligftly too!! Though the topography is really still the same except for fences, buildings and the like.


Edited by Lee Nicolle, 25 May 2015 - 02:25.


#61 ed holly

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 02:42

another great film on the Armageddon theme was The Bedford incident...
 

 

 If he fires one, I'll fire one ---- console operator - repeats "Fire one" as he pushes the button and that is essentially the end !  ):



#62 Ian G

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 05:23

[OTB Trivia: a fella named Bill Hunter was John Meillon's swim-double as he struck out for shore!]

 

I had a beer or 3 with John Meillon(he says name dropping) at the Oaks Hotel & Mosman Rowers in the 1970's,i didn't know him at first but after 30 Schooners he was very friendly,a friend and i helped(carried) him to a cab at Mosman Rowers in the early 1980's.The last time i saw him at the Oaks in the late 1980's,a few Months before his death,his skin was nearly black but he was still drinking,a great shame.  



#63 275 GTB-4

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 05:41

If he fires one, I'll fire one ---- console operator - repeats "Fire one" as he pushes the button and that is essentially the end !  ):


To all those who have not seen The Bedford Incident...please ignore Ed's spoiling comment and watch it for the classic that it is :wave:



#64 275 GTB-4

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Posted 25 May 2015 - 05:50

I had a beer or 3 with John Meillon(he says name dropping) at the Oaks Hotel & Mosman Rowers in the 1970's,i didn't know him at first but after 30 Schooners he was very friendly,a friend and i helped(carried) him to a cab at Mosman Rowers in the early 1980's.The last time i saw him at the Oaks in the late 1980's,a few Months before his death,his skin was nearly black but he was still drinking,a great shame.


Just about every time I would drag myself off the ferry after a hard days grind, my eyes would go straight to the window seat of the club and there would be Meillon beer in hand or in front of him...then I had to focus on the big climb up the hill...BURT! It was great half-running own the hill of a morning :cool:



#65 Terry Walker

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Posted 27 May 2015 - 02:32

I understood much of the race sequence was shot at the Paramount Ranch, and some at PI.  Paramolunt Ranch had a road circuit which could be used on film as a racing circuit or as two-lane road for movie chase scenes etc. 

 

The film was showing last weekend in Perth, but in the fairly early evening and I missed large bits of it. The opening/title sequence of the submarine surfacing and then driving into Melbourne was impressive, and black-and-white suited the production and theme, I think. The final shot of newspapers blowing in the wind in a deserted downtown Melbourne street was suitably desolate.

 

Quite a good movie, I think.



#66 Sisyphus

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Posted 27 May 2015 - 19:28

It may have been made in B&W deliberately - as was 'Psycho'.

 

I think the race sequences were made at Riverside, USA. There was a Swallow Doretti in there...if you didn't blink.

sd-beach-2_zpswboxffcj.jpg

 

Pretty sure this is Riverside shot from the outside of turn 7A looking back towards turn 6 and that familiar foothill in the background.  I recognize turn 9--I believe they went backward around it in one shot.  I also recognize turn 1, I believe.  Maybe some footage was also shot at Paramount Ranch--that predates me.

 

I think "On the Beach" is a great movie!  Besides the racing, it really captures the feeling about nuclear war in that time period.  Scared the hell out of me when I saw it at the time.  We had a Minuteman missile silo in the corn field about 1000 yards from our house.  We were originally told when they built the silo that we were too close and would have to move but in the end they let us stay--and why not?  If that thing ever launched, being incinerated by the rocket exhaust would have been the least of our worries!



#67 275 GTB-4

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Posted 27 May 2015 - 22:23

Naval Trivia:

​The U.S. Department of Defense and the United States Navy declined to cooperate in the production of this film, including access to a nuclear powered submarine, which forced the film production to use a non-nuclear, diesel-electric Royal Navy submarine, HMS Andrew (RN submarines were based in Australia until 1967 when the RAN commissioned its own submarines).

http://en.wikipedia....S_Andrew_(P423)

#68 Ian G

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Posted 28 May 2015 - 00:34

Just about every time I would drag myself off the ferry after a hard days grind, my eyes would go straight to the window seat of the club and there would be Meillon beer in hand or in front of him...then I had to focus on the big climb up the hill...BURT! It was great half-running own the hill of a morning :cool:

 

Similar story here,my Brother had a unit in Green St. just up from the Old Cremorne Wharf,from 1976 until recently and when i visited/returned to Sydney i stayed there.Post RBT i used to walk to the Strata or Oaks and each year the hills got steeper.

Are you sure John wasn't there of a morning as well?,one night in the early 1980's he passed out in the Toilet and he was locked in the club,the first staff to arrive around 7.00am found him beer in hand and a row of bottles in front of him,he had got into the fridges or cool room in the early hours and was back into it again.Very sad story as he seemed like a very sensitive & nice bloke.



#69 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 May 2015 - 08:36

So very sad...married both June Salter then Bunny Brook...both lovely ladies...but the grip of the grape overpowers all :down:



#70 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 May 2015 - 11:19

It may have been made in B&W deliberately - as was 'Psycho'.
 
I think the race sequences were made at Riverside, USA. There was a Swallow Doretti in there...if you didn't blink.
sd-beach-2_zpswboxffcj.jpg


BTW does anyone know if they fiddled with the US bumper bars on Swallow Doretti's?

#71 Catalina Park

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Posted 29 May 2015 - 09:24

BTW does anyone know if they fiddled with the US bumper bars on Swallow Doretti's?

I don't think they seriously played with bumpers in the US till the early 70s.

#72 275 GTB-4

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Posted 29 May 2015 - 23:01

I don't think they seriously played with bumpers in the US till the early 70s.


Ahhhh yes, the wonderful uniform height and shock absorbing campaign...no, this would have been way earlier and done pacifically for the "merican market" :)



#73 GMACKIE

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Posted 29 May 2015 - 23:35

The Doretti bumpers did a great job...of spreading the damage right across the aluminium [correct spelling  ;) ] body-work.



#74 Jerry Entin

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Posted 05 June 2015 - 02:05

The September 1959 issue of Road & Track offers an interesting article on the California racing scenes and participants for the movie. They were shot at Riverside in September 1958. Originally scheduled to take a tight five days, the scenes ended up requiring ten days of shooting.
 
Some of the drivers used in the Riverside scenes are well known: Dan Gurney in a Corvette, Bobby Drake in the #5 Monza, Max Balchowsky [of Old Yaller fame] in a Buick-engined Doretti, Jerry Austin in a D-type and Skip Conklin in a Lotus 11. Also participating were Bob Bondurant, Eric Hauser and Mary Davis. Skip Hudson drove a Corvette with camera man Bob Johanas strapped in the passenger seat.
 
The crashes were done by three of Hollywoods best stunt professionals: Cary Loftin, Harvey Perry and Dale Van Sickle, although realistic dummies were used in some of the scenes. Engines and transmissions were typically removed from the cars that were to be wrecked.


#75 275 GTB-4

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Posted 05 June 2015 - 23:59

Max was quite a talented guy by all accounts...the jury may be still out on V8 Swallow Doretti (but that's another story!)

https://jimsgarage.w...movies-bullitt/

If you think we have an over-abundance of pedantry on TNF...think again!

http://www.ponysite....er_moviecar.htm

A pretty Doretti example available here...

http://www.prewarcar...ds/ad63471.html

#76 brucemoxon

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Posted 27 December 2017 - 04:30

So, the Ferrari featured in the 1959 film - is it the 750 Monza that won the NZ GP in Ken Harris's hands? I asked co-worker Son of Ken Harris and he'd never heard of the film!

 

Is it indeed a 750? 

 

The Internet Movie Car Database has it as being a 166. But that's a site to be treated very cautiously.

 

 

 

 

Bruce Moxon



#77 Terry Walker

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Posted 27 December 2017 - 07:40

One thing I noticed in the movie, which was re-run here recently. The submarine was supposedly a nuclear submarine, which had the range to go from Melbourne to California without re-fuelling; but the sub in the opening scene was an Aussie diesel sub.  I remember reading somewhere that the USN wouldn't allow that scene to be shot on the sail of a real nuke, so an Aussie sub was a stand-in. You could tell by the diesel soot belching from the exhaust pipes behind the stars who were standing on the conning tower in the foreground...

 

Good movie though. Good book, too. Very 1950s of course; and very Aussie too. Shute captured that well.



#78 brucemoxon

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Posted 27 December 2017 - 20:53

Or not...

 

https://www.forbes.c...a/#1a7f30206c45

 

 

 

BM



#79 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 28 December 2017 - 00:12

One thing I noticed in the movie, which was re-run here recently. The submarine was supposedly a nuclear submarine, which had the range to go from Melbourne to California without re-fuelling; but the sub in the opening scene was an Aussie diesel sub.  I remember reading somewhere that the USN wouldn't allow that scene to be shot on the sail of a real nuke, so an Aussie sub was a stand-in. You could tell by the diesel soot belching from the exhaust pipes behind the stars who were standing on the conning tower in the foreground...

 

Good movie though. Good book, too. Very 1950s of course; and very Aussie too. Shute captured that well.

Agreed, while it may seem a bit old fashioned now it is a very good book, I have been reading it every year or two for about 50 years. I have most of his books.

I cannor remember seeing the film, but most books filmed to me are a let down.

Alastair Mc Lean in his later books was writing books disguised as movie plots,,, and it showed. Though I have most of his books too.



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#80 Ian G

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Posted 28 December 2017 - 01:39

Alastair Mc Lean in his later books was writing books disguised as movie plots,,, and it showed. Though I have most of his books too.

 

I read where he was just editing titles/books ghosted by other writers in his later years.



#81 Terry Walker

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Posted 28 December 2017 - 03:50

Alastair McLean's writing deteriorated badly towards the end, no doubt due to a growing drinking problem. His 1981 effort, River of Death, made no sense at all.  He did sketch out a batch of scenarios for a proposed TV series about an imaginary United Nations agency UNACO, and these were written into novels by others. My own opinion is that the decline started after Puppet on a Chain (1969), and included turkeys like The Way to Dusty Death (another novel with car racing, including as I recall a scene in which the hero drives a F1 car (with headlights!) at night out on the highways for some reason. Luckily I can't remember the awful details.