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On the Beach
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Title:
On the Beach
NFSA ID
379613
Year
1959
On the Beach (Stanley Kramer, USA, 1959): Starring John Meillon (1934–1989), b. Mosman, NSW
Starring alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, 24-year-old John Meillon made his film debut as Ralph Swain in this post-apocalyptic drama.
Filming took place around Victoria with the Royal Australian Navy providing support and access to the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and submarine HMS Andrew.
His second film role, in The Sundowners (1960), took Meillon to London. While his career flourished abroad, he returned to Australia in 1964.
Two decades later he was cast in arguably his most recognisable role as Walter ‘Wally’ Reilly, Mick Dundee’s sidekick in Crocodile Dundee (1986).
The stark portraits of the actors on this poster effectively reinforce the serious theme of the movie, while the red and yellow colour scheme suggests danger and the invisible, yet looming threat of nuclear fallout.
Notes by Michelle Davenport
Director
Stanley Kramer
Cast
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, John Meillon
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.