Movie review - "On the Beach" (1959) ** ½

The central thesis of this film is very strong – nuclear war has rendered the northern hemisphere uninhabitable, an American sub arrives in Melbourne with the nuclear cloud drifting south. Everyone goes about their business pretty normally even though they’re going to die soon – like, they go to work and everything. No looting or violent riots, just melancholy acceptance, obeying the rules for trout season, and queuing up for suicide tablets. (Wouldn't at least some people be going "Tasmania here we come!") It doesn’t pack the wallop it could have, perhaps they were worried about making the audience feel awful. Anthony Perkins and Ava Gardner play Australians. John Meillion and Ken Wayne play Americans.