Factual error: The USS Sawfish is supposedly a nuclear powered submarine, but the shots of her entering Williamstown show diesel exhaust coming from her. (Apparently they had to substitute an Australian diesel-electric submarine).
On the Beach (1959)
1 factual error
Directed by: Stanley Kramer
Starring: Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner
Character mistake: In the scenes in San Diego, all the scenes outside the sub are taking place during daylight hours. Immediately after the crewman relays the message about the mysterious telegraph transmission, the scene shifts to the sub. The commander asks what time it is in Melbourne and is told it is 1500 hours (3PM). But if it were that time in Melbourne, it would be 10PM in San Diego, and thus not during daylight hours. (01:33:30 - 01:38:05)
Moira Davidson: All I want to know is: if everybody was so smart, why didn't they know what would happen?
Dwight Towers: They did.
Moira Davidson: Well, I - I can't take it. I - oh, yes, I can take it! But, it's unfair. It's unfair because I didn't do anything. And nobody I know did anything.
Trivia: Ava Gardner was not impressed with Melbourne which she regarded as a sleepy little backwater, but her supposed quote that it was "the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." was a journalistic invention by a sub-editor on the Sydney Morning Herald.
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