Themes: Foibles of Marriage, Wanderlust, Starting Over
Main Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill
Release Year: 1960
Country: US/UK/AU
Run Time: 133 minutes
Plot
Director Fred Zinnemann was riding a crest in the '50s with movies like High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma, and his success continues in this western-style drama set in Australia in the 1920s. Ida Carmody (Deborah Kerr) is married to Paddy (Robert Mitchum), a sheep drover whose nomadic existence makes him blissfully content. Neither Ida nor their son Sean share his love for roaming, in fact, Ida convinces her husband to take on a job as a sheep-shearer so they can finally have enough to get a mortgage on a farm. At first Paddy agrees but obviously does not know his own mind because in no time at all, he rebels -- though that is not the end of it. Peter Ustinov is also featured as Vanneker, a bachelor who comes to stay with the family, and Glynis Johns plays a hotelkeeper out to change Vanneker's non-marital status. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Hardly the most conflict-driven film of Fred Zinneman's career, or anyone's, The Sundowners is characterized by a gentle tone that effectively complements its striking Australian location photography. Wavering accents aside, both Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr make a great team as a pair of Irish drovers, with Mitchum seeming, amazingly enough, almost cuddly. The central issue -- Mitchum's wanderlust versus Kerr's desire to settle down -- is so muted as to be almost invisible, but the two leads carry it off nicely. Even if it dodges some the stickier issues of class and colonialism, it keeps the interest in its characters high, with Peter Ustinov providing memorable comic relief. By its conclusion, Sundowners has ably conveyed the difficulties facing those who settle the frontier. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
Michael Stringer - Art Director, Elizabeth Haffenden - Costume Designer, Peter Bolton - First Assistant Director, Roy Stevens - First Assistant Director, Fred Zinnemann - Director, Jack Harris - Editor, Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score), George Frost - Makeup, Gerry Fisher - Camera Operator, Jack Hildyard - Cinematographer, John Palmer - Production Manager, Fred Zinnemann - Producer, Gerry Blattner - Producer, Terence Morgan II - Set Designer, Franta Folmer - Set Designer, David Hildyard - Sound/Sound Designer, Isobel Lennart - Screenwriter, Jon Cleary - Book Author
The Sundowners were a trio of classical music students who initially got together as the backing band for a singer named Tommy Trousdale. They showed some real enthusiasm for r&b, however, and became the first English band to record "House of the Rising Sun" (probably picking it up from Josh White's recording), for the Pye offshoot label Piccadilly. Their version of "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues," the B-side of their second single ("Come On In"), was a particularly rough-and-ready rendition that has resurfaced on CD. They failed to chart with their two singles at Pye, and by 1965 they'd moved to Parlophone for "Where Am I" b/w "Gonna Make the Future Bright," which also failed to move audiences. The trio bravely soldiered on into the late 1960's, recording near the end of the decade for EMI-Columbia and the Spark label. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
The "for-sale" property in the film was actually called "Hiawatha" and was on the Snowy River just north of Old Jindabyne. The property was owned by one Fred Wallace. This property is now under the waters of Lake Jindabyne.
Menschen am Sonntag •Redes •Friend Indeed •They Live Again •Tracking the Sleeping Death •That Mothers Might Live •The Story of Doctor Carver •Weather Wizards •While America Sleeps •Help Wanted •One Against the World •The Ash Can Fleet •Forgotten Victory
1940s
Stuffie •The Great Meddler •The Old South •A Way in the Wilderness •Forbidden Passage •Your Last Act •The Greenie •The Lady or the Tiger? •Kid Glove Killer •Eyes in the Night •The Seventh Cross •Little Mister Jim •My Brother Talks to Horses •The Search •Act of Violence
