The Sundowners (1960)

Director:

Fred Zinnemann

Writers:

Isobel Lennart (screenplay)
Jon Cleary (novel)

Release Date:

11 August 1961 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure

Tagline:

HERE COME "THE SUNDOWNERS"!

Plot:

In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers...

Plot Keywords:

Wanderer | Affection | Racer | Reflection | Traveling

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Deborah Kerr	...	Ida Carmody
Robert Mitchum	...	Paddy Carmody
Peter Ustinov	...	Rupert Venneker
Glynis Johns	...	Mrs. Firth
Dina Merrill	...	Jean Halstead
Chips Rafferty	...	Quinlan
Michael Anderson Jr.	...	Sean Carmody
Lola Brooks	...	Liz Brown
Wylie Watson	...	Herb Johnson
John Meillon	...	Bluey Brown
Ronald Fraser	...	Ocker
Gerry Duggan	...	Shearer
Leonard Teale	...	Shearer
Peter Carver	...	Shearer
Dick Bentley	...	Shearer
Mervyn Johns	...	Jack Patchogue, mayor of Cawndilla
Molly Urquhart	...	Mrs. Bateman
Ewen Solon	...	Halstead
Max Osbiston	...	Farm couple
Mercia Barden	...	Farm couple
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ray Barrett	...	(uncredited)
Jack Cunningham	...	Paddy's Drinking Companion No2 (uncredited)
John Fegan	...	(uncredited)
Lloyd Lamble	...	Mr. Bateman (uncredited)
Bryan Pringle	...	PC Thomas (uncredited)
Colin Tapley	...	Palmer (uncredited)
Alister Williamson	...	Shearer (uncredited)

Directed by
Fred Zinnemann

Writing credits
Isobel Lennart		(screenplay)
Jon Cleary		(novel)

Produced by
Gerry Blattner	....	producer

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Jack Hildyard		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jack Harris

Casting by
Robert Lennard
Gloria Payten

Art Direction by
Michael Stringer

Costume Design by
Elizabeth Haffenden

Makeup Department
Gordon Bond	....	hair stylist
George Frost	....	makeup artist

Production Management
John Palmer	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Peter Bolton	....	assistant director
Lex Halliday	....	second unit director
Roy Stevens	....	assistant director

Art Department
Frants Folmer	....	set dresser
Terence Morgan	....	set dresser

Sound Department
David Hildyard	....	sound mixer
Keith Batten	....	sound assistant (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Gerry Fisher	....	camera operator (as Gerald Fisher)
Skeets Kelly	....	director of photography: second unit (uncredited)
Nicolas Roeg	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joan Bridge	....	wardrobe color consultant

Music Department
Dimitri Tiomkin	....	conductor
Stanley Black	....	music supervisor (uncredited)
Tommy Reilly	....	musician: harmonica (uncredited)

Other crew
Elaine Schreyeck	....	continuity
Ron Whelan	....	location manager: Australia
Walter Thompson	....	production associate (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros.

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1960) (USA) (theatrical)
• Hollywood Classics (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Bros. (1961) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (video rating) | West Germany:12 (f) | UK:U | Finland:K-8 | USA:Approved | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Warner Bros.

Trivia:

Eileen Moore was considered for a key role.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fade to Black (1980)

A gentle study of a cheerful, loving Australian family whose whole life is one of adventure…

Frequently slow, solemn and simplistic, the films of Fred Zinneman are the work of a director who appears to have equated artistry with neatness, objectivity with aloofness, and significance with decorative, humorless reverence…

"The Sundowners" was perhaps the best 'Australian' film made up to that time, and was, incidentally, a perceptive study of a marriage: Deborah Kerr was the wife who wanted to settle down, and Robert Mitchum the husband who didn't… It reveals much about their life-style and the land in which they live… Their good teenaged son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.) explains the meaning of a sundowner as someone whose home is wherever he happens to be when the sun goes down…

So Paddy (Mitchum) and Ida (Kerr) are a warm and well-adjusted couple with one grown son, except for one argument—the struggle between his love of being a wanderer and her fundamental desire for the stability of a home… Paddy was a man who couldn't settle in one place… For him, most places were fit only for arrivals and departures…

The film—which constantly endeavored to show the Australian woman's compassion for the problems of women in a big male society—is also a happy celebration with other notable participants being Glynis Johns as an awfully pleasant barmaid-innkeeper who loves men's company and knows how to deal with them; Peter Ustinov as an educated but slightly mysterious Englishman, a likable drifter, a kind of an elderly turtle who wears a nautical cap, with wealth of experience, but not much of a mind to make use of it…This turtle signs on as a drover with Paddy, apparently not so much for a job but for something to pass the time…

Outstanding is a scene in which Ida, as a woman with no makeup, sitting on the wagon, spots in the window of a stationary train a well-dressed woman who obviously has all the things she doesn't... They look at each other for an instance as the rich woman applies powder to her face… Ida gently lifts her fingers over her cheeks… They stare at each other and we rapidly notice Ida's thoughts…

"The Sundowners" is one of the very best of Mitchum's films… In the pub sequence, he is at his best when he sings "Botany Bay" and "Lime Juice Tub."

Deborah Kerr gave the role both a touch of delicacy and a touch of sensuality… She wins, for her impressive performance, her sixth and last Oscar nomination…

The motion picture, splendidly photographed in Technicolor and with a nice atmospheric music, contains fires in the dry forests, shearing contests, fist-fights, the Aussie's love of beer, a game of two-up, a big race meeting, much of the beautiful Australian landscape and the life on sheep farming stations…