From the 1960s: The Sundowners

1960 Drama

From Warner Bros

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring

Deborah Kerr

Robert Mitchum

Peter Ustinov

Glynis Johns

Dina Merrill

Michael Anderson Jr.

Chips Rafferty

John Meillon

Lola Brooks

Ronald Fraser

In 1955 as director Fred Zinnemann was finishing up filming Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma (in Arizona), Hammerstein's Tasmanian-born wife, Dorothy, asked Zinnemann if he wouldn't think about directing a film in Australia.  She pointed out that few well-known movies had been made there and she would like that to change.  She gave the director a half-dozen Australian-based books to consider.   Luckily he picked John Cleary's 1952 novel The Sundowners.

The 1920s story of a nomadic family in the Outback was one of the year's biggest hits most everywhere except America and why wouldn't it have been?  It's the story of an Australian couple and their teenage son and their ups and downs, mainly the latter.  I wouldn't call the Outback beautiful but it is picturesque and beautifully filmed.  The cast is a joy with special attention, of course, going to its two stars.  It is colorful, wonderfully entertaining and has characters one roots for.  I guess it's obvious already... I'm a fan.

At the heart of the couple's 15-year marriage is a disagreement on how to live their lives.  Paddy Carmody (Mitchum) loves their nomadic existence.  No ties, just pick up and go anytime they want.  And while Ida Carmody (Kerr) agrees that is how they have always lived, she's feeling her middle age and is tired of drifting.  Both she and her son Sean (Anderson) want to settle down, particularly in one ranch house they've seen that is up for sale.

In the meantime the Carmodys have accepted Rupert (Ustinov) into their lives as a traveling companion, coworker and friend of the family.  His irreverence keeps them amused as the Carmodys travel.

Paddy and Rupert come across work.  They will travel some distance delivering a large flock of sheep to the village of Cawndilla.  Ida and Sean follow in their covered wagon with their sheepdog running alongside.   Along the way they survive an intense brushfire.

Finally arriving at their destination, Rupert takes an immediate liking to the frothy Mrs. Firth (Johns) who runs the pub.  He spends some nights with her but like Paddy, he has no intention of settling down.   Mrs. Firth also takes a liking to the Carmodys.

Johns at piano with Ustinov, Kerr & Mitchum

At the same time that Paddy signs on to help shear the sheep, Ida becomes the chief cook for the camp although it didn't come easily as a woman was not what they were seeking.  Sean also takes on the task of tarboy (one who applies tar to sheep who are cut during shearing).

Ida enjoys the company of the elegant wife (Merrill) of the employer and the ladies team up on a number of projects including assisting in childbirth.  Merrill looks out of place in the hot, dusty country but I actually laughed out loud when she joins Kerr in peeling potatoes.  Dina Merrill peeling potatoes?  She must have required some instruction.

Ida has gotten Paddy to agree to a 6-week stay at the station while he shears the sheep.  She and Sean are still hopeful they may talk Paddy into settling down.  He does agree to think about it and come up with a decision at the end of the six weeks.  She is thrilled she's adding a steady stream of cash into her glass jar.

Mitchum aching from sheep-shearing

Paddy enters a contest for fastest shearer with an old man from a rival group.  He cannot believe how he's dragging when the old guy seems to have an abundance of energy.  

Always prone to gambling, Paddy enters a game where he wins a great deal of money and a racehorse.  It had always been a dream for him.  They named the animal Sundowner.  The short Aussie definition of sundowner is someone always on the move and stays wherever he is when the sun goes down.

Financial and marital fortunes move up and down in the last part of the film.  Will Sundowner win his races, will the Carmodys get their house, what will happen to the family?  Well, if you haven't seen it, you really should.  Then you'll see the ending for yourself.  It's a delightful story and a beautiful film.

Jack Warner, head of the studio, wanted to film the story in Arizona and not spend all those bucks he could save by not shipping all that equipment and hundreds of people to far off Australia.  Thank God, again, a director stood up to the boss and said no.  

They were almost this close in real life

Zinnemann knew his sprawling saga would be diminished if not filmed in Australia.  He needed the authenticity location filming would provide.  He needed those Aussie actors... those passionate, rowdy pub crawlers to bring the story to life.  

Zinnemann was equally passionate about his leading lady.  He had steered Deborah Kerr seven years earlier to an Oscar nomination for what I consider her best work as the adulteress Karen Holmes in 1953's From Here to Eternity.  Director and actress became close and admiring colleagues.  She was thrilled to be offered the role of Ida Carbody chiefly because she'd never had a role quite like this one.

She wears and re-wears the same 5-6 outfits throughout the film.  Her hair is a bit messy and her face is frequently smudged with the day's grime.  There was often beautifully turned-out Dina Merrill to point out the contrast.  Kerr herself thought she should have won an Oscar.  It was rare that she would speak like that but maybe some of that Aussie passion rubbed off on her.  The Sundowners is without question one of Kerr's best roles.

A delightful role for Michael Anderson Jr.

She would, in fact, be nominated... her 6th and final time.  For the record, her other Oscar nominations were for Edward, My Son (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953), The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) and Separate Tables (1958).

Ida is the spirit of the freshness and vitality of the film.  She is a good woman, deeply in love with her husband but resolute in what she wants.  It is she, of course, who holds the family together and it would also be her who would end it if it came to that.

Gary Cooper was signed for the male lead.  Oddly enough he and Kerr had just finished making The Naked Edge together.  But Cooper begged off due to ill health.  Then Errol Flynn was being heavily considered but died before much could be made of it.

Then Zinnemann thought of Mitchum and his pairing with Kerr in Mr. Allison, and remembered the magic he thought the two actors provided in that film.  He put in a call to the often cantankerous actor.  Hell yes I'll do it, he said.  I would go anywhere to feed lines to such a gifted actress.  He later said you can design a 24-foot sign of me bowing to her if you like.  His contract allowed for top billing but he gave it to Kerr.

I think it's highly likely that after the problems with getting a leading man Kerr herself suggested Mitchum.  She found him to be a gifted actor, a kind and giving costar, terribly funny and intelligent and was drawn to his naughty ways.  They had been good friends since Allison and after The Sundowners would immediately go into The Grass Is Greener with more good friends, Jean Simmons and Cary Grant.  In 1985 they would make a TV movie, Reunion at Fairborough.  They would remain pals until Mitchum's death.

Mitchum and Kerr, at least, were criticized for their poor attempts at Aussie accents.  They sounded alright to me and didn't affect how I felt about the movie one way or the other although I will defer to those from the region as the final arbiters on those accents.

Zinnemann said of Mitchum... he is one of the finest  instinctive actors in the business, almost in the same class as Spencer Tracy.

Director and star

The film received five Oscar nominations... for Isobel Lennart's adapted screenplay, for the acting of Kerr and Johns, the direction of Zinnemann and the film itself.  I found it maddening that Mitchum wasn't nominated.

I read a fitting tribute to The Sundowners in a Mitchum bio... It was a unique and wonderful movie, had a warm humanity, a jaunty sweetness, an enticing, lyrical aimlessness.  The simple yet poetic imagery, the rowdy humor, the sense of the sublime in the everyday brought to mind the work of John Ford but minus Ford's sentimental or melodramatic excesses. 

If you haven't seen it, you really must.  If you have seen it but remembrances are sketchy, do yourself a favor and see it again.

Here's the trailer:

Next posting:

The poker players'

answer to The Hustler