The Sundowners (1960 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox film

The Sundowners is a 1960 drama western film<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> film that tells the story of a 1920s Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife and son's desire to settle in one place. The Sundowners was produced and directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Cleary's 1952 novel of the same name, with Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Mervyn Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson Jr., and Chips Rafferty.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="nyt1960"/>

In 2019, FilmInk cited it among "50 meat pie Westerns".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=DT2018>Template:Cite news</ref>

At the 33rd Academy Awards, it was in the running for Best Picture, and Kerr was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Johns for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Zinnemann for Best Director, and Lennart for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, with no Academy wins.

Plot

Irish-Australian Paddy Carmody is a sheep drover and shearer, roving the sparsely populated outback with his wife Ida and son Sean.<ref name="nyt1960"/> They are sundowners, constantly moving, pitching their tent whenever the sun goes down. Ida and Sean want to settle, but Paddy has wanderlust and never wants to stay in one place for long. While passing through the bush, the family meet refined Englishman Rupert Venneker and hire him to help drive a large herd of sheep to the town of Cawndilla. Along the way, they survive a dangerous bushfire.

Mrs. Firth, who runs the pub in Cawndilla, takes a liking to Rupert. He takes to spending nights with her, but like Paddy, he has no desire to be tied down.

Ida convinces Paddy to take a job at a station shearing sheep; she serves as the cook, Rupert as a wool roller, and Sean as a tar boy. Ida enjoys the company of Jean Halstead, their employer's lonely wife. When fellow shearer Bluey Brown's pregnant wife Liz arrives unannounced, she sees the young woman through her first birth.

Ida is saving the money the family earns for a down payment on a farm that they stayed at for a night on the sheep drive. Although Paddy has agreed to participate in a shearing contest against someone from a rival group, he decides to leave six weeks into the shearing season. Ida persuades him to stay. He loses the contest to an old veteran.

Paddy wins a lot of money and a racehorse playing two-up. Owning such an animal has been his longstanding dream. They name him Sundowner and enter him, with Sean as his jockey, at local races on their travels after the shearing is done. Sean and Sundowner win their first race.

Ida finally convinces a still-reluctant Paddy to buy the farm on which she and Sean have their hearts set, but he loses all the money Ida had saved in a single night of playing two-up. By way of apology, he tells her that he has found a buyer for Sundowner if he wins the next race. The money would recoup their down payment. Although Sundowner wins, he is disqualified for interference, and the deal falls through. Nevertheless, Paddy's deep remorse heals the breach with Ida, and they resolve to save enough to buy a farm one day.

Cast

Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr
Peter Ustinov
Academy Award Nominee, Supporting Actress, 1960
Glynis Johns
Robert Mitchum
Deborah Kerr

Production

Fred Zinnemann decided to make the film at the suggestion of Dorothy Hammerstein, the Australian-born, second wife of Oscar Hammerstein II.<ref name="tcmdb"/> She intended to send him a copy of the novel The Shiralee (later filmed with Peter Finch), but accidentally sent a copy of The Sundowners. He immediately bought the screen rights and decided to produce it himself.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to Zinnemann's autobiography, Aaron Spelling was signed to write the screenplay, but was replaced by Isobel Lennart;<ref name="tcmdb"/> another source states the screenplay was mostly written by Jon Cleary in spite of Lennart's screen credit.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The ending of the film was a tribute to John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Gary Cooper was hired to play Paddy Carmody, but had to leave due to poor health. He was replaced by Robert Mitchum, who agreed to work on the film for a chance to appear with Deborah Kerr, with whom he had become good friends while making Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. He also agreed to give her top billing, joking to the production team that they could "design a 24-foot sign of me bowing to her if you like".<ref name=capua>Template:Cite book</ref> Michael Anderson, Jr. was imported from England to play their son.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Zinnemann was determined to film The Sundowners on location and vetoed Jack L. Warner's plan to shoot in Arizona or near Dallas, Texas to save money.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Interiors were shot at Associated British Picture Corporation Elstree Studios in England;<ref name="tcmdb"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> exteriors were shot in Australia in Carriewerloo, Cooma, Hawker, Iron Knob, Jindabyne, Nimmitabel, Port Augusta, Quorn, and Whyalla.<ref name="tcmdb"/><ref name=capua/> The "for-sale" property in the film was called Hiawatha and was on the Snowy River, just north of Old Jindabyne (now under the waters of Lake Jindabyne).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It was part of a "mini boom" of foreign productions in Australia in the late 1950s.<ref name="watt">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Filming began in 1959.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Zinnemann spent 12 weeks filming scenery and sheep droving before the cast arrived in October. The weather made location filming difficult, fluctuating from hot and humid to cold and rainy. This delayed production by several weeks and caused some irritation among the cast and crew. Mitchum was often harassed by fans and eventually moved onto a boat to avoid them. Filming wrapped on 17 December 1959.<ref name=capua/> A number of Australian actors appeared in the supporting cast.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Ray Austin was the stunt coordinator. Nicolas Roeg, who later directed films such as Walkabout, was a second unit camera operator.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Reception

When the movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film an "especially appropriate entertainment for the Christmas holidays"; according to Crowther:<ref name="nyt1960"/>

What is nice about these people and valid about this film, is that they have an abundance of freshness, openness, and vitality. The action scenes are dynamic—the scenes of driving sheep, shearing them, racing horses at a genuine 'bush country' track, and simply living happily in the great sky-covered outdoors. And the scenes of human involvements—those between the husband and the wife, of a woman having a baby, of a footloose housewife looking at a stove—are deeply and poignantly revealing of how good and sensitive people can be.

Box office

The Sundowners, marketed as a "newer version" of From Here to Eternity, was a financial failure in the United States.<ref name=capua/> The film reached the top 10 at the UK box office and was the third-highest grossing film of 1961 in Australia.<ref name=reid>Template:Cite book</ref>

Kinematograph Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1961.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Awards

33rd Academy Awards

Other awards and honours

The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists The Sundowners as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Sister project 

 | title/{{#if: {{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0054353|2=^tt}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | tt0054353/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345|from=}}
   | title/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D&s=tt
   }}
 }}{{#ifeq: {{#invoke:If any equal|main|Q618779|Q67325957|Q33999|value=Template:Wikidata}} | yes 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata 
       | Q618779 
       | Q67325957  = awards Awards for
       | Q33999  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       }}
   | {{#if: Template:Wikidata 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata
       | Q63032896 
       | Q66763446  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       | Q107974527 
       | Q482994  = soundtrack Soundtrack of
       }}
     }}
   }} Template:Trim] at {{#if: | IMDb | IMDb }}Template:EditAtWikidata{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb title with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | 3 | description | id | link_hide | qid | quotes | title }}{{#switch: {{#invoke:String2|matchAny|^tt.........|^tt.......|tt|.........|source=0054353|plain=false}}| 1 | 3 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning| 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning}}{{#if: 0054353 {{#property:P345}} || Template:Preview warningTemplate:Main other }}{{#switch: Template:Wikidata

| Q21191270 | Q21664088 | Q50062923 | Q50914552 | Q99079902 | Q123186929 | Q55422400 | Q61220733 = Template:Preview warning | Q3464665 = Template:Preview warning }}{{#ifeq: Template:Wikidata | Q21191270 | Template:Preview warning }}{{#if: 0054353 | Template:WikidataCheck }}

Template:Fred Zinnemann Template:Jon Cleary

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=The_Sundowners_(1960_film)&oldid=61628"