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Since 06/09/00
The Sundowners did receive nods for Best Actress (Deborah Kerr), Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Supporting Actress (Glynis Johns) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Isobel Lennart). Peter Ustinov, who had a major supporting role in The Sundowners, did win Best Supporting Actor that year, but for Spartacus instead.
Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr had mesmerizing screen chemistry in the John Huston island adventure Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, and Mitchum was eager to work with Kerr again. He would soon make two films with her, The Sundowners and The Grass Is Greener, the former of which was decidedly more successful.
Paddy Carmody (Mitchum) is the ostensible head of a 'Sundowner' family, an Australian nomenclature that implies that their home is where the sun sets each evening. Mitchum enjoys life on the road, however, his proud wife Ida (Kerr) and their perfect teenaged son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.) wants to buy a farm and set up roots.
Outnumbered two to one in a feel-good film, we know how things will turn out. But there's plenty of family adventure to enjoy first: Paddy risks his life to save his sheep herd from a brush fire; Paddy endures a marathon sheep-shearing contest, and Ida must midwife without any help from absent doctors, drunken husbands, and a clueless trophy housewife. Oh, and Paddy wins a racehorse in a bet.
The final plot device is the most dubious. Trained in a blink of an eye, with Sean as the unlikely (and yet predictable) jockey, the horse trounces the field at a country track.
All of our favorite family stereotypes are reinforced. The manly-man husband, beer-drinking, rowdy, and yet ultimately hard-working and responsible. The strong, upright wife, beautiful and loyal to the last despite any character flaws of her husband. (Certainly, she has none herself.) And finally, the perfect son, who would never swear or cheat, pressure a girl to kiss him, or even drink a beer unless Dad says its okay.
Sure, these judgments are harsh. But quality films are intended to do more than pass the time and provide suspect stereotypes. Compare the three major characters to their counterparts in Ordinary People, an unhappy film but one with far greater depth.
The Sundowners does have an able supporting cast, led by jack-of-all-trades Englishman Rupert (Peter Ustinov) and his unlikely off-and-on paramour, endlessly perky Firth (Glynis Johns).