The Sundowners **** (1960, Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, Peter Ustinov, Michael Anderson Jr, Dina Merrill, Mervyn Johns) – Classic Movie Review 6165

Director Fred Zinnemann’s likeable, high, wide and handsome 1960 Australian adventure film stars Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr as an early 20th century Outback sheep herder/ drover and his wife.

They argue about whether their nomadic Carmody family should keep forever permanently on the move. Dad says yes to living in a wandering wagon, but mum and teenage son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr) want to settle down somewhere.

It was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, but won none. There were no wins at the Golden Globes (apart from a Special Merit Award) or Baftas either.

Mitchum and Kerr take care of the adventure and drama, with broad comedy asides coming from Peter Ustinov as Rupert Venneker and Mervyn Johns as Jack Patchogue, the Mayor of Cawndilla. Chips Rafferty plays the dodgy Quinlan, Glynis Johns plays Mrs Firth, Dina Merrill plays Jean Halstead, and also in the cast are Wylie Watson, Lola Brooks, John Meillon, Ronald Fraser, Molly Urquhart, Ewen Solon, Dick Bentley, Gerry Duggan, Peter Carver, Leonard Teale, Alastair Williamson and Ray Barrett.

Surprisingly for such an intelligent, literary-minded director, Zinnemann directs like a man more interested in the breathtaking landscapes than in the story with its broader, universal issues of responsibility and commitment.

It is very successful on the main acting front: Mitchum and Kerr make an appealing star team in a credible portrait of marriage in the second of their four movies together. The others are Heaven Knows, Mr Allison, The Grass Is Greener and the TV movie Reunion at Fairborough. The two stars enjoyed an enduring friendship that lasted until Mitchum’s death in 1997.

Kerr was voted New York Film Critics’ best actress and received an Oscar nomination at her sixth, unsuccessful attempt at an Academy Award (before having to be content with an honorary one).

And it does look great, a total treat in Jack Hildyard’s lovely Technicolor cinematography.

The screenplay is by Isobel Lennart from the novel by Jon Cleary.

Dina Merrill died on 22 May 2017 at her home in East Hampton, New York, aged 93.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6165

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