Review: The Sundowners

The story of the Carmody family, drovers in 1920s Australia. Robert Mitchum is Irish-Australian Paddy, the patriarch who may be too restless in nature to settle down like his wife Ida (Deborah Kerr) and son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.) want him to. They have ideas about getting enough money to put a down payment on a farm, and Paddy agrees to take on a job as a shearer to work towards that. Sir Peter Ustinov turns up as a displaced English bachelor who joins them. Glynis Johns earned an Oscar nomination playing a bubbly barmaid/hotel owner who has her eye on Ustinov, Dina Merrill plays the sheep shearing station owner’s wife, Chips Rafferty plays the shearing foreman, Wylie Watson plays a veteran shearer, while John Meillon and Ronald Fraser play a couple of the other knockabout shearers.

 

Even though we lay claim to the first feature-length film ever made (1906’s “The Story of the Kelly Gang”), Australia didn’t really have the film industry we have now, when this 1960 Australian-set family drama was made. Chips Rafferty, co-star in this film pretty much was the Aussie film industry up to a certain time. Directed by Austrian-born (That’s Austrian, not Australian) American filmmaker Fred Zinnemann (“The Search”, “From Here to Eternity”, “High Noon”), and scripted by American screenwriter Isobel Lennart (“The Inn of the Sixth Happiness”), the ties to Australia here are pretty tenuous. Hell, none of the 6 main actors are Australian, either. You have to go down the cast to find John Meillon and Chips Rafferty. So OK, it’s not exactly the most Australian film ever made, but as much as the occasional wonky accent makes those of us locals wince a bit, and whilst its non-urban story doesn’t resonate a helluva lot with me personally, you still can’t hate this film. Based on a novel by Aussie author Jon Cleary, it’s nice, it’s pretty well-made, and extremely likeable and inoffensive. Hell, it didn’t even bother me that we got shots of rabbits, cockatoos, and kookaburras all in the one scene. Y’know, like you’ll find in real life. Or not. Either way, you’d be churlish to nit-pick about that. Of all the corny stories about typical ‘ocker’ Aussie families in rural Australian period settings, this is probably the only one I can stomach.

 

It wavers at times, but Robert Mitchum actually bungs on a pretty decent Aussie accent here (he could pass for an Aussie who has spent time in the US), though technically his character probably should’ve sported an Irish accent when you think about it. At times he absolutely nails the accent (I was quite surprised by it), and he also gives a bloody solid performance. Deborah Kerr’s Aussie accent is surprisingly disappointing by comparison (Mitchum’s main stumbling block is pronouncing his son Shaun’s name closer to the American pronunciation, which is considerably different to the Aussie twang. He makes it sound like ‘Sharn’, when it should sound like ‘Shawn’). The Scottish-born actress you’d think would’ve had an easier time nailing it, but she quite often sounds more cockney than Aussie. Her character isn’t as meaty as Mitchum’s, but if you can get past the accent (and let’s face it, Aussies tended to sound English/Irish way back when anyway), she’s solid as always. Michael Anderson Jr. is just OK as their son, you probably won’t remember him much amidst all of the known faces and names here. Chief among those faces and names is the scene-stealing Sir Peter Ustinov, who in playing a displaced pom, doesn’t need to put on an accent. He’s absolutely brilliant, and it’s quite shocking that Kerr was Oscar nominated for far weaker work than Ustinov gives without the recognition. He was robbed. Glynis Johns (who did get nominated), meanwhile, doesn’t really put on an Aussie accent, but she does appear to be having more fun than anyone else in the film. She’s lively and wonderful, and at one point even gets to share a scene with her father Mervyn Johns.

 

In smaller roles, American actress Dina Merrill puts on a much better Aussie accent than Kerr, Aussie icon Chips Rafferty had to be here and plays the boss of the shearers, whilst English character actor Ronald Fraser and stalwart Aussie character actor John Meillon play a couple of shearers. Meillon, it probably won’t surprise you, plays a guy who goes and gets pissed at the pub while his wife goes into labour. Yep. That’s John Meillon for you. The film offers up gorgeous Aussie scenery as shot by Jack Hildyard (“Hobson’s Choice”, “Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Topaz”), whilst Dimitri Tiomkin (“High Noon”, “The Fall of the Roman Empire”, “The Alamo”) provides a nice music score. Look out for the terrific bushfire sequence, one of the dramatic highlights of the film for sure.

 

If you love stories of rural Australian life, you’ll probably like this film even more than I do. It’s corny as hell and really only sorta Australian, but I kinda like this one too. And for its time, let’s face it it’s what we had, as Australia didn’t have much of an industry of its own at the time (The AFI itself was only formed two years prior). It’s pretty easy entertainment, with some good performances, and is probably closer to the film that Baz Luhrmann’s grotesquely comedic “Australia” should’ve been.

 

Rating: B-