The Sundowners

The Sundowners is a 1960 Technicolor film that tells the story of an Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place. The movie stars Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov, with a supporting cast including Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson, Jr., and Chips Rafferty.

The screenplay was adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Cleary's novel of the same name; it was produced and directed by Fred Zinnemann.

At the 33rd Academy Awards, The Sundowners was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Deborah Kerr), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Glynis Johns), Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Plot

Irish-Australian Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum) is a sheep drover and shearer, roving the sparsely-populated back country with his wife Ida (Deborah Kerr) and son Sean (Michael Anderson, Jr.). They are sundowners, constantly moving, pitching their tent whenever the sun goes down. Ida and Sean want to settle down, 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 (Peter Ustinov) and hire him to help drive a large herd of sheep to the town of Cawndilla. Along the way, they survive a dangerous brush fire.

The Sundowners (novel)

The Sundowners is a novel by Australian writer Jon Cleary.

Plot

The story is set in the Australian Outback during the 1920s and deals with one year in the life of the Carmody family. Paddy Carmody, Australian-born son of Irish migrants, is an itinerant worker, travelling the country with his wife Ida and son Sean in a horse-drawn wagon. Whilst Ida longs to settle in a place of their own, Paddy is unwilling to abandon his way of life and continues to pick up work where he can. He takes cattle-droving jobs and also sheep-shearing – which he doesn't like, but pays well.

At one point, he joins a shearing team with Sean as tarboy and Ida as the shearers cook.

They meet various colourful outback characters, ranging from prosperous graziers to drunks, including Rupert Venneker, a well-educated Englishman in self-imposed exile.

Along the way. Sean develops from boy into young man. Venneker marries and settles in a small town. And the Carmodys continue on their way.

Background

The book was based on stories Cleary had been told by his father, who ran away to Queensland when he was a teenager. Additional research was provided by C. E. W. Bean's On the Wool Track. Cleary wrote the novel in long-hand during the evenings after work while he was living in New York working as a journalist, with the manuscript typed out by his wife Joy.

The Sundowners (series)

The Sundowners novels are a series of Western fiction novels with a steampunk twist by author James Swallow.

Set in the Old West of the late 1880s, the novels follow the adventures of gunslinger Gabriel Tyler and Native American shaman Jonathan Fivehawk as they fight the plans of Robur Drache, an insane genius in the thrall of an ancient evil known as The Faceless.

Books

Ghost Town

Tyler and Fivehawk meet for the first time on the road to the town of Stonetree.

Underworld

The two heroes track Drache to a mining camp in the wilderness.

Iron Dragon

The secrets of Drache's Black Train are revealed as Tyler and Fivehawk join forces with Chinese adventurer Yu Lim.

Showdown

The final confrontation with The Faceless takes place on the desolate prairies.

See also