Mitchum and Kerr play Paddy and Ida Carmody, itinerant sheepherders or drovers in Australia in the 1920s. They live out of their wagon along with their son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.), paid for driving herds of sheep from the great ranches to market. Paddy is more than content to continue his wandering ways, but Ida has begun to wonder if this life is best for Sean or even for herself. The question sharpens when the family spends a shearing season at a ranch along with their friend Rupert Venneker (Peter Ustinov).Interestingly for a movie made in 1960, Mitchum and Kerr don passable Austrailian accents instead of being transplanted Americans. Both were good friends, which adds believability to their banter and spousal exchanges. Mitchum convincingly shows Paddy as a man who, almost too late, starts to learn that a husband and father can't always follow his own indulgences but must sometime consider his family. Kerr is equally good as we see Ida wonder how she can bring the man she loves to an understanding that he is a man, not a boy, and has to take on a man's responsibilities. Ustinov is hysterical as an often bemused Englishman whose dry wit finds plenty of room for display while he tags along with the Carmodys for his own reasons.
The central conflict between Mitchum and Kerr is low-key through most of the movie and it all has a relaxed feel that adds to its weight. We're not watching the end of the wandering drover lifestyle (although in part we are) as much as we're watching a family cope with the world around them as it slowly changes. Director Fred Zimmerman includes plenty of wide-open Australian vistas and actual shepherds working to help keep the sense of openness that allows room for the story to unfold. Sundowners didn't overwhelm the box office but did well enough, and it represents both a high-water mark for Mitchum's often excellent work and another stellar turn by Kerr.
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BUT I also received, because I checked the title without looking too closely, the 1950 low-rent Western The Sundowners with Robert Preston and Robert Sterling. Sterling is Tom Cloud, a rancher who's facing opposition by cattle baron John Gaul. Much of that opposition comes in some pretty brutal fashion, including rustling and ambushing Cloud's ranch hands. When hired gun Kid Wichita (Preston) shows up at the ranch, Tom allows himself to be persuaded to take him on in order to fight back against Gall, whose son is the spineless local sheriff.There's a subplot involving a Cloud's neighbors, Earl Boyce (Jack Elam) and his wife Kathleen (Cathy Downs) that never justifies itself, but in this movie that's not necessarily unusual. There's a hidden tie between Cloud and Wichita, as well as Cloud's younger brother Jeff (John Drew Barrymore) that's supposed to offer some explanation why the straight-shooting Tom would countenance Wichita's murderous behavior, but it's no surprise when it becomes known and no big deal in any event.
This Sundowners suffers from acting that ranges from wooden (Downs) to uninspired (Sterling) to hammy-impersonation-of-Harvey-Korman-impersonating-Clark-Gable-in-"Went With the Wind"-sketch (Preston). It's got production values that would make a Republic serial snicker and is notable mostly for being one of Jack Elam's few wimpy characters and for being the debut of John Drew Barrymore (billed as "John Barrymore, Jr."), son of the famous actor John Barrymore and father of actress Drew Barrymore.
Folks often knock Westerns for their familiar and even predictable storylines, features and characters. But many directors, writers and actors used those tropes to create something more than just a genre picture. The 1950 Sundowners, though, is one of the ones that deserve the knock.
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