The Sundowners

Director Fred Zinnemann was riding a crest in the '50s with movies like High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma, and his success continues in this western-style drama set in Australia in the 1920s. Ida Carmody (Deborah Kerr) is married to Paddy (Robert Mitchum), a sheep drover whose nomadic ...more

Hardly the most conflict-driven film of Fred Zinneman's career, or anyone's, The Sundowners is characterized by a gentle tone that effectively complements its striking Australian location photography. Wavering accents aside, both Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr make a great team as a pair of Irish drovers, with Mitchum seeming, amazingly enough, almost cuddly. The central issue -- Mitchum's wanderlust versus Kerr's desire to settle down -- is so muted as to be almost invisible, but the two leads ...more