The Sundowners (1960 film)

The Sundowners
film poster
Directed byFred Zinnemann
Screenplay byIsobel Lennart
Based onThe Sundowners
by Jon Cleary
Produced byGerry Blattner
Fred Zinnemann
StarringDeborah Kerr
Robert Mitchum
Peter Ustinov
CinematographyJack Hildyard
Edited byJack Harris
Music byDimitri Tiomkin
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • 8 December 1960 (1960-12-08) (US[1])
Running time
133 minutes[1][2]
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
Australia[1][3]
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3.8 million[4]

The Sundowners is a 1960 Technicolor comedy-drama[5] film that tells the story of a 1920s Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife and son's desire to settle in one place. The Sundowners was produced and directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Cleary's 1952 novel of the same name, with Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Mervyn Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson Jr., and Chips Rafferty.[6][2]

In 2019, FilmInk cited it among "50 meat pie Westerns".[7][8]

At the 33rd Academy Awards, it was in the running for Best Picture, and Kerr was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Johns for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Zinnemann for Best Director, and Lennart for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, with no Academy wins.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference tcmdb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nyt1960 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ The Sundowners at AllMovie
  4. ^ "1961 Rentals and Potential". Variety. 10 January 1961. p. 13.
  5. ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (24 July 2019). "50 Meat Pie Westerns". Filmink.
  7. ^ Vagg, Stephen (24 July 2019). "50 Meat Pie Westerns". FilmInk. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  8. ^ Lennon, Troy (21 January 2018). "Australian 'meat pie' westerns have been around for more than a century". Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Retrieved 21 May 2019.