Sunday, October 9, 2011

Currently Watching - The Sundowners (1960)

Great movie! I have never really seen Deborah Kerr play anything but a proper English girl.

Irish-Australian Paddy Carmody is a roving sheep herder known as a "sundowner" (because he is constantly moving, pitching his tent wherever the sun goes down). His wife Ida and son Sean want to settle down, but Paddy is a wanderlust and never wants to stay in one place for long. While passing through the bush the family meet former sea captain, Rupert Venneker and hire him as an extra drover. The group drive a herd of sheep to a nearby town where they meet Mrs. Firth who takes a liking to Rupert.
Ida convinces Paddy to take a job at a station shearing sheep; she serves as the cook and Rupert is hired as wool roller. Ida enjoys the company of other women, growing close to the owner's wife and taking care of one shearer's pregnant wife. She is secretly saving all the money the family earns for a farm that she saw on the sheep drive. Paddy decides to leave midway through the shearing season, but Sean convinces him to stay. He wins a race horse in a bet that they name Sundowner and they race him, hoping to make more money. However, Sundowner is disqualified and they lose all the money they saved because Paddy bet it all on the horse. The family resolve to keep moving and hope that they will save enough money to buy a farm one day.

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