A Favorite Movie

A couple nights ago, I watched The Sundowners on TCM, one of my favorite movies. It's one of those rare films that is hard to categorize, as it defies most of the standard genre labels even as it embraces elements of several. It's the story of a family of itinerant Australian sheep-shearers, and one season spent first at a ranch working, then racing a thoroughbred won by the father on a lucky bet. It ambles along, in no hurry to finish its story, and with no obvious or even likely conclusion to wrap things up. The film ends with the clan still on the road, heading for the next job, not having realized any dreams nor staved off the slight sense of desperation that periodically visits them in times of need. The leads are Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, and they're great in unglamorous roles, especially Kerr. Equally good are Peter Ustinov and Glynis Johns leading the supporting cast, whose slightly comic, yet sweet romance ends as unconventionally as the rest of the plot. The director is Fred Zinneman, who I always considered over-rated (High Noon, in particular may be the worst "classic" film I've ever seen), but he manages a fairly light touch with The Sundowners that won me over from the first scene. There's a slight resemblance between this film and another of my favorites from that same period, Howard Hawks' Hatari, which has a similarly episodic structure, and lighthearted tone. But where the latter movie favors slapstick-tinged action, The Sundowners keeps things more in line with true-life, balancing small triumphs with the kind of disappointments that seem huge at the time, only to fade with the passing of time. This isn't one of those movies that seems to pop up on the TCM schedule all that often, but if you get a chance, let me recommend you try to see it. I doubt you'll be disappointed.