The Sundowners - Production

Production

Fred Zinnemann decided to make the film at the suggestion of Dorothy Hammerstein, Australian wife of Oscar Hammerstein. She intended to send him a copy of the novel The Shiralee (later filmed with Peter Finch), but accidentally sent a copy of The Sundowners instead. He immediately bought the screen rights and decided to produce it himself. Aaron Spelling wrote an early draft of the screenplay, but the final version was mostly written by Jon Cleary. Credit was eventually given to Isobel Lennart rather than Cleary. The ending of the film was a tribute to John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Gary Cooper was hired to play Paddy Carmody, but had to leave due to poor health. He was replaced by Robert Mitchum, who agreed to work on the film for a chance to appear opposite Deborah Kerr, with whom he had become good friends while making Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison together. He also agreed to give her top billing, joking to the production team that they could "design a twenty-four foot sign of me bowing to her if you like". Michael Anderson Jr. was imported from England to play their son.

Zinnemann was determined to film The Sundowners on location and vetoed Jack Warner's plan to shoot in Arizona to save money. The Sundowners was filmed almost entirely in South Australia and New South Wales, including in towns like Nimmitabel and Port Augusta. The "for-sale" property in the film was actually called "Hiawatha" and was on the Snowy River just north of Old Jindabyne (now under the waters of Lake Jindabyne). Additional interior scenes were filmed in Borehamwood studios near London.

Filming began in 1959. Zinnemann spent 12 weeks filming scenery and sheep herding before the cast arrived in October. The weather made location filming difficult, fluctuating from hot and humid to cold and rainy. This delayed production by several weeks and caused some irritation among the cast and crew. Mitchum was constantly harassed by fans and eventually had to move onto a boat to avoid them. Filming eventually wrapped on 17 December 1959. A significant number of Australian actors appeared in the supporting cast.

Ray Austin was the stunt coordinator. Nicolas Roeg, who would later direct films such as Walkabout, was a second unit camera operator.