Editing The Sundowners (1960 film) (section)

==Plot==
Irish-Australian Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum) is a sheep [[drover (Australian)|drover]] and [[sheep shearer|shearer]], roving the sparsely populated outback with his wife Ida (Deborah Kerr) and son Sean (Michael Anderson, Jr.).<ref name="nyt1960"/> They are [[Swagman|sundowners]], constantly moving, pitching their tent whenever the sun goes down. Ida and Sean want to settle, but Paddy has wanderlust and never wants to stay in one place for long. While passing through [[the bush]], the family meet refined Englishman Rupert Venneker (Peter Ustinov) and hire him to help drive a large herd of sheep to the town of Cawndilla. Along the way, they survive a dangerous [[Bushfires in Australia|bushfire]].

Mrs. Firth (Glynis Johns), who runs the pub in Cawndilla, takes a liking to Rupert. He takes to spending nights with her, but like Paddy, he has no desire to be tied down.

Ida convinces Paddy to take a job at a [[Sheep station|station]] shearing sheep; she serves as the cook, Rupert as a [[wool roller]], and Sean as a tar boy. Ida enjoys the company of Jean Halstead (Dina Merrill), their employer's lonely wife. When fellow shearer Bluey Brown's ([[John Meillon]]) pregnant wife Liz ([[Lola Brooks (actress)|Lola Brooks]]) arrives unannounced, she sees the young woman through her first birth.

Ida is saving the money the family earns for a down payment on a farm that they stayed at for a night on the sheep drive. Although Paddy has agreed to participate in a shearing contest against someone from a rival group, he decides to leave six weeks into the shearing season. Ida persuades him to stay. He loses the contest to an old veteran.

Paddy wins a lot of money and a racehorse playing [[two-up]]. Owning such an animal has been his longstanding dream. They name him Sundowner and enter him, with Sean as his jockey, at local races on their travels after the shearing is done. Sean and Sundowner win their first race.

Ida finally convinces a still reluctant Paddy to buy the farm on which Sean and she have their hearts set, but he loses all the money Ida saved in a single night of playing two-up. By way of apology, he tells her that he has found a buyer for Sundowner if he wins the next race. The money would recoup their down payment. Although Sundowner wins, he is disqualified for interference, and the deal falls through. Nevertheless, Paddy's deep remorse heals the breach with Ida, and they resolve to save enough to buy a farm one day.