The Sundowners (1960)

Deborah Kerr: Ida Carmody

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ida Carmody : This is a good country for sheep and it's not bad for men, but it's hard on us women. The men come here because of the sheep, and we come here because of the men, and most of us finish up looking like the sheep. Wrinkled faces, knotty hair, and not even much of a mind of our own.

• Paddy Carmody : Do you think those cow cockies have an easy time of it?

  Ida Carmody : Nobody has an easy time of it.

  Paddy Carmody : How do you know that bloke don't lie awake worrying about the mortgage? Do I do that?

  Ida Carmody : Well, if you did, you'd be the first man ever mortgaged a tent.

  Ida Carmody : Oh, you're a card, Ide. You're a real card. I don't know why the pictures didn't take you instead of Buster Keaton.

• Paddy Carmody : You know something, Ida? You're built the way a woman ought to be built.

  Ida Carmody : [undressing]  Just findin' out?

  Paddy Carmody : No, I noticed it a couple times before. It just came home to me today, when we were passin' through Cooma, seein' all them sheilas. Broomsticks, that's what they are. Nothin' to hang on to.

  Ida Carmody : Did you try?

  Paddy Carmody : Now, you know better than that. I was just lookin'.

  Ida Carmody : And comparin', eh?

  Paddy Carmody : That's right. Lookin, comparin', thinking what a lucky bloke I am.

  Ida Carmody : Oh, glad to know you appreciate me.

  Paddy Carmody : Come on over here, I'll appreciate you.

• Ida Carmody : Aren't you gonna wash tonight?

  Paddy Carmody : I washed this morning.

• Paddy Carmody : The trouble with you, Ida, is you got no imagination.

  Ida Carmody : I got an achin' backside, that's my trouble.

  Paddy Carmody : I know all about that backside. It only aches when you're losin' an argument.

• Paddy Carmody : A clean-living teetotaler, that's what I'll hire.

  Ida Carmody : Well, you can try a little teetotaling yourself, while you're at it.

• Ida Carmody : Don't go riskin' your life for the sheep, now.

• Mrs. Firth : Now then, what can I do to help?

  Ida Carmody : Well, we'd like a bath.

  Mrs. Firth : Too right, too right. Plenty of hot water. Now, who's going first? Or is it all in together, this cold weather? Now, follow me. Nothing like a good hot bath. Weakens the men and strengthens the women. Ought to be the other way around. Now, come on, Mrs. Carmody. I'll take you and sonny first.

• Sean Carmody : If we stay here, maybe I could get a job.

  Ida Carmody : You're old enough to be a tar-boy. If you and your dad both work as a team we could make quite a little nest egg to put in the jam jar. Just in case we ever decided to settle.

• Paddy Carmody : That queers it. I never use a woman cook.

  Quinlan : Right-o, well, if the missus ain't good enough for you, neither am I. Come on, love.

  Bluey Brown : Hold your horses. Quinlan, as union representative of this team, I gotta remind you of the rules! It's the men who choose the cook, not the boss.

  Quinlan : Bluey, use your head, man. They've gotta have a cook they can abuse if the tucker's not up to scratch.

  Ida Carmody : Oh, the tucker will be up to scratch, all right!

• Ida Carmody : Well, come on, sit down, have a cuppa with me. I just made a fresh pot. I'll bet you didn't get that dress in Cawndilla. You remind me of a society girl who gets their picture in the Sydney papers.

  Jean Halstead : I used to be one before I got married. Thought I'd changed by now.

  Ida Carmody : Oh, aged? Not so as it shows. You don't even look married.

• Ida Carmody : I'm having a real good time. I got room to put things and a chair to sit on and another woman around if I want a bit of a gossip. She's a nice little piece, not too happy either.

  Paddy Carmody : That Halstead probably gives her a rough time of it.

  Ida Carmody : No, just the opposite. Keeps her wrapped in cotton wool. Women don't like that, you know.

  Paddy Carmody : Educate me, darl. Tell me what women do like...

• Halstead : There's one doctor in Cawndilla. He covers 500 miles, so he's never there. I just hope you women know what you're doing.

  Ida Carmody : Well, we ought to, we've been having babies long enough.

• Paddy Carmody : What about going to town on Saturday night? You know, have a few drinks, talk. What do you say?

  Ida Carmody : Oh, I'd love it, Paddy.

  Paddy Carmody : Tell you what, you let me have half a quid out of the jam jar, I'll treat you like a bloke with his first girl.

• Rupert Venneker : Your good man seemed almost cheerful.

  Ida Carmody : Oh, no, not really. This job's got him down worse than I expected.

  Rupert Venneker : Well, he's a man who hates routine. What he need is a little excitement.

  Ida Carmody : But where's he gonna get it? Barring some sheep turning round and shearing him.

• Paddy Carmody : Spending the night in Cawndilla?

  Rupert Venneker : Would a cup of hot, strong tea be possible?

  Ida Carmody : You know, a few more visits to Mrs. Firth and you're gonna end up married.

  Rupert Venneker : I've paid many visits to many Mrs. Firths all my life and I'm still free. It's all a question of - technique.

• Ida Carmody : Sean, you've got your whole life to live. We're halfway through ours, your Dad and me. There are other people waiting for you but there's no one waitin' for us except each other. Don't ever ask me to choose between you and your Dad, because I'll choose him every time.

• Ida Carmody : Well, go on, booby.

• Mrs. Firth : Serving beer on Sundays and running a gambling joint? I could get 12 months in jail and lose me license.

  Ida Carmody : Why don't you make them stop the game then?

  Mrs. Firth : Oh, let them have their fun. They don't get much, the men out here. They battle all their lives just to try and stay ahead of nature keeping this part of the country alive. And when they're dead, they're forgotten. Nobody thanks them. All they get is abuse. Getting drunk on Sunday and gambling may be against the law, but the law was made by city wowsers and they don't know nothing of what it takes to keep a man alive out here.

• Rupert Venneker : Perhaps it would be better if I didn't accompany your family to Bulinga.

  Ida Carmody : We'd be glad to have you, and you know it. Though why you want to beats me.

  Rupert Venneker : Well, I'm a kind of elderly turtle, Ida. Hard shell, soft belly, wealth of experience. Not much of a mind to make use of it. Always in the soup. No joke intended. And this turtle can't share its shell with anyone. But only when it finds people who really belong to each other - as Paddy and you do. - it becomes attached, like a household pet. Not a very well-trained one at that.

• Ida Carmody : Since this is nosy day at Wattle Run, what are you gonna do about Mrs. Firth?

  Rupert Venneker : Mrs. Firth? I'm going to say goodbye to Mrs. Firth. She's a dear little body, isn't she? I just hope I don't hurt her feelings.

  Ida Carmody : Don't you worry about her losing you. She isn't losing one damned thing.

  Rupert Venneker : Ida, I thought you were my friend.

  Ida Carmody : I am your friend. I just don't like you very much right now.

• Paddy Carmody : Did you ever dream you'd have 200 quid in the kit - besides owning a racehorse?

  Rupert Venneker : We'll have think of a name for the brute.

  Paddy Carmody : Hey, that's right. We could call him - eh - Dynamite. Or what about Fireball?

  Rupert Venneker : Fireball? Grotesque. No, no. Something classical would be more appropriate.

  Ida Carmody : Wait. Why don't we call him Sundowner?

  Paddy Carmody : Yeah, I like that.

  Rupert Venneker : Sundowner. What does that mean? I've been called that on occasion. I assumed it was a term of abuse.

  Sean Carmody : No, that's the Australian word for people like us. A sundowner is someone whose home is where the sun goes down. It's the same as saying someone who doesn't have a home.