Did Not Like

If I'm going to spend 2.5 hours on a movie, I want it to be a sweeping saga that tells a big story. Instead, with the Sundowners, we get a meandering tale of a ne'er do well wandering day worker with a drinking problem, and the wife and son who love him despite his unwillingness to give them what they both desperately want - a proper home. It seems like quite a natural and practical desire, yet Mitchum acts like they are wounding him by even suggesting such a thing.

Kerr's portrayal of a woman who has become tough as nails by the nature of her life, but still has a normal woman's desires to look pretty and have nice things, is memorable. But Mitchum's character is immature, manipulative, and wasteful. And we get to see him get his way again in the end, after Kerr has saved every dime to put towards a home down payment, he just gambles it away. No biggie. And then they go off laughing into the sunset. I really wanted her to leave him and stay in town and help Glynis Johns run the hotel. She would have been better off.