The Sundowners (1960)

Michael Anderson Jr.: Sean Carmody

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Quotes 

• Sean Carmody : [on hearing Venneker had been a ship's captain]  Why'd you leave?

  Rupert Venneker : My stomach. I was a notoriously bad sailor.

  Sean Carmody : Dad says you must have been a better sailor than you are a horseman.

  Rupert Venneker : What the devil is he talking about? I was cashiered from the 17th Lancers before he knew one end of a horse from the other! *Not* that he does now! Hah!

  Sean Carmody : What does cashiered mean?

  Rupert Venneker : Uh - kind of promotion from the army into civilian life.

  Sean Carmody : Oh, congratulations.

• Sean Carmody : Gee, it's gonna be fun. This is the first time I've ever been away from home.

  Shearer : What, with your Mom and Dad not fifty yards outside that window, and you call that being away from home?

  Rupert Venneker : Certainly. Being out in the world is a state of mind, not of geography. The distance between that tent and this bunker is the longest journey you will ever make in your life.

• Rupert Venneker : I don't know if you've got a father, but you're obviously a piece of true-blue British stock.

  Sean Carmody : My father's Irish.

  Rupert Venneker : Oh, is he? I'm sorry.

• Sean Carmody : Is she your boss?

  Rupert Venneker : My employer - which is a vastly different thing.

• Rupert Venneker : May I offer you a lift into town?

  Sean Carmody : Yes, please.

  Rupert Venneker : Well, I must say, I find you less repellant than most people your age.

• Sean Carmody : Ain't it cracker, Mr. Venneker coming with us, Dad?

• Rupert Venneker : Want a bit of everything, like me. Because you're young.

  Sean Carmody : But you're not, though.

  Rupert Venneker : I'm younger than I seem to you. I've never really grown up, you see. And you've never had time. That's why we're out here instead of in a comfortable tent, like your parents.

  Sean Carmody : Rupe...

  Rupert Venneker : No more questions. You're still growing upwards. I'm only growing sideways now. Apart from that, we have a great deal in common.

• Sean Carmody : What's China like?

  Rupert Venneker : Very full. Just as Australia's very empty.

• 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.

• Rupert Venneker : Friends, Romans, shearers.

  Mrs. Firth : Hello, Sean. How did you like the play?

  Rupert Venneker : Oh, don't question him, madame. Don't waken him from his dream. He fell in love with the leading lady.

  Sean Carmody : Honest truth, give a bloke a go.

  Rupert Venneker : Oh, no shame in that. When I was your age, I was head over heels in love with Lillie Langtry.

  [to Mrs. Firth] 

  Rupert Venneker : And now, my mulga-scrub lily, I'm head over heels in love with you.

• Sean Carmody : I get sick of being told I'm too young, like it's a disease or something.

• Sean Carmody : Rupe says he's off to the fleshpots of Bulinga.

• 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.