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Kybeyan and Nimmitabel Experiences
From Peter Goed petergoed@optushome.com.au

Amsterdam to Bathurst | Kybeyan | Nimmitabel Motors | The Sundowners

The Day the Stars Came to Nimmitabel
........The Making of the Sundowners.
From Peter Goed.

In the spring of 1959, a great assemblage of people, trucks, trailers, caravans and sundry other vehicles arrived in Nimmitabel for the filming of several major sequences for the Warner Brothers film production of The Sundowners.

2. Another rehearsal	3. Australian Hotel and two props

Written by well known Australian novelist John Cleary, the film was to be directed by the famed Hollywood director, Fred Zinneman. Its major stars were Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, with major supporting actors Peter Ustinov and Glynis Johns Dina Merrill and Michael Anderson Jnr.
The Australian cast was headed by Chips Rafferty and included nearly every known Australian film actor of the day, including, Leonard Teale, John Meillon, Lola Brooks, Molly Urquhart, Ray Barrett, Jack Fegan, Max Osbiston and a host of others.
Many Nimmitabel locals were employed as extras during the production, with adults getting £5 per day and children £2/10/- per day, plus lunch.

The crew immediately set to work turning the main street into what was needed for the film. The newly tarred road surface was covered in several inches of dirt, the Royal Hotel was turned into The Australian Hotel and the Mack's old general store was painted up as the Royal Hotel. As well, two sets representing the veranda of a hotel were built in front of the Police Station.

6. The Bullock Team	7

The sound van, provided by Mervyn Murphy's Supreme Sound Studios in Sydney, was located in the main street adjacent to Nimmitabel Motors, as that was where the only three phase power in this area of town was available. The garage provided the power for the sound van and lighting for the film at the exorbitant price of £50 per day of shooting.

The cinematographer on this film was Jack Hildyard, a highly respected Hollywood professional, used to shooting Technicolor 3 strip films. The sound engineer was Hans Wetzel, another Hollywood trained person, who had been in Australia for some years working with Mervyn Murphy's Supreme Sound Studio in Sydney.

29. Robert Mitchum signing an autograph	31

All the sound and lighting equipment, as well as the secondary camera for local rushes, were provided by Supreme Sound, as were the majority of the crew.

The School of Arts Hall was turned into the office, darkroom and screening room for the rushes, with Warner's replacing the ancient projection equipment (dating from the late 1920s) with more modern projectors.

4 Australian Hotel, with gravel covering the new tar road	5. Bullock Team

After exposure, the film was flown to Sydney every evening from Cooma, rushed to London by Qantas, where Technicolor processed the three strips of black and white film (one each for Red, Green and Blue) and cabled reports back to the production crew at Nimmitabel.
This generally took several days, which meant that Zinneman had to go by blind instinct as rushes just took too long to reach here.

32. Set outside the Police Station	33. Setting up the lights for a scene

Sound for the production was put onto 35mm sprocketed four track magnetic tape, which went to London with the three strip film.

Because of these technical restraints the main scene, where Mitchum is rescued from the Australia Hotel by Peter Ustinov and the mad dog attacks, was shot many times over, until Zinneman was satisfied.

9. Crowd Scene	17. Just before the shoot, Mitchum in the centre

This took the production well over budget and Jack Warner descended to take control. After a furious row with Zinneman, who took off to Sydney, Warner decided to take over the direction himself. He tried to cut costs at every turn, including the 3 phase power costs, telling my father that it was only worth £25 per day. After dad pulled the plug on the sound van and lighting equipment, Warner was soon seeking him out, promising to pay an additional £10 per day for the use of the power. Similarly, he was soon wooing Fred Zinneman back to the set with promises to let him do it his way.

This big cigar smoking film mogul was really a bit of a pussy and when it came to the crunch, just had to bite a bit harder on his Cuban cigar. For some reason, my mother thought that Jack Warner was just wonderful; perhaps it was the extra £10 per day she was getting for the supply of power. Whatever the reason, they became good friends for the rest of Warner's stay in Nimmitabel.

34. Setting up the lights	35. Extras waiting to go on

The crew were an extremely friendly lot. Jack Hidyard, the big-time Hollywood cinematographer, was an absolute gentleman. When I showed a real interest in how the filming process worked, Jack invited me to sit through a rehearsal with him on the camera boom as we soared through the air - a marvellous thing for a 15 year old to experience. Jack also explained the workings of the camera and had his focus-puller show me how the camera was set up for a shot.

Because I was extremely interested in sound, Hans Wetzel allowed me to be in the sound van for many of the actual takes so I could see the whole sound recording process functioning. Hans in his later years opened a movie museum in Buderim in Queensland and I renewed my acquaintance with him there in the 1970s, selling him some equipment for his museum (at the time I had an antique shop in Sydney).

Many locals were employed for the making of The Sundowners, mostly as extras. The town as a whole gained from the experience financially, with the cast and crew spending up while they were here.

Robert Mitchum stayed in a rented house, I think in Clarke Street, whereas Deborah Kerr stayed in a huge caravan parked at the back of Nimmitabel Motors. Miss Kerr refused to speak to any of the locals, would not eat with the rest of the cast, instead she had her own chef cook her meals, which she ate in her caravan.

Mitchum, who was prone to chasing the local girls around, was loath to sign autographs, but Kerr just simply refused to sign them at all. There was some talk about Mitchum being barred from the local pub, but others can probably elaborate more on this.

Michael Anderson Junior, who played the part of the son, could not ride a horse, or crack a stockwhip when he arrived on the set. The dog trainer, Scotty Taylor, tried to teach Michael how to crack a whip, with fifteen local lads looking on and laughing at his efforts to cut himself about the body with the thong. Likewise his riding was at first hilarious to watch, but we tired of the sport and he never did learn to do much more than be able to sit in the saddle at a gentle walk.

18. Lunch-time on the set, behind the CWA Rooms	28. Peter Ustinov and Michael Anderson arrive in town

Peter Ustinov was a wonderful character. He would, between his scenes, take half a dozen of us young lads to sit under a shady tree and tell us yarns about his younger days, when he ran away to sea. Whether fact or fiction, it was pretty riveting stuff, I can tell you.

Glynis Johns was a true treasure, a lovely woman who was friendly to everyone. Chips Rafferty, like Ustinov, was prone to spinning yarns to us kids, but later on I discovered that his tales about his exploits during WWII were not fiction at all, but his actual experiences; what a great treasure he was.

The minor cast members were all quite friendly. I particularly remember Leonard Teale, Jack Fegan, John Meillon, Ray Barrett and Max Osbiston, all of who had already been in other Australian films by this time.

John Cleary was extremely excited about the filming of The Sundowners and spent much of his time running around with a 16mm camera shooting everything to do with the making of the film. His film, along with 16mm film shot by someone else, was turned into a documentary about the making of The Sundowners and I spent some time with Cleary in the sound-van while he narrated part of the soundtrack for this documentary. I once had Cleary's book of The Sundowners, which he had autographed during the filming, but along the way of life I have managed to lose it, unfortunately.

37. Peter Goed with two of the cast outside the Police station

Other scenes for the film were shot in the Monaro district; the horse race at Cooma Racecourse, the bushfire scene at McPhee's property near the Murrumbidgee River; the Hotel Scenes at Dalgety and others that escape me now. I was fortunate to have been at the race meeting staged in Cooma, as well as witness some of the shooting in Delegate, but I can't remember much about these.

In December 1959, a pre-release of The Sundowners was shown to invited guests at the Savoy Theatre in Cooma, I remember going, but that's about it. At this preview they showed a short on Cooma, unfortunately I cannot remember the name of it, but it was an excellent documentary on Cooma, the town.

Hopefully there are others who can add to this, or correct mistakes in my memory of events, as all of this has come straight from memory as I recalled it.

"The Sundowners in Nimmitabel"
From Pat Golby

Nimmitabel had a week of fame and prosperity in 1959 when scenes of "The Sundowners" were filmed in the main street. The population was considerably increased by a large number of actors and crew, and also spectators. We had my mother staying with us at "Myola" and we drove in every day to watch.

Many local people were engaged as extras, and some were employed as labourers . Bill and Tony were extras and Tony helped with the dogs and was even out of sight in a couple of scenes.

The stars were Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Peter Ustinov, and Australians filled minor roles. We were fascinated by all these famous people, and even managed to get some autographs. It was Peter Ustinov who named the village "Inimitable Nimmitabel".

The bitumen in the street was covered in gravel, in keeping with the period of the film, and hitching rails to which horses were tied, were erected. A vacant block of land was supposed to be a bowling green with extras dressed as bowlers. Other extras and actors were dressed in the styles of the times - I think it was the twenties.'

The School of Arts, as the hall was then known, was used as headquarters and there were tents and canvas shelters and caravans all over the place. The whole scene was of great activity.

When the actual filming started it was very exciting. There was supposed to be dog fight and the extras raced to the scene, with the bowlers joining the throng and running up the street. We were sorry when the week was over and it all moved in to the Cooma race course.

When the filming moved to South Australia Tony went with them to help with horses and Peter Haylock and Peter Martin-Smith went to help with sheep - quite an experience for the young men, which, I am sure, they have long remembered.

 Pat Golby 2003