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Spencer's Mountain
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Wikipedia article
'Spencer's Mountain' is a 1963 American family drama film written, directed, and produced by Delmer Daves from the 1961 novel of the same name by Earl Hamner Jr. and starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara The supporting cast features early appearances in their careers by James MacArthur, Veronica Cartwright, and Victor French, while longtime Hollywood actor Donald Crisp portrays "Grandpa", his final screen role, and Wally Cox, Virginia Gregg, Lillian Bronson, Whit Bissell and Dub Taylor also appear. The movie, although set in Wyoming rather than the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, is a forerunner (or early alternate version) of the television series 'The Waltons'.
Plot
The film centers on the trials and tribulations of the Spencers, a family living in the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming during the early 1960s. As the patriarch of a large and growing family, dirt-poor Clay Spencer is fiercely independent, yet dedicated to his family. He navigates issues of religion and education in order to eke out a brighter future for his family.
Eldest son Clayboy aspires to attend college and build a career away from the mountain. To do so, he must earn a scholarship and be approved by university officials. He fears his rough-hewn family, particularly father Clay Sr., may handicap him in these pursuits.
Cast
* Henry Fonda as Clay Spencer
* Maureen O'Hara as Olivia Spencer
* James MacArthur as Clayboy Spencer
* Donald Crisp as Grandpa Spencer
* Wally Cox as Preacher Goodman
* Mimsy Farmer as Claris Coleman
* Virginia Gregg as Miss Parker
* Lillian Bronson as Grandma Spencer
* Whit Bissell as Dr. Campbell
* Hayden Rorke as Colonel Coleman
* Kathy Bennett as Minnie-Cora Cook
* Dub Taylor as Percy Cook
* Hope Summers as Mother Ida
* Ken Mayer as Mr. John
Unbilled
* Susan Young as Shirley Spencer
* Gary Young as Mat Spencer
* Michael Young as Mark Spencer
* Ricky Young as Luke Spencer
* Rocky Young as John Spencer
* Veronica Cartwright as Becky Spencer
* Kym Karath as Pattie-Cake Spencer
* Barbara McNair as graduation singer
* Mike Henry as Spencer brother
* Victor French as Spencer brother
* Larry D. Mann as Spencer brother
* Med Flory as Spencer brother
* Michael Greene as Spencer brother
* Jim O'Hara (Maureen O'Hara's brother) as Spencer brother
* Bronwyn FitzSimons [Maureen O'Hara's daughter] as Dean Beck's secretary
* Rory Mallinson as campus cop
Production
'Spencer's Mountain' features the majestic scenery of Wyoming's Teton Range, as photographed by cinematographer Charles Lawton in color using Panavision. It was filmed in and around the town of Jackson and features the nearby Chapel of the Transfiguration. Although the original novel was set in the Appalachians of Virginia, Hamner said in 1963 that Daves wanted more imposing mountains to emphasize the characters' isolation and struggles with their environment.
The novel and the film became the basis for the long-running television series 'The Waltons', which premiered in 1972. The series switched the setting from the film's Wyoming back to the novel's Virginia, and placed the action in 1933 during the Great Depression. The series also differed from both the film and novel by playing down many of the adult themes, including alcoholism and infidelity, to suit the standards of early-70s family television. 'Spencer's Mountain' was the second of three films co-starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. Twenty years earlier they starred in the war drama 'Immortal Sergeant' (1943) and, ten years after 'Spencer's Mountain', played the leads in the made-for-television film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel 'The Red Pony' (1973), directed and co-written by 'Spencer's Mountain' second unit director Robert Totten.
Reception
In May 1963, The New York Times' critic Bosley Crowther contrasted the slicked up...synthetic and essentially insincere film with the novel, (which) tells a very real and very moving story of a dirt-poor family that lives in the hard-scrabble, unglamorous mountains of southwest Virginia.
Film critic Judith Crist, writing in the 'New York Herald Tribune', criticized the adult aspects of the movie's plot, saying it showed "sheer prurience and perverted morality," and adding that "it makes the nudie shows at the Rialto look like Walt Disney productions."
References
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