Spencer's Mountainstars Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara as Clay and Olivia Spencer, the parents of nine children. They live in a big old house with Clay's aged parents (Donald Crisp and Lillian Bronson) while his nine brothers live nearby. Most of the story centers on Clay and Olivia's oldest son, 17-year-old Clayboy (26-year-old James MacArthur), the first Spencer ever to graduate from high school. Clayboy's teacher (Virginia Gregg) and minister (Wally Cox) urge the boy to go on to college, but Olivia has mixed feelings about the idea, and the family barely has enough money to buy Clayboy a class ring, let alone pay his tuition. Meanwhile, the elder Clay begins work on a long-promised "dream house," high up the impossibly beautiful Wyoming mountains.

Perhaps because Universal's "Ma & Pa Kettle" movies were a not-too-distant memory, perhaps because "The Beverly Hillbillies" had premiered to big ratings the previous fall, the producers of Spencer's Mountain apparently wanted to distance themselves, both aesthetically and geographically, from the hillbilly world those shows offered. In so doing, the wonderful authenticity of character and atmosphere present in Hamner's writing, from the TV "Waltons" to episodes of "The Twilight Zone," has been thwarted in Delmer Daves's sincere but saccharine adaptation. The Spencer family has essentially been homogenized nearly to the point of nausea. They are poor but Noble with a capital "N." They are so good, so decent, and so homespun that they become blanks.

Even Henry Fonda, an actor practically incapable of giving a bad performance, even at the end of his career in such dreck as The Swarm and Meteor, is hard to take. The combination of his famous Midwestern drawl and down-home country wisdom plays almost like parody. Perhaps Fonda himself knew how ridiculous it all was. Interviewed at a press junket shortly before the film's press premiere, Fonda pretty much agrees with a review in the Christian Science Monitor that called the film a "marshmallow Tobacco Road."

Indeed, both the subsequent TV movie and series (at least in its first few seasons) had far more authenticity and dramatic weight than anything in Spencer's Mountain. The show was better cast, too, with Richard Thomas a more convincingly sensitive young man. Thomas nicely contrasted Ralph Waite's working poor father, and Michael Learned's careworn, realist mother. By contrast Fonda, with his badly-written dialogue, and especially O'Hara, with her perfectly coiffed hair and carefully applied lipstick, are very much a Hollywood movie's idea of parents struggling to get their children fed and clothed.

Only Donald Crisp, whose last film this was, is convincing, and scenes involving his character are the only ones that really work. Crisp's long and prestigious career as both an actor and director stretched back to at least 1908 (!), and he brings an understated dignity which would have worked better for Fonda's character. Unfortunately, Crisp's character, and what it represents, is under-emphasized, and it would take Will Geer, essentially playing the same role on TV, to make it whole.

Even the striking Wyoming locations works against the film's success. The Spencers may be poor, but they own some pretty prime real estate. I guess Spencer's Mountain was intended to remind audiences of life's simple pleasures, but I couldn't help but wonder what their land would fetch in today's economy.

Video & Audio

Filmed in early Panavision, Spencer's Mountainis letterboxed in a crisp 16:9 transfer which seems to maximize what could be derived from those still-primitive anamorphic lenses. The image is sharp if a might grainy here and there. The color is good if occasionally slightly faded. The mono sound is representative of the period.

Extras

"Spencer's Mountain Grand Teton Premiere," in full-frame black and white, documents in seven-odd minutes the press premiere of Spencer's Mountain. The cast and press fly in for the premiere, local talent and politicians are interviewed (one woman recalls director Daves using the same locations for his 1956 film Jubal), and the ubiquitous Arthur Godfrey (who also turns up at the Florida premiere of The Incredible Mr. Limpet) makes a speech. "Vintage Interviews with Henry Fonda" is a nine-minute, black and white, full-frame presentation excerpting a press junket whereby local TV personalities from across the country chew the fat with Fonda (and, briefly, James MacArthur). The questions are generally insipid and Fonda appears extremely uncomfortable throughout – I suspect he must have been a very shy when not working. Interestingly, he does mention having finished production on Fail-Safe and speaks of his next project, The Best Man and a (presumably) unmade collaboration with director John Frankenheimer.

A wanting essay tracing the evolution of Hamner's novel through to the TV series is included, along the usual worthless "cast and crew" feature Warners continues to include for no clear reason, and a nice trailer, complete with text and narration, also in 16:9 format.

Parting Thoughts

Spencer's Mountain is overlong and sugary, but it tries and partly succeeds at being right neighborly. The narrative's main thrust, of Clayboy's desire to go to college and his parents' overwhelming need to see their children get a better education than they did is inherently dramatic. It's just not done very well here. But if watching Henry Fonda and Wally Cox fishin' and-a-drinkin' "the recipe" (thankfully not in large jugs marked "XXX"), then Spencer's Mountain is for you.