Spencer's Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Classic Delmer Daves production
Review: "Spencer's Mountain" , written by Earl Hamner, Jr. of "The Walton's" wrote this script in the 1950s and it shows. Like many of the Delmer Daves movies of this era, this film combines a Max Steiner score, great cinematography and a heart-tugging story from a more innocent America. This is a great movie to get lost in, enjoy, and have a good cry. I sit back and re-live this film at least once a year.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Delmer Daves production
Review: "Spencer's Mountain" , written by Earl Hamner, Jr. of "The Walton's" wrote this script in the 1950s and it shows. Like many of the Delmer Daves movies of this era, this film combines a Max Steiner score, great cinematography and a heart-tugging story from a more innocent America. This is a great movie to get lost in, enjoy, and have a good cry. I sit back and re-live this film at least once a year.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Delmer Daves production
Review: "Spencer's Mountain" , written by Earl Hamner, Jr. of "The Walton's" wrote this script in the 1950s and it shows. Like many of the Delmer Daves movies of this era, this film combines a Max Steiner score, great cinematography and a heart-tugging story from a more innocent America. This is a great movie to get lost in, enjoy, and have a good cry. I sit back and re-live this film at least once a year.

Rating:
Summary: Good Adaptation of the Hamner Novel With One Exception
Review: Before THE WALTONS, Earl Hamner Jr. wrote a novel called
SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN, a fictionalized version of his childhood
in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The film version of
his novel is in general excellent--Henry Fonda is a standout
as tough-but-loving Clay Spencer--but I always thought
James MacArthur was too old to be playing Clay-Boy, and he's
certainly NOT the charming but gawky red-headed kid described
in the novel! Richard Thomas was also older than the John-Boy

character he portrayed on the television series, but he
was made to look like a gawky teenager where MacArthur never
does. (Incidentally, the family on TV is known as the Waltons
rather than the Spencers because after the movie was made
the studio owned the rights to the name "Spencer" so Hamner
had to change it for TV.)

My big quibble with this movie, and the reason I won't rate
it higher, is the character of Claris. In the novel she's a
bold, precocious, but ultimately nice girl--in the movie she
just comes off as a slut. The actress slithers and oozes like
some sort of Lolita-clone.

Rating:
Summary: INSPIRED "THE WALTON'S"
Review: Fonda plays the larger-than-life patriarch of 9 (with O'Hara as his wife) who's inherited the Wyoming mountain land claimed by his father. Fonda's dream is to build a new house large enough to contain his brood, but something always gets in his way. Sentimental family fare based on a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST
Review: I have seen this film more times than I can count and I never get tired of watching it. I cry every time I watch it. A great family movie that really shows values and the way a family life should be. I reccommend this movie for anyone that values the old way of family. Very touching movie.

Rating:
Summary: A great family video
Review: I loved this movie--Henry Fonda is wonderful as the hard-working, loving, commonsense father of nine children. Maureen O'Hara plays his wife and does a great job as a woman of faith who is constantly being challenged by the struggles of raising a large family with little income. It gives a beautiful portrait of a close-knit family whose members sacrifice freely for one another. A great family movie.

Rating:
Summary: This is a funny, heartwrenching movie
Review: This is such a beautifully made film. It made me laugh (really hard), then had me on the verge of tears. This is a true look at rual America in the 40's (or was it the 30's). And for a movie made 40 years ago, it has some pretty smart dialogue. Spencer's son has this "loose" girlfreind who's always getting the poor guy in trouble. "Wannna get the dictionary and look up all the dirty words?" she asks the son while she tries (unsuccessfully) to seduce him in the town library. Don't get me wrong there is nothing vulgar about this film. It really is a family classic. Hnery Fonda is in peak form here. A REAL look at family life.