Spencer's Mountain (1963)

Director:

Delmer Daves

Writers:

Earl Hamner Jr. (novel)
Delmer Daves (writer)

Release Date:

16 May 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Tagline:

Clayboy's schoolteacher impresses upon Clayboy the following phrase, "The world steps aside to let a man pass, if he knows where he is going"

Plot:

Clay Spencer is a hard-working man who loves his wife and large family. He is respected by his neighbors and always ready to give them a helping hand...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Minister | College | Mountain | Getting Drunk By Accident

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Henry Fonda	...	Clay Spencer
Maureen O'Hara	...	Olivia Spencer
James MacArthur	...	Clayboy Spencer
Donald Crisp	...	Grandpa Spencer
Wally Cox	...	Preacher Goodman
Mimsy Farmer	...	Claris Coleman
Virginia Gregg	...	Miss Parker
Lillian Bronson	...	Grandma Spencer
Whit Bissell	...	Dr. Campbell
Hayden Rorke	...	Colonel Coleman
Kathy Bennett	...	Minnie-Cora Cook
Dub Taylor	...	Percy Cook
Hope Summers	...	Mother Ida
Ken Mayer	...	Mr. John
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Breen	...	Mountain Boy (uncredited)
Veronica Cartwright	...	Becky Spencer (uncredited)
Michele Daves	...	Donnie Spencer (uncredited)
Bronwyn FitzSimons	...	Dean's Secretary (uncredited)
Med Flory	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Victor French	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Michael Greene	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Mike Henry	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Robert 'Buzz' Henry	...	Ambulance Driver (uncredited)
Kym Karath	...	Pattie-Cake Spencer (uncredited)
Rory Mallinson	...	Cop (uncredited)
Larry D. Mann	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Barbara McNair	...	Graduation Singer (uncredited)
James O'Hara	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Ray Savage	...	Spencer Brother (uncredited)
Gary Young	...	Mat Spencer (uncredited)
Michael Young	...	Mark Spencer (uncredited)
Ricky Young	...	Luke Spencer (uncredited)
Rocky Young	...	John Spencer (uncredited)
Susan Young	...	Shirley Spencer (uncredited)

Directed by
Delmer Daves

Writing credits
Earl Hamner Jr.		(novel)
Delmer Daves		(writer)

Produced by
Delmer Daves	....	producer

Original Music by
Max Steiner

Cinematography by
Charles Lawton Jr.		(as Charles Lawton)

Film Editing by
David Wages

Art Direction by
Carl Anderson

Set Decoration by
Ralph S. Hurst

Costume Design by
Marjorie Best

Makeup Department
Gordon Bau	....	makeup supervisor
Jean Burt Reilly	....	supervising hair stylist
James R. Barker	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gil Kissel	....	assistant director
Phil Rawlins	....	assistant director: second unit
Robert Totten	....	second unit director
Monty Masters	....	assistant director (uncredited)
William F. Sheehan	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
M.A. Merrick	....	sound
Russell Ashley	....	recordist (uncredited)
John Jensen	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Wellington Honn	....	special effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Lucille House	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Hans F. Koenekamp	....	director of photography: second unit (as H.F. Koenekamp)
Jack Woods	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Murray Cutter	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Bert Steinberger	....	dialogue supervisor

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1963) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Afex Filmverleih (1964) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1967) (USA) (TV) (pan/scan)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• National Park Service, The  thanks
• Grand Teton National Park  thanks

Also Known As:

Runtime:

118 min | West Germany:99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #20317) | Canada:G (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | Australia:G | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Average Shot Length = ~6.8 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.6 seconds.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Clay Sr. breaks his leg, there is no blood on his pant leg despite Clay Jr. mentioning that the leg bone had broken through the skin.

Quotes:

Clay Spencer:I learned to cuss before I could walk.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Waltons: A Decade of the Waltons (1980) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Now the Day is Over

Spencer Family Values

Henry Fonda throughout his career showed a great flair for playing rustic characters and endowing them with dignity. In fact that was his introduction to film when he did the movie version of the play that made him a star, The Farmer Takes A Wife. Of course as Fonda started playing more of a variety of roles he was less and less in rustic settings.

His last role of this type was as Clay Spencer in Spencer's Mountain a feel good family type picture with a rather interesting take on the facts of life. Country folks like the Spencers who deal a lot in livestock are familiar with the breeding process so it's not a huge big deal with them. At least it's not in this film as Mimsy Farmer is ready to finish James MacArthur's eduction in that regard. One of the best scenes in the film is Henry Fonda bringing over his bull to mate with one of Dub Taylor's cows with everybody looking on. I guess they're starved for entertainment in that part of the country.

In fact MacArthur's further education is what drives the film. He's the oldest of Fonda's and Maureen O'Hara's nine children and the first to graduate high school. His teacher Virginia Gregg wants to see him get ahead and go to the university. But the financial and other obstacles are considerable. Even the new minister Wally Cox tutors MacArthur in a needed Latin course.

If the Spencers bear no small resemblance to the Walton family that's because Earl Hammer who created the Waltons also wrote the novel this film was based on. Spencer's Mountain is beautifully photographed in the Grand Teton mountains of Wyoming, just as pretty and more majestic than the Walton's Appalachians. Delmer Daves who directed Spencer's Mountain also directed Jubal a few years earlier, a western also set in the Grand Tetons. The cinematography is just as good, but the resemblance stops there because Jubal is quite the adult western.

Spencer's Mountain marked the farewell performance of Donald Crisp who was 81 years old when he filmed this and had a career going back to the earliest silent films. He was a grand character actor who played an awesome variety of parts. Here he's in his family patriarch persona as Fonda's father married to Lillian Bronson in the film. Crisp won his Oscar as the family patriarch in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley.

Spencer's Mountain did good box office and it's a nice family film. But Henry Fonda's new agent passed on a Broadway play called Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf and signed his client for this. Fonda never forgave the agent, I can't really blame him.