At the tail end drop off of golden age filmlore, when west coast media portrayed all Americans and not just the elite and aloof, thug and victim and outsider or misfit, Hollywood still had room for little guys on movie screens. And there were two actors honored with the everyman distinction of playing heartland kinfolk. One was Jimmy Stewart; the other was Henry Fonda. Spencer's Mountain, loosely based on the country boy novel by Earl Hamner Jr., is a tale of a backwoods brood's family conflicts that help them grow toward upward mobility in a test of patience that steers them toward a better life.
Set against the panorama of the Grand Teton mountains of Wyoming as a wilderness backdrop, Spencer patriarch Clay (Fonda) is a quarrier/farmer with a baseball team sized family that he raises with earthy mate Maureen O'Hara, for whom he has plans to build a dream home. But that is in jeopardy or limbo when he is pressured into selling the land for which he is the last hold out of an inheritance from Grandpa (Donald Crisp), who is killed in a tragic accident.
With their eldest Clay Boy (James MacArthur) ready to ditch the nest for higher learning and/or a romance with the local boss's daughter (Mimsy Farmer), the Spencers are at a generational crossroads between preserving the old or sacrificing for the new. And the final act outcome is a progressive happy ending as they prepare and provide for their son's college rather than rest laurels on the family legacy.
As a throwback counterpoint to modern media mediocrity, the fresh air content of this charming movie is in its wide open spaces that let your soul breathe in the real people of real life. For those not familiar with such happy-go-lucky family filmfare, this was the first of many wholesome populist family entertainment projects for Earl Hamner Jr., who first got his start writing Twilight Zone teleplays for Rod Serling in the early 60s.
But most of all, Spencer's Mountain is memorable as a larger than life cinema precursor to The Waltons, which in its 9 year run on CBS replete with spinoff movie specials, would prove to be the most beloved TV family in network program history.
