Spencer's Mountain (1963)
We always thought of writer-director Delmer Daves as the Wal-Mart generic version of Hollywood soap opera grandmaster Douglas Sirk (of "Imitation of Life", "Magnificent Obsession", "Written on the Wind", "All That Heaven Allows").
Both men were partial to star-studded larger-than-life melodramas photographed in eye-dazzling, blinding Technicolor. Daves' output included such Sirk-ian potboilers like "A Summer Place", "Parrish", "Rome Adventure", and "Susan Slade" (most of them making liberal use of the Warner Brothers junior varsity young actors under studio contracts).
Unlike the overall gentlemanly tone of Sirk's films, Daves wasn't above entertaining his audience by salting his stories with some low comedy and double entendre sexual innuendo. His crowd-pleasing instincts rarely failed him......he knew how to tug on your heartstrings and still show you a good time....
'Spencer's Mountain' came from the prolific pen of novelist, screenplay and teleplay writer Earl Hamner Jr. Like much of his output, it was based on his rural Virginia upbringing amid a large extended family.
Almost all of "Twilight Zone"s backwoods supernatural episodes came from Hamner and 'Spencer's' was heavily based on his own country life during Depression era America. 9 years after the release of Daves' film version, Hamner would strike TV gold creating the long running, heart tugging series 'The Waltons'.
Anyone even slightly familiar with 'The Waltons can easily spot how 'Spencer's Mountain' served as its prototype in many ways. Both films center around a large close knit family who dote on and heavily depend on their oldest son, who dreams of a life beyond cow-milking, and co-parenting his his many younger siblings......(Hence James MacArthur's 'Clayboy' Spencer later evolves into Richard Thomas's 'John-boy' of 'The Waltons'.)
But where 'The Walton's was designed for the small screen, 'Spencer's' unfolds in the spectacular sunshine of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming. And the breathtaking landscapes are photographed with such picture postcard perfection, you might need sunglasses to watch them.
The film also benefits from its lead performances by Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara as the of the Spencer parents. Fonda has an especially fine time as the irascible but deeply loving dad to his brood, averse to church-going and given to occasional bouts of boisterous heavy drinking.
Armed with a script co-written by himself and Hamner, Delmer Daves drenches the film, like heavy molasses on pancakes, with unabashed sentimentality. There's choir hymns, sudden tragedy, cute toddlers, first love, painful setbacks and no end of manipulative moments designed to wring out sighs, tears and smiles from an audience that Daves and Hamner shamelessly play like a piano.
Doubling down on the shmaltz, Max Steiner's insistent, omnipresent score pours on the swelling strings at every opportunity.
In the dark, dark ages we live in now, of course the film comes off like a dusty museum piece, hopelessly out of date with its heart-on-its-sleeve attitudes and blatant cornball atmosphere. With the exception of its few moments of sudden drama and tragedy, the film exhibits little forward momentum or a sense of urgency......you watch it unfold at its own leisurely, unhurried pace.
(Keep in mind, the film arrived in theaters still a half a year away from JFK's assassination, which would mark the beginning of the end of American innocence and confidence in its institutions. When 'Spencer's Mountain' arrived on screens, audiences could still savor and appreciate old fashioned Americana.)
But Delmer Daves would not allow his film to end up completely Disney-fied. Halfway through, he tosses in something of a wild card for both the film and James MacArthur's 'Clayboy'......cornfed, blonder than blonde Claris, a hormonally charged Wyoming firecracker played by Mimsy Farmer in her first major film appearance. Only minor roles followed for her until Farmer moved on to Europe where she flourished in uninhibited cult Euro-Junk and bloody, sexy Giallos.
As for 'Spencer's Mountain', we're not sure whom we'd recommend it for.....maybe Henry Fonda/Maureen O' Hara completists, Golden Age film music curators, for the chance to wallow in a prime Steiner score, anyone considering a vacation in Jackson Hole Wyoming or maybe lovers of antiquated Hollywood-in-the Heartland corn.....as for us, we reveled in the old school paintbox Technicolor, a glorious sight never ever seen in today's films.
2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).
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