Os Nove Irmãos

Leonard Maltin calls the film "mawkish", and he is right on, but it is still great fun. Mimsy Farmer's Claris is a hoot ("friction, friction, friction!")! Excellent use of the Jackson Hole locations, especially the Triangle X guest ranch, which served as the Spencer homestead and is still in operation here. Two trivia notes: Bronwyn Fitzsimmons, who played the college secretary, is Maureen O'Hara's daughter in real life. According to AMC Magazine, Henry Fonda showed some off-screen interest in her that O'Hara had to squash. Fonda did the film even though he thought it was so corny it would set U.S. movie-making back 20 years. Also, you have Wally Cox's character listed as GoodMAN, but the name was actually GoodSON. Highly recommended.

I had seen this movie in high school with a friend I grew up with and his family at a Drive-In, and it made such an impression on me at that time, probably because of the wholesomeness of the whole thing; I saw it several times thereafter, but, until recently had not viewed it for years; I bought the DVD version and watched it last night and it was just as I had remembered it, a family movie, the likes of which you will never see again.... I especially enjoyed the extras, including the premiere newsreel and interviews; the scenery is breathtaking especially on a large screen TV, and the story always keeps your interest...it is hard to explain, but to someone of my generation, they just don't make them like this anymore!! What a joy to see such actors as Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, Wally Cox, Virginia Gregg, Lillian Bronson, and Donald Crisp displaying their fine talents in this film... IT was interesting to see what a fine job James MacArthur did prior to Hawaii Five O, as he had done in several Disney pictures of the era....there is a very young Kim Karayth, who later went on to fame as the youngest sibling in The Sound Of Music and other family pictures, and Veronica Cartwright, who played on many television series and also in the Hitchcock thriller "The Birds." This was the heyday of family moviemaking...where did it all go??

Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Earl Hamner, Jr., "Spencer's Mountain" is, firstly, a nostalgic look at a way of life from the viewpoint of the writer. Released in 1963, the story undoubtedly had great appeal for those who see that way of life as quintessentially "the American way".

Set in New Dominion, the name is the first clue to the outlook of the residents (and the film's producers). "Dominion" might be translated as a territory under God's authority or control. Religion is one of the subjects of the film. But life in New Dominion has a simplicity that is a central theme.

In this valley that nestles under the Grand Tetons, there are only two churches. There are also few choices of occupation, few neighbors, and few visitors. Residents are connected to the land in an elemental way--mostly through farming, quarrying or via the lumber mill. One unstated but permeating message of the film is the goodness and value associated with such a connection.

The central character is Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda), father of eight and salt of the earth. Living under sparkling blue skies, he and his wife, Olivia (Maureen O'Hara), raise their children to be kind and to have dreams. Another central theme of the film is the value of dreams. The family is dedicated to the purpose of sending the oldest child, Clayboy (James MacArthur), to college.

One of their long-term projects is a dream house set on an idyllic hillside overlooking the valley and the grandeur of the mountains.

As Clay and his family strive for their dreams and negotiate the hardships that intervene in all lives, the viewer is treated to vignettes that are dipped in Disney and Doris Day. Bountiful streams and pastures bursting with fecundity frame a Norman Rockwellian world even homier and more basic than Mayberry. The film has been accused of mawkishness and justifiably so. No chance is missed to sing a hymn, recognize a milepost of life, wave the American flag or jerk a tear from a moment.

But that is not all bad. The film does what it does very well. Henry Fonda's voice almost feels like the bedrock that supports the entire family. The rosy-cheeked cast is the perfect picture of God's grace. The end product feels very iconic and touching, no doubt extracting tears from numerous scenes. I wish the sentimentality had been dialed down a notch--like when "America" is unnecessarily played behind the toasting of Clayboy.

"Spencer's Mountain" was well-designed for audiences in 1963. Even with it's overly sentimental tone, it has a wholesomeness and a respect for values that will appeal to viewers of any era.

Later, the story would be adapted again as TV's "The Waltons".

"Spencer's Mountain" is an enjoyable family drama with touches of humor throughout. The outdoor scenery is spectacular. The film was shot in Grand Teton National Park, around Jackson Hole, WY, and in California. The movie is based on a 1961 novel of the same title, by Earl Hamner Jr. Some of the characters and experiences in the film are from his background, growing up near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Great Depression.

Hamner would write another novel in 1970 that further expands on his boyhood growing up as the oldest child in a large family. That book, "The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer's Mountain," led to the 1971 movie by the same title that in turn spawned the nine-year TV series, "The Waltons."

I don't know why this film was set in Wyoming instead of Virginia, but the expansive shots of the scenery could be one reason. By the middle 20th century, it would have been hard to find shots like that in Virginia that didn't show much more modern development. "The Homecoming" was also shot in Wyoming in 1971, although the story was clearly set in Virginia.

Many people who watched the later film and then the Waltons on TV (1972- 81) didn't know that this movie was part of Hamner's story of Walton's Mountain as well.

The cast of "Spencer's Mountain' is very good. Henry Fonda excelled as Clay Spencer. Another reviewer commented about the types of role he played, and I agree that Fonda was best with this type of role. He also was good with dramatic roles, in Westerns and some others. And while he made some 30 comedy films, most were just so-so. He was exceptional as a straight man in two top-rated comedies that had top casts and great scripts - "The Moon's Our Home " of 1936 and "The Lady Eve" of 1941.

Maureen O'Hara is wonderful as Olivia Spencer and James MacArthur plays Clayboy. That's the role that Richard Thomas had in the later film and the series as John-Boy. The rest of the cast are all quite good.

This is a somewhat different story than what Hamner writes for the Waltons. The special home that Clay starts to build for Olivia, and then the fire that destroys it. It's an interesting and entertaining movie that most should enjoy.

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.