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Spencer's Mountain

Play trailer Poster for Spencer's Mountain 1963 1h 59m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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80% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 65% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda) and his wife, Olivia (Maureen O'Hara), live in a small town deep in the mountains. When Clay isn't busy drinking with his buddies or railing against the town minister (Wally Cox), he's building the house he's always promised Olivia. He is overjoyed when he learns his eldest son (James MacArthur) will be the first Spencer to attend college, if he can resist the charms of a pretty local girl (Mimsy Farmer) and rustle up the money for tuition.
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Spencer's Mountain

Critics Reviews

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Judith Crist New York Herald Tribune 08/15/2022
Spencer's Mountain [is] outstanding for its smirking sexuality, its glorification of the vulgar, its patronizing tone toward the humble, its mealymouthed piety. Go to Full Review
Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com 03/02/2008
4/5
Basis for "Waltons" TV series with great scenery, family drama and comedy...and Henry Fonda. Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 07/27/2005
3/5
Tony Mastroianni Cleveland Press 11/20/2003
This is a grab bag full of sure fire entertainment situations -- laughs, sentiment, tears, puppy love and the great outdoors. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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08/20/2023 Outstanding movie here don’t understand why they never made a second one on this. Would love to have watched it highly recommend this one tho. James Welch, Henderson., Arkansas, August 20, 2023. See more Steve D 07/18/2023 Absolutely nothing interesting or worthwhile See more Steve M 06/18/2023 This preceded the TV show "The Waltons", the names were different but the setting was the same. The cow's name is Chance in both, which gave me the first inkling. Good family movie. See more 02/06/2021 An enjoyable story about a family that has grown generations in a small town near the wilderness and the parents seeing that their children have a better future with education. Beautiful scenery shot on location in Wyoming and used the townspeople. See more 10/10/2020 I love Henry Fonda but I didn't love this movie. It was slow and it just wasn't that interesting, to be honest. I didn't know that it was the basis for The Waltons, but I enjoyed seeing Kym Karath (who played Gretl in The Sound of Music). She was probably my favorite character. The reason I didn't love it aside from the fact that it was slow, was mainly the absurd scenes (spoiler-the baby's high chair falls over and they assume that the baby breaks its neck, but the baby doesn't cry AT ALL) and some of the scenes were so bad they were laughable (spoiler-Henry Fonda is chopping down a tree and it starts to fall in the wrong direction-the most obvious thing is to get out of the way, but instead he and his father stare at it in horror, resulting in something bad). I don't think I'd watch this one again but it was okay for a first time viewing. See more lanfranco c @Lanfrancobz 01/19/2020 The old nice times ! See more Read all reviews
Spencer's Mountain

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Movie Info

Synopsis Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda) and his wife, Olivia (Maureen O'Hara), live in a small town deep in the mountains. When Clay isn't busy drinking with his buddies or railing against the town minister (Wally Cox), he's building the house he's always promised Olivia. He is overjoyed when he learns his eldest son (James MacArthur) will be the first Spencer to attend college, if he can resist the charms of a pretty local girl (Mimsy Farmer) and rustle up the money for tuition.
Director
Delmer Daves
Producer
Delmer Daves
Screenwriter
Delmer Daves
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Production Co
Warner Bros.
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 16, 1963, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 1, 2011
Runtime
1h 59m
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