Spencer's Mountain (1963) on Netflix
In the Grand Teton Mountains, Clay Spencer raises a large family with his wife, Olivia, and builds a house higher on the mountain. Their eldest son, Clay-Boy, wants to go to college.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.0/103,585 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
Clay Spencer is a sawmill hand in the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming and the oldest of eight brothers, all of them living within visiting distance on the mountain that carries their pioneer family's name. His wife, Olivia, keeps the household and attends church, which Clay will not do. He breaks away from work now and then to keep building the house higher up the slope that he promised her, still only a frame after ten or more years. Their eldest son, Clay-Boy, wants to go to college and work away from the mountain, which means earning a scholarship and winning approval from university officials, and he fears his unpolished family may hinder him. Claris, the teenage daughter of Colonel Coleman, the mill owner who employs Clay, pursues Clay-Boy.
Cast
- Kathy Bennettas Minnie-Cora Cook
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Spencer's Mountain (1963)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The 1961 novel and the 1963 film Spencer's Mountain both led to the long-running television series The Waltons, which premiered in 1972 and restored the story to the novel's Virginia setting, moving the action to 1933 at the beginning of the Great Depression.
- Earl Hamner Jr.'s 1961 novel is set in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, but producer, director and screenwriter Delmer Daves wanted more physically imposing mountains for the film to emphasize the characters' isolation and their struggles with their environment.
