Spencer's Mountain (1963)

Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda) and his wife Olivia (Maureen O’Hara) live with their nine children and the senior Spencers in the Snake River Valley within the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. They are an uneducated, poor, but hard working people who are about to celebrate their eldest son’s graduation from high school. Clayboy (James MacArthur) will not only be the first of the Spencer’s to graduate but with his teacher Miss Parker’s (Virginia Gregg) encouragement, the first Spencer to go to college. Graduating with honors, Clayboy is very interested in continuing his education, however, paying for that education sets off a series of obstacles that tests the family’s strength and patience. Clay, a man who believes in God but not religion unknowingly signs an application for a clerical scholarship in order for his son to attend university. When Clayboy is denied the scholarship, Clay travels to the school to get to the root of the problem where he discovers the type of application he signed and Clayboy’s non-existent education in Latin that bars him from it. Striking a deal with the Dean for admission without a scholarship, Clay promises that Clayboy will pass the Latin exam by the end of the summer. Learning Latin is small potatoes for Clayboy who along with his family must figure out some way to pay for the first year of school. When Grandpa Spencer’s (Donald Crisp) dies in a tragic accident, Clayboy all but gives up his dream. With the encouragement of his father, he continues to work at the newly developed free library that his teacher Miss Parker has established for him. Despite that job, a little over five hundred dollars must be raised. After swallowing their pride and asking for a loan from a wealthier neighbor who denies them, Clay decides to give up a dream of his own for Clayboy.
Having long promised Olivia that he would build their dream home on Spencer’s Mountain with it’s grand views, Clay burns down the house they have been building all summer and sells the land to his boss Colonel Coleman (Hayden Rorke) at the quarry. Ironically, Coleman is the father to Claris (Mimsy Farmer) who is deeply in love with Clayboy and his family. Too impatient to wait four years for Clayboy to marry her, Claris has herself transferred to Clayboy’s university so they can be together. With the sale of the land, Clay will be able to pay for Clayboy to go to college with the hope that he will be able to assist his younger sibling and so on down the line.

A simple film with a simple theme combined with great performances by Fonda, O'Hara, MacArthur and Crisp (his swan song), there is a lot to love about Spencer's Mountain. It's both entertaining and endearing. It was also the pre-cursor to a favorite show of mine I used to watch as a kid in the eighties- The Waltons. Based on Earl Hamner, Jr.'s life growing up in Schulyer, Virginia during the Depression, the movie and the show differ greatly. For instance, director Delmer Daves did not to use the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop in the film (I am a Virginia girl and though Wyoming's nice, our mountains are nothing to sneeze at!) and some of the grittier themes of the book and film (alcoholism and infidelity) are seriously watered down in the show. The names also differ and in my family, when someone says Goodnight, John-Boy, we're all thinking about this scene:

Ach! Now I want to watch The Waltons.

Trivia:

Be on the look out for Maureen O'Hara's daughter Bronwyn FitzSimons as the Dean's secretary!

Spencer's Mountain was not a great time for Fonda whose new agent, unbeknownst to him, turned down an opportunity for Fonda to perform as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway. Apparently, the black comedy by Edward Albee was written specifically with Fonda in mind.  Fonda also regretted not being able to perform in the film version which slated him and...wait for it...Bette Davis! Can you IMAGINE?? Bette Davis as Martha? How legendary would that have been? I mean, I LOVE Taylor and Burton in that film- they're fantastic! But Fonda and Davis?? Ach! For all you classic film buffs: Eve and Frank pitted against one another is what springs to mind.



Tonight on TCM!
Joanne Woodward! Check out Rachel, Rachel and Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams! You won't be disappointed!

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

Covering the span of ten years, The Private Life of Henry VIII begins with the execution of Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon in her first substantial part) and Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). When Jane dies after baring Henry a son, Henry is encouraged to marry again. He does so…very reluctantly to Anne of Cleves (Elsa Lanchester real life wife of Charles Laughton) who cleverly arranges for a divorce so that she may be with her true love. When it is suggested that Henry marry again, this time he does so for love. However, Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes) is more in love with the crown than Henry, and soon finds that little happiness lay inside that wretched circle. She begins an affair with Thomas Culpepper (Robert Donat) which ends disastrously with them both being executed once caught. Henry’s final marriage is to Catherine Parr (Everly Gregg) who is best summed up in the last line of the film, “Six wives, and the best of them is the worst”.

The film itself, though not historically accurate or even a great masterpiece, offers us a view into Henry’s private life, behind closed doors, away from his subjects. Laughton, whose acting is the treat of the film, literally “rounds” out the king to which he very much resembles, running the gamut of emotions from hearty statesman to childish tyrant. We watch how his marriages mellow him from an impatient bridegroom to the most reluctant. Most of Laughton’s genius in this film is physical. The way he shapes his face when he agrees or disagrees with something, his gaping duck walk made to look powerful but knowingly ridiculous. I think it was Maureen O’Hara that once said that Laughton could convey so much simply by physical action.

The best scene in the film for me is the interaction between him and Elsa Lanchester, Laughton’s actual wife.  Ironically Anne of Cleves is the wife he considers most undesirable. For her part, Anne does all she can to look undesirable. When she outwits him at cards and convinces him she would find a divorce most amicable, their wordplay is most humorous.

Oscar Trivia:

Henry VIII is the only character played by three separate actors that garnered each and Academy nomination with Charles Laughton winning Best Actor for his portrayal. The other two actors were Robert Shaw (of Jaws fame) in A Man for All Seasons and Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days.

The Private Life of Henry VIII also holds another distinction for being the first film shot outside of Hollywood to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Elsa Lanchester was nominated twice in her career for Best Supporting Actress, first in Come to the Stable and again in Witness for the Prosecution which also garnered Laughton with his second Academy nomination. This film also marked the last of the twelve the couple made together.

Robert Donat was also nominated twice for the Academy Award. He lost out for Best Actor in The Citadel but was victorious the next year with the Best Actor award for Goodbye Mr. Chips.