Spencer's Mountain (1963)

Set in the Grand Teton mountains of Wyoming, the patriarch (Henry Fonda) of a clan that consists of wife (Maureen O'Hara) and nine children is determined his eldest son (James MacArthur) will go to college rather than breaking his back working at the local quarry like he and his eight brothers do. Based on the novel by Earl Hamner Jr. and directed by Delmer Daves (3:10 TO YUMA). This homespun yarn is the film (and its book source) that inspired the popular 70s TV series, THE WALTONS. However, this is a Hollywoodized version of poverty. The log cabin the family lives in is quite handsome and pristine, the kind of cabin that would be the perfect weekend getaway for a higher income family. And Maureen O'Hara as the matriarch is impossibly glamorous to be believable as a poverty stricken mountain wife. The book's setting was switched from Virginia to Wyoming which allows the breathtaking vistas so beautifully preserved by Charles Lawton Jr. (LADY FROM SHANGHAI) on celluloid. Max Steiner is responsible for the dreary score. With Donald Crisp (in his final film), Wally Cox, Veronica Cartwright, Barbara McNair, Virginia Gregg, Hayden Rorke and Mimsy Farmer (FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET).