Spencer's Mountain is a 1963 American family drama film written, directed and produced by Delmer Daves, from the 1961 novel of the same name by Earl Hamner Jr.,[2] and starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.

[3] The supporting cast features early appearances by James MacArthur, Veronica Cartwright and Victor French, while longtime film actor Donald Crisp (in his final screen role) portrays "Grandpa" Spencer.

Clay-Boy must also contend with the amorous pursuits of teenage neighbor Clarissa, daughter of the wealthy local mill owner Col. Coleman, who employs Clay Sr. and acts as de facto power figure of the mountain community.

As a result, he decides to sell the mountain house property to direct the profits to Clay-Boy's college expenses, and sadly torches the unfinished structure of lumber framing.

The series also differed from both the film and novel by playing down adult themes, including alcoholism and infidelity in its early seasons episodes, until it became established and more secure in its popularity in the mid-to-late 1970s.

In May 1963, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther contrasted the "slicked up...synthetic and essentially insincere" film with the original text and plot of the novel, "[which] tells a very real and very moving story of a dirt-poor family that lives in the hard-scrabble, unglamorous mountains of southwest Virginia.

"[6] A review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette daily newspaper in July 1963 noted that the location photography, at Grand Teton National Park, is "vast and beautiful", but the screenplay was basically a soap opera with excessive sentimentality with no restraint; there was "too much talk" and "a general falseness about what could be a moving truth".