Cinema: God's Great Outdoors

Spencer's Mountain, which is touted as a family picture, will teach the kiddies all sorts of things: about bulls and heifers ("When it happens," says Henry Fonda to Son James MacArthur, "remember you ain't any bull and that little girl of yours ain't any cow"); fancy cussin' ("Damn, damn, double-damn, triple-damn, hell" trills one of the tots); the evil of drink ("My weakness in the eyes of God." says Preacher Wally Cox, "could mean the end of my ministry"); embryology ("Donny took his nap in the fetal position," coos Mimsy Farmer to Maureen O'Hara); scatology ("Here's a dictionary," pants Mimsy to MacArthur. "with all the dirty words underlined"); and courtship ("Honest, Mom," insists MacArthur to O'Hara, "all we were doing was kissing—that's all"). The Spencer family owns a crag in the Grand Tetons, but they are poor as gophers, and Clayboy Spencer (MacArthur), the apple of all eyes, wants to go to college. Father Fonda is bound to get him there. Mimsy Farmer is bound to get him into the clover, but Clayboy is no playboy, and it takes many reels before she gets him to climb the mountain "to grow up." Parents who prefer their kids to learn about life in a setting other than the widescreen Wyoming hills would do well to follow the lead of Mother Maureen O'Hara who says: "Come along, children. We'll wait for Daddy back in the truck."