Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

"Spencer's Mountain" ScuiteM IZctiU? O O O Has all the elements of popular mass audience fare. Good cast, handsome production. Will draw fern trade, teenagers. Delmer Daves, whose mass-appeal films ("Summer Place", "Parrish") have rolled up impressive returns at the boxoffice, now applies his knowing commercial hand to Earl Hamner, Jr.'s novel about life among mountain people. Unfolded with the accent on selflessness, heartbreak, sacrifice and personal triumph, bolstered by a capable cast headed by Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara and James MacArthur, and magnificently photographed in Technicolor and Panavision against the craggy, snow-capped mountains of Wyoming, this Warner Bros, release promises theatremen another good mass-supported moneymaker. The ferns definitely will buy it, and the teen-agers should also find it to their taste. A generous serving of sex has been stirred in with plenty of homespun humor and a dash of tragedy. Fonda and Miss O'Hara are the proud parents of nine youngsters, the eldest of which is the studious MacArthur, about to become the first Spencer male to ever graduate from high school. Fonda, for 20 years, has been vowing to Miss O'Hara he will one day build her a Dream House atop Spencer's Mountain. But poverty has always stood in the way, even though Fonda is considered the best quarry-man at the plant. How the family faces the problems of everyday living, now doubled by the desire to send MacArthur to college, provides the meat of producer-director Daves' sentimental screenplay. The three leads carry off their roles with charm and credibility. Good support is provided by Donald Crisp, Fonda's father who homesteaded Spencer's years ago, Wally Cox, the local preacher, and newcomer Mimsy Farmer, the quarry manager's pretty daughter, in love with MacArthur, and now semi-sophisticated after a year of city college. The University agrees to enroll MacArthur if he learns Latin. Cox offers to instruct the boy on the condition that nonchurchgoer Fonda come to church every Sunday. Tragedy strikes when, in felling a huge tree, Fonda is badly hurt and Crisp is killed. MacArthur passes his Latin requirements and Fonda goes to the Valley's richest man to borrow the money. The latter's spiteful young wife, herself in love with MacArthur, blocks the loan. Fonda burns down the half-finished Dream House and sells the land for the tuition money. Warner Bros. 119 minutes. Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James MacArthur. Produced and Directed by Delmer Daves. "Hud" ^Zu&utew, fccttuty O O O Lye soap-opera dealing with problems raised by differing standards of three generations of Texas family. Paul Newman heads good cast. Will be well received in all markets. The three generations of this Texas family are Granddad, old and principled, Hud, wild, reckless and pushing forty, and Lonny, adolescent and caught between the values of the two others. Foot and mouth disease hits the cattle herd, getting Hud out of the bed of somebodys wife at six in the morning to appraise the situation. The threatened liquidation of the herd brings to the open the quarrel between Hud and his father that has smoldered beneath the surface for years. Lonny, at seventeen, is caught between love and respect for his grandfather and a boyish admiration for the he-manliness of Uncle Hud. In the end granddad wins, though he dies, Lonny strikes out on his own and Hud is left alone to survey the empty vastness of the range from which disease has removed the cattle, and to appraise the emptiness of his own life. As Hud, Paul Newman lunges and lurches his way through the role of a rebel who never grew up with a conviction equal to the requirements of the script. Grandfather Melvyn Douglas clings with dignity to the values of honesty, hard work and love of the land by which he has lived and built his ranch. Patricia Neal, the housekeeper who has learned from past hardships to look after herself without becoming cynical, emerges as an attractive, tender woman who has little left in life but the deep humanity which keeps her going from one miserable situation to the next. But young Brandon de Wilde steals the show. He rises above the limitations of the script and gives Lonny a portrayal at once adolescent and full of potential maturity. The lye soap-opera, firmly directed by Martin Ritt, has a verbal virility to go with its rugged backgrounds, but suffers from too much consciousness of intent. The psychology (Well, as least my ma loved me and she's dead.) is hackneyed, while the philosophy (It don't take time to kill things, not like growin' 'em.) too homespun. It's no "Giant" by a long shot, but "Hud" has enough of the popular story elements and characterizations to attract strong grosses in all markets. Paramount. 122 minutes. Paul Newman, Patricia Neal, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon de Wilde. Produced by Irving Ravetch, Martin Ritt. Directed by Martin Ritt. "Nine Hours to Rama" SuAiHCte &ctti«t$ O O O Fairly suspenseful, colorful, but overlong, dramatization of Gandhi's assassination. Needs strong promotion backing in general market. The story of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the great men of this century, provides the framework for this unusual but overlong, 20th Century-Fox release. Filmed in India in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by producer-director Mark Robson, "Rama" recreates the nine torturous hours leading up to Gandhi's murder by a young political fanatic who is intensely opposed to the old man's policy of non-violence. Despite some slow-moving sequences, the film emerges a fascinating canvas of political intrigues, suspense and exotic sights and sounds. Boxoffice returns will depend a great deal on the promotion campaign with which the picture is supported. It will appeal most to serious-minded class audiences, but selling is urgent in the general market. Astute scissoring of the flashback sequences (tracing the young fanatic's personal life) would tighten the overall mood considerably, but the opening scenes (the police learning of the assassination plot at a prayer meeting that evening), plus the hair-raising climax are outstanding examples of thrilling film making. Horst Buchholz portrays the assassin, bitter over being rejected by the British army and the deaths of his father and young wife during pre-independence riots. He is capably supported by Jose Ferrer, the superintendent of police, Valerie Gearon, the married woman he loves, but cannot marry because of the policy of his secret society, Diane Baker, the prostitute in whose room he hides out while eluding Ferrer, Robert Morley, an opportunistic Indian political leader, and Don Borisenko, Buchholz's life-long friend and assassin partner. J. S. Casshyap creates a striking resemblance to Gandhi. Malcolm Arnold's haunting score and Arthur Ibbetson's stunning camerawork are notable assets. Nelson Gidding's screenplay, based on Stanley Wolpert's novel, finds Miss Baker apprehended by Ferrer and the police rushing to her apartment. Buchholz escapes and runs to Miss Gearon's apartment. He begs her to run away with him at once. Her hesitancy to leave her husband sends the frustrated Buchholz out to carry out his pledge. Gandhi refuses to listen to Ferrer's warning, walks out into the swelling crowd and is shot by Buchholz. The dying Gandhi forgives Buchholz, and the police carry off the stunned and sobbing assassin. 20th Century-Fox. 125 minutes. Horst Buchholz. Jose Ferrer, Valerie Gearon, Diane Baker, Robert Morley. Produced and Directed by Mark Robson. Film BULLETIN March 4, 1943 Page 1?