This heart warming tale was directed by Delmer Daves, in 1965 based on the book by Earl Hamner Jr. This the tale of the fight of the human spirit to triumph against all odds. The film stars, Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara and James Macarthur. The high light of the movie is the panoramic view of the mountain’s which are breathtakingly beautiful. This novel and the movie has been the basis for the Television drama The Walton’s.
As the tale goes, grandpa Zebulon, the father of Clay Spencer makes his home among the beautiful mountains of Wyoming. Here he has nine children of whom only Spencer continues his legacy. Clay Spencer is a hard working quarry man who occasionally indulges in a drink. He is a decent man and does not believe in the cliché of organized religion and therefore never goes to church. But he takes up back breaking labor to put bread on the family table. His wife is the rock of the family and has raised nine children.

Spencer’s dream and promise was to build a beautiful mountain home for his wife. His son Clayboy is an amazingly gifted and talented boy who dreams of going to college. Clay boy is the only Spencer with any scholastic achievements to his credit. Clay knows that college will open new vista’s for the boy and he will escape the poverty and labor which the Spencer’s are doomed to.
Clayboy is admired by Claris Coleman, the rich daughter of the quarry manager and her frank admissions embarrass Clayboy. But he is enamored with her and returns her kiss. This arouses jealousy in Minnie Cora Cook a valley girl who ultimately marries the richest man around. Clayboy is rejected by the college because of his lack of proficiency in Latin. The family is shocked and an angry Clay confronts the college. The school agrees to admit him if he passes in Latin. The preacher Goodson agrees to tutor Clayboy if Clay Spencer would come to church and turn to religion.
Tragedy strikes the Spencer’s when Granpa is killed by a falling tree. But in his will he leaves a legacy of thirty eight dolors and exhorts Clayboy to aim high. This spurs him to study hard and he passes his Latin with flying colors. Clay tries to borrow money from a rich man, but Minnie Cora who is married to the rich man out of spite blocks the loan. Clay decides to forget his dream and relinquishes his land on beautiful Spencer Mountain. He has no choice to burn it down. His wife stands behind him and says that she is contended with what ever they have
So a united family send Clayboy to college. Super feel good movie which will uplift your soul when you are down. Just grab you tissues and soak the triumph of the hardworking, gracious and decent people of the mountains.

This movie was adapted from a book by Maxwell Anderson, “The True story of Christopher, Emmanuel Balestrero” and is based on a true life incident.
It deals with a couple who fight for justice when the husband is convicted as a result of a mistaken identity. Manny Balestrero, a musician in a night club and his wife Rose live a hand and mouth existence. He tries to borrow money against Rose’s insurance for some dental work which needs to be done. While he is at he insurance office, the clerk notices that he resembles the armed robber who had robbed the office. He calls in the police and soon the witnesses are marched in who swear to have seen him robing the office. Manny tries to prove his innocence, but fails. Even in his handwriting sample, in his nervousness, he misspells the same words that the robber himself had mis-spelt. Soon Manny is taken in to custody and the trial begins.
The couple hire Frank O’Connor as the defense attorney who builds up the case in their favor. He argues that Manny and Rose were on a vacation during the first robbery. But the 3 witnesses who had seen them during the vacation had died and this alibi also fails to impress. During the second robbery Manny had a swollen jaw which would have been easily noticeable by the insurance agency employee.

Rose is unable to bear the strain of this ordeal and soon buckles under pressure. She is confined to the sanitarium and is treated for depression. During the trial a bored Juror passes a remark which makes the judge to declare a mistrial. Manny is forced to await another trial in prison. As luck could have it the real robber is arrested and Manny is set free. He reaches Rose with the happy news but finds her apathetic. Soon Rose is cured and the family moves to Florida.
This movie was based on a true life story and is the last movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock for Warner bros. After this he made pictures only for Paramount. This movie is said to have been the only true story in Hitchcock’s entire body of work. He is said to have hated the police and this sentiment is amply reflected in this movie. Hitchcock even did a cameo as the story teller in the movie and this is the only time he has appeared in any one of his pictures. He even cast the real Balesstrero witnesses in small parts for the movie. The real life Frank O’Connor is a New York Senator who rises to a appellate Judge.
The wrong man failed to impress at the box office, but is considered a classic. This movie has significant influence on many directors, and was influenced in making of the 2006 movie Lucky Number Slevin.

This movie was an inspiration from a real life fairy tale romance between two widowers, Fran Beardsley and Helen North who combine their families of ten and eight children respectively to live happily ever after. Frank Beardsley (played by Henry Fonda) is a Roman Catholic Naval officer who is assigned shore duty as a project officer to develop a standard equipment in all aircraft carriers nicknamed the “meatball”. Helen North played by Lucille ball is a Roman Catholic nurse whose husband tragically dies in a naval accident. Frank Beardsley brings his distraught daughter to her hospital for treatment and Helen comforts her. She remarks that the lack of maternal guidance is responsible for her depression and this gets the both parents talking. Both Frank and Helen hit it off and go on dates with out disclosing the fact that they are bringing up big families all on their own.
They try to call off their relationship on learning about their respective children. But with the intervention of their friend chief warrant officer Darell Harrison, they start dating again and began contemplating marriage. Frank runs his house as a tight ship and has all rules in place. But when Helen visits them his elder sons, Mike, Greg and Rusty mix vodka in her drink to make her behave in an wild and embarrassing manner. Soon their game is up when Frank chances upon their trick and an angry Frank announces his decision to marry Helen.

The children from both sides are against this union and regard each household suspiciously. There are many misunderstandings and tiffs which threatens to break up Helen and Frank. But they all come together when they come to know about Helen’s pregnancy and support each other. The elder Beardsley children guide and form a role model for the North children. Another storm brews in the mean time with a mean minded teacher taunting Phillip North to change his surname to Beardsley. The North children are aghast and refuse Franks decision for cross adoption. But the arrival of their small baby brother Joseph John Beardsley unites them again with all of them agreeing for adoption under a common name.
The film ends with Mike Beardsley moving out of the house fully grown up to attend the camp for joining the marines. This movie was a true life adaption of Helen Beardsley’s book “who gets the Drum stick?”. In fact the movie was so entertaining that Frank Beardsley is said to have remarked that the movie was a better story than truth.
On release the movie was not received well by the critics but was a hit at the box office. It collected so much profits that Lucille ball who never anticipated such a large collection never made a tax shelter for herself. This resulted in the dwindling of her share of profits.
A feel good movie, it is a fore runner and inspiration for many shows like The Brady Bunch and was remade in 2005 with Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo. It still remains a hit in the DVD circuit.

There have been innumerable movies in the silent era, but since that time period has been so long in the past, we tend to forget about them. Making movies in the silent era seems so difficult now; you did not have much in the way of the technology that keeps on advancing in leaps and bounds now; further, without getting the characters to speak, the emotions shown by the actors has to be only read through their facial actions.
The Crowd (released in 1928), was a acclaimed movie, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The movie was made as an advocate of demonstrating the dangers of urbanization and the modern life in today’s cities. The movie was directed by King Vidor, who would normally not pick up stars, and for this movie, the leading pair had the same distinction, with James Murray being an extra in the studio, and the leading lady, Eleanor Boardman, being Vidor’s wife.

King Vidor had a style of his own, and he imparted the same to this movie, combining a mixture of poignant family scenes, along with some striking visual styles. Since he was successful, he was able to get the studio to agree to his thoughts and style.
The movie is essentially the story of Johnny, from birth and captures his life, as well as all the experiences and twists and turns. Johnny’s father wants him to rise high inspite of his modest beginnings, but as Johnny grows up, he is just a part of ‘The Crowd’. He does not make the best decisions, and ends up in messes, even though he has the loyal support of his girlfriend.
The movie is a must watch.