Like Something Out of Hollywood (2)

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Following a stint with radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Hamner landed a writing job with NBC in 1949, at the age of 26.   There he contributed to a variety of programs, many of which now seem somehow incongruous.  For example, John Boy wrote for the Today show.  He also worked on The Twilight Zone.

He wrote full-length fiction, too;  and in 1963, a pair of movies based on his works was released.  One of these was Palm Springs Weekend, featuring Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens.  It was a movie which critic Leonard Maltin would later encapsulate as follows:

Cast tries to play teenagers; yarn of a group on spree in a resort town is mostly predictable.

But at the time of its release, New York Times reviewer Howard Thompson found the film's respect for good manners, and for people over 21, a nice change from the prevailing "beach movie" mentality.  He praised the wholesomeness of the writing:

Thanks to some tart dialog in Earl Hamner's scenario, the merriment also contains some briskly sensible remarks about youthful drinking and premarital flings.

The other Hamner film released in 1963 was Spencer's Mountain, which starred Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James MacArthur, Donald Crisp, and Wally Cox.  Had it been dependent on Leonard Maltin's review, it probably would not have claimed any place in movie history.  Maltin's description:

Mawkish sudser about Wyoming landowner who keeps promising to build another family house.  Good cast stuck with an inferior script.

Perhaps Maltin isn't fundamentally disposed to like Earl Hamner. 

But whatever Maltin's assessment, Spencer's Mountain did prove something--perhaps at first just to Hamner himself;  but then, eventually, to Hollywood at large.  It showed that a commercially viable tale could be told about the heavily autobiographical drama of a poor family's effort to help a bright son and his siblings meet day-to-day challenges on the way to attaining a better life.

(c) COPYRIGHT 1990 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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