Follow Me, Boys!

I was very pleased to see that Disney finally released this movie on DVD. I have been wanting to see it for a long time, but not only because it was another Disney film with Fred MacMurray. Rather, I am a Scout Leader, and can relate to many of the things in the picture, and that made it a special delight for me.

This was Kurt Russell's first Disney picture. He is wonderful here as the reluctant boy with a drunken father. While he loves his dad, he is embarrassed when others see him. I have seen scouts in these positions.

With my two sons in Scouting, they enjoyed this movie very much. Even my daughter, who is a Girl Scout, liked it too. A measure of a great film is when it makes you want to see it again.

Out of my usual four-star rating system, I would give this: ***.5

I was six years old when I saw this movie in the theaters in 1966. Back then the screens were big and a little kid like me, seeing other kids on screen looking bigger-than-life, wanted to be just like them. I never joined the boy scouts, but the film's somewhat typical Disney values definitely had an influence on me. Now let's fast-forward almost 40 years later and look at the film from a grown-up perspective. The acting here is marvelous. Anyone over 40 knows all about Fred MacMurray and the great actor that he was, both on TV and in films. Throw in the pretty Vera Miles, the legendary Lillian Gish, and the I-know-his-voice-from-Saturday-morning-cartoons Charlie Ruggles, and it all comes together nicely. The best part of this film? Not the catchy Sherman Brothers theme song...but perhaps one of the best child-actor performances ever...Kurt Russel. Want a movie where you'll cry a bit but then feel real good at the end? Follow this one!

What a shame that Hollywood can no longer put out movies as fine as this. "Follow Me Boys" is a most enjoyable film about a man with high ambitions finding himself very happy with a life so ordinary. Lem sought to someday be a lawyer but instead finds great fulfillment mentoring the boys of a small town. He takes the job of scout master to gain the attention of a local lady. His job as scout master turns out to be most fulfilling and he gets the girl! While Fred MacMurray does a fine job in the lead role, the film is not all about him. During the story you see what a positive effect his leadership has on the boys he mentors in the Boy Scouts. A very young and somewhat troubled boy named Whitey, played by Kurt Russell, joins Lem's scout troop and much like Lem finds it an unexpected life changing experience. "Follow Me Boys" is a very entertaining and very wholesome movie. It's a shame Hollywood, or even Disney, can't put out films like this anymore.

I first saw this movie during the mid 1980's when I was at Boy Scout ski retreat. We were staying at a church (cheap lodging) and watched this movie twice (Friday and Saturday nite). The first time our troop saw we were intrigued by movie. There are few movies about Boy Scouts out there so this movie was a delight. The second time being rowdy teens the Scouts began to pandeomine and ad-lib the lines. For example during the scene when the wife tells Fred McMurray that she can not have any kids. One of the boys shouted "Don't touch her, she's sterile" A delightful movie, a bit corny at times (the behavior seems outdated compared to modern times) but still an excellent movie.

I've seen a couple of reviews decry this movie, 50 years after the fact, for poor values or "teaching the kids wrong things." That is the silliest thing I have seen. This movie was a good movie in 1966, and remains so fifty years later. The Scouts NEVER have changed their mission to help boys grow into upright men; America has decided for some reason that upright men are bad and that good values are bad.

Too bad. In what remains of the real USA, men still are men, not women. The Scouts taught generations of boys how to be upright, forthright men. If that is bad, call this former Scout a bad man...and my sons...and my grandson.

We are what holds this country together while the critics try to tear it apart. By the grace of God, that shall never happen.