Customer Reviews

Follow Me, Boys!

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Follow Me Boys

A Disney classic, Follow Me, Boys! is much more than a scouting primer. Wonderful performances by some Hollywood greats include Fred MacMurray as Lemuel Siddons, the band member and would-be lawyer turned shopkeeper and scoutmaster, Vera Miles as Vida Downey, the bank secretary turned McMurray supporter, love interest and wife, Kurt Russell in one of his first films as Whitey, the small time boy thug who, losing his drunkard dad, is adopted by Lem and Vida, becomes a stalwart in the troop and goes on to become responsible soldier and MD. Finally there's a wonderful cameo by a screen legend, Lillian Gish as the aged business magnate and McMurray benefactor Hetty Seibert.

The film includes wonderful scenes from the boys building a ramshackle troop clubhouse out of odds and ends to a later troop taking a war-games tank with flour-bag explosives in what the boys think is an all-out war.

If you're looking for deep statements about teen angst (though Russell's character does tackle some pretty difficult stuff), tough kids struggling to beat a drug habit or premarital sex you won't find it here. And thank goodness! Every once in a while it's good to watch a movie that's as squeaky clean as Fred McMurray's white shirts. Want blatant hardcore reality? Watch the six o'clock news. Follow Me, Boys! depicts what can happen when adults care, is just good clean fun, and well-acted and scripted. A great addition to any film library.

Douglas McAllister

I remember the tune from when I saw it as a kid in the late 60s, and have hoped to see it again ever since. What a breath of fresh air compared to the tripe that Disney puts out today. Films like these remind us of America's Golden Age. Wonderful performances by all, uplifting singing on the trail, and a heart-rending, happy ending make this film a MUST HAVE in the libraries of parents who want wholesome entertainment for their kids. I wonder why more of the 1960's Disney movies have not come out on DVD. As a parent, I dont have to be woried about foul language ,sexual inuendos, or even "attitudes" that my kids will see glorified when we watch films like these. I gave my copy to a newly-minted Eagle Scout, and will order another for my family...

I found out about this movie from my Scoutmaster, it was one of his favorite movies and He was sad that all he owned was an old VHS recording from the Disney Channel "Back in the Day" I was going to transfer it to DVD when I found this on Amazon.com. A great buy and a great movie. Ordered a copy for myself and I know that he ordered one for himself. I have shared my copy with many friends, all of whom liked it a lot, and a few even whent and bought their own copy. Great Family Film and a Great Perspective on scouting. If you have ever been a scout or support Scouting in any way I Highly recomend buying this film.

The story of the formation of a 1930s Boy Scout troop and how it affected the lives of its members. A fascinating trip through the years as the Scouts (and leaders) age and find their place in life. I had this video in VHS format and made a point of showing it to our local Scout troop at least once a year, because it illustrates all the positive things that the Scout Law stands for. I'm very glad it's available in DVD format now, because we wore the tape out.

Likely a lot of kids will not relate to this film, because this sort of family film is rarely made these days. Fred MacMurry (My Three Sons) decides three sons is not enough and takes on a whole troop of them - other peoples as he becomes a reluctant scoutmaster. Slowly he throws himself into the idea. As I say, kids my not warm to this Baden-Powell wholesomeness, but who knows, they might surprise you. A very young Kurt Russell plays tough boy that MacMurry wins over.

Interesting point: at the end when you see his "boys" all grown up, take note of William Reynolds as Hoodoo Henderson as a Man (FBI, The Thing That Couldn't Die). He played MacMurray's son in There's Always Tomorrow (1956).

This is an excellent movie showing the proper relationship between an adult Scout leader and his Scouts. This is a better version than the previously released video, because the DVD adds back 13 minutes removed by the video. The added-back minutes greatly enhance the quality of the story and bring additional valuable insights to the story. If I were in charge of any adults that work with Boy Scouts, I would require them to see this movie.

A Disney favorite finally comes to DVD with some interesting and worthwhile "extras." Unfortunately, the film is presented in the "pan-and-scan" version, not its original theatrical ratios. These older films, created by Walt himself, appeal to Disney students and collectors, people who truly care about film preservation. A note to Walt Disney Home Video: please release films in widescreen as well as pan-and-scan on the same disc. That way, viewers have the option.

This nostalgic tale is one of my favorite Disney live-action offerings. It begins in 1930, when Lem Siddons (Fred MacMurray), "out of South Chicago" and a veteran of the battlefields of France, is travelling with a low-end jazz dance band, Melody Murphy's Collegians ("We're not collegians any more," he observes wryly), that takes a pit stop in Hickory, a classic small town probably somewhere in southern Illinois (they hope to get Chicago before night, and there's a "Clark County" right next door). Lem has been nicknamed "Counsellor" by his bandmates for the set of law books in his luggage and the correspondence legal course he's always studying; now in his 30's (MacMurray was 58 when he made the film but doesn't look it), he's beginning to feel a need of "roots." When he spots Vida Downey (Vera Miles), secretary and sometime girlfriend of bank president Ralph Hastings (Elliot Reed), and has his attention called to a "clerk wanted" sign at John Hughes's (Charlie Ruggles) mercantile, he decides Hickory is the place to put them down. Within a few weeks, partly in hopes of impressing Vida, he volunteers to serve as scoutmaster if Hickory will form a Boy Scout troop. Starting out with 15 boys in very much improvised kit, he reaches out (as he was once reached out to) to the town's "tough kid," Whitey (Kurt Russell), whose father (Sean McClory), once a respected plumber, has fallen into drink since the death of his wife, and when Ed's heart gives out from all the bootleg whiskey he's consumed, Lem and Vida, by now married but aware they can't have children of their own, take his son in. Through a crisis of leadership brought on by Whitey's appointment as patrol leader, an opportunity to shine in court when the troop's patron, town grand dame Hetty Seibert (Lillian Gish), fights nephew Ralph's attempt to have her declared mentally incompetent, and a delightful interlude in which his 1944 troop gets inadvertantly caught in the middle of a wargaming exercise and ends up capturing a tank, he finds not only the roots he sought but rich fulfillment and--without seeking it--a role as a town hero. When overwork forces him to retire from scoutmastering, he learns just how much Hickory has come to love him and how much influence he has really had (one of his original boys, Hoodoo, has become Governor of the State, while Whitey, after a stint in the Army Medical Corps, is now a town doctor, and Leo an attorney).

Lem's character shows us just how possible it is for even an ordinary American to make a difference, and its image of contented, self-sufficient small town life (including some of its warts, as when Mrs. Seibert declares, "Gossip! That's all anybody does around here--gossip!"), while perhaps a bit idealized, gives a strong sense of the kind of environment in which Disney himself must have grown up, and which didn't really begin to change until the booming economy and the Interstate Highway construction of the 1950's. I personally think the movie would have been better if it had been extended to 1960 (which would certainly have been possible) rather than ending 10 years earlier, but it's definitely highly enjoyable even as it stands, and the closing act, when Hickory proclaims Lem Siddons Day and honors its home-town hero, can bring tears to your eyes. The title (the original source was "God and My Country," a slender novel by "Andersonville" author MacKinlay Kantor) comes from the jaunty marching song, formerly sung by "our outfit over in France," that Lem adopts for his first troop. Families can enjoy this movie over and over, and kids can pick up some important lessons from it.

Lemuel Siddons is a musician (but studying to be a lawyer) with a travelling band around the early 1930s. The bus makes a brief stop in a small town called Hickory, a charming middle-America kind of place, and Lem makes a fateful decision to stay. He ends up volunteering to be the Boy Scout leader, impressing the sweet and beautiful Vida in the process. As a selfless Scout leader he touches the lives of the boys in the town down through the years and influences them for the better, particularly young Kurt Russell.

One of my favorite movies of all time, one I like to put on every once in a while when I need a great inspiring kind of movie. Fred MacMurray plays the role so wonderfully, and I'm reminded of kind Scoutmasters I had when growing up. But it's not just a great Scout movie, or a great family film, it's just a good entertaining movie to watch. Some people may call it a sappy and sentimental kind of Disney movie (as though that were something bad), but that's okay with me, I like it that way - and it's a LOT better than the majority of what the entertainment industry (Disney included, unfortunately) turns out now. I don't know if towns like Hickory ever really existed, but I like to think that that's how life used to be (and OUGHT to be).

First saw the movie with my dad in 1966. After the movie, we talked about Boy Scouting and the wonderful time that he had.

Of all the things that I remember as a boy, this one really stands out. After the movie at home, Dad opened his dresser drawer and pulled out a small black box. Inside was his Eagle medal and a letter he wrote prior to his court of honor. I remember when things got tough in scouts, opening that drawer and looking at the medal and realizing that I can achieve Eagle.

I made Eagle in 1976 and my Dad pinned his medal on me. I still have the medal and look at it regularly. By the way, my son is a Star scout today and I hope to have 3 generations of Eagles available when he finishes.

Can still sing "Follow Me Boys" and drive the Scouters crazy!

By the way "I use to be a bobwhite..."