MartinHafer
"Follow Me Boys" is a sweet, meandering film about an incredibly nice guy who left the world a better place. When the story begins, Lem (Fred McMurray) is tired of traveling the country with the band and on a lark, decides to quit and take up residence in a small town. Soon after he arrived, the town council has a meeting and Lem attends. He's concerned because there are a lot of kids in town but little for them to do. So, he volunteers to become the scoutmaster for the boys. The rest of the film concerns his impact he had on the boys as well as the community.For the most part, I loved this sentimental Disney film. The only part I didn't care for, and which was completely unnecessary, was the war games portion. It's interesting...but it just doesn't fit with the tone of the rest of the story. Overall, a nice little film that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Python Hyena
Follow Me, Boys! (1966): Dir: Norman Tokar / Cast: Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Lillian Gish, Kurt Russell, Elliot Reid: Routine family comedy about leadership and inspiration as a lawyer played by Fred MacMurray quits his practice and settles into a small town where he eventually leads a scout troop. Simple plot is charming yet overdone with too many subplots. One involving a war game is perhaps too disturbing for its target audience. Director Norman Tokar wraps it up within a message regarding one life affecting so many but the material is at the mercy of its lead. MacMurray is excellent as a guy who is thrust into a lifestyle outside his comfort zone and he pretty much carries the film. Vera Miles as his wife is pretty standard issue. She provides reason and support but little else. Lillian Gish plays a victim of gossip. She is a reminder that she was part of the beginning of feature film but regardless of that, she is still cardboard here. A young Kurt Russell plays a boy on the wrong side of the track but even this is recycled. Are we to be surprised when the troubled Russell turns out to be misunderstood? Elliot Reid appears long enough to lose Miles to MacMurray and then hopefully he leaves the set in search of a better film. Message of legacy holds a lasting impression while the screenwriter leaves an impression that perhaps he is in the wrong business. Score: 4 ½ / 10
vranger
I saw this movie in the theater when I was nine years old, and again just this week after buying the DVD for my grandkids.It was even better from my adult viewpoint, and I remembered loving it as a kid. I've whistled the "Follow Me Boys" tune off and on all my life.The story is told in a series of set pieces, much like the style of "It's a Wonderful Life". They hang together so well that you get a true sense of the passage of time within a recognizable framework of the town, and the characters and their lives.You'll end the movie wishing you had grown up in that town, and wishing that Fred MacMurray (or his character Lem Siddons), had been your friend and neighbor.If you don't shed a tear or two at the end, you're not human.
bobmccanless
I think the strength of the film - at least for those of us who grew up during the "Mayberry Days" of our country - is, that - if you were ALSO a Scout during those days, this film IS your story as well.I grew up in the 70's and early 80's in rural NC - not far removed from the inspiration for the fictional Mayberry, in many respects. While Fred MacMurray's name is in the credits, my Scoutmaster could just as easily have played this part. A tall man himself - a Korean War veteran - and a leader by example, he was a man of few words, but like Scoutmaster Lem, they always seemed to be the RIGHT words, and for impressionable boys of that age, that's what matters.In 25 years of service to my troop - 17 of those as Scoutmaster - over 50 boys in my small town made Eagle Scout - including myself and my younger brother. The uniforms are older, and the kids names are a little different, but I recognize my own youth - my own Scouting adventures - in this big screen production. And when Lem finally gets his parade, we can all rejoice over all the Scouting leaders who made us the men we are today.
AD
