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.