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The Worst Film Ever

Expected more

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

FOLLOW ME, BOYS! (1966)Producer: Walt Disney.Director: Norman Tokar.Cast: Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Kurt Russell, Lillian Gish, Sean McClory, Charles Ruggles.I initially watched FOLLOW ME, BOYS! out of a sense of duty, as an adult admirer of the art of Walt Disney. I had been anything but a Boy Scout and expected the film to be syrupy and nauseating, but was surprised to find it to be a solid drama as well as one of Uncle Walt's warmest and most genuinely sentimental works. It is now among my personal favorite "live-action" Disney films.The story is engrossing, the characters rich, and the whole is beautifully acted, written and directed. Fred MacMurray is in his element here, giving one of his best and most moving performances, with an exceptional cast in strong support. Especially impressive is the very young Kurt Russell in his first leading role.FOLLOW ME, BOYS! shares much of the quality and entertainment value of such realistic Walt Disney classics as OLD YELLER, POLLYANNA and THOSE CALLOWAYS, along with their compelling spirit of genuine goodness and positive idealism. Perhaps more than any other of his films, it reflects in form and content Disney's admiration for the work of Frank Capra.The film is one of the most polished of Walt Disney's latter-day productions and was the last released during his lifetime; happily, he died knowing that it was a success.Rating: EXCELLENT.

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.

Just thought I would share what little I know about this movie.Mackinlay Kantor was born in my hometown of Webster City, Iowa. He belonged to Boy Scout troop #17. He would have been 16 years old in 1920 so that gives you an idea when he was in scouts. My understanding is that he wrote the book to honor the Boy scouts and their leaders and he wanted to do so because of the great experiences he had a scout. I don't know how much of the movie is true but I do know there is at least one thing in the movie which reflects Webster City. It's nothing more than the name of a street but it's something anyway.When I was a scout in the mid 70's we met in the upstairs of an old school building. All over the walls were posters which listed the winners of some of the annual contests that the troop held each year. Mackinlay Kantor's name was up there several times for having won several contests.The name of my Scout leader in the 70's was a man named John McMurray. The man who founded Troop 17 in Webster City was a man named Murray McMurray. Their family has run a chick hatchery of all things in Webster City for years and it is still a thriving business today. Murray would have been Mackinlay Kantors Scout leader and I'm sure a big reason why he wrote the book. Murry, by the way, was a local banker who started the hatchery on the side. So he wasn't a musician like Lem was per say but his commitment to the town and to scouts is obviously reflected in the book and movie.At this writing it is Memorial Day weekend 2006. There is a reunion being held this weekend in Webster City for all scouts who ever were in Troop 17. Among other things John McMurray will be speaking and concerning the movie Follow Me Boys? They will be be playing it twice for everybody there to go and see.If you grew up in Webster City and were a scout this movie holds a little bit more than the usual emotions.

For it's day and age (and our age as well) this is a truly fine film.It's full of the good things many of us remember with an interesting story line and well done acting. This is a movie that I can watch every few months when I want to see a movie about a simpler time and feel great by the end.Fred MacMurray has been in many very good movies but this one, and "The Nutty Professor", could be his best. His personality seems to fit the part of Lam Siddons perfectly.I'm certainly glad this has been released on DVD so we can enjoy the movie like it was originally.I love the characters and the values the movie portrays. I put this in my small group of classics that deserve 10's.The Generic CriticP.S. I just thought someone should have punched "Ralph" in the nose.