Follow Me, Boys!

Infobox_Film
name = Follow Me, Boys!


imdb_id = 0060420
producer = Walt Disney
Wintson Hibler
director = Norman Tokar
writer = Louis Pelletier
starring = Fred MacMurray
Vera Miles
Lillian Gish
Charles Ruggles
Elliott Reid
Kurt Russell
Luana Patten
Ken Murray
music = George Bruns
Richard M. Sherman
Robert B. Sherman
cinematography = Clifford Stine
editing = Robert Stafford
distributor = Walt Disney Pictures
released = December 1, 1966
runtime = 131 min.
language = English

"Follow Me, Boys!" is a 1966 family movie released through Walt Disney Pictures, based on the book "God and My Country" by MacKinlay Kantor. The film starred Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles, and Kurt Russell, was co-produced by Walt Disney and Winston Hibler, directed by Norman Tokar, and written by Louis Pelletier. It is one of the few movies where Boy Scouts are key to the film and is Disney's paean to the Boy Scouts. The title song "Follow Me, Boys!" was written by studio favorites: Bob and Dick Sherman. For a time, after the film was released, the Boy Scouts of America was considering using the song as their anthem but efforts toward this end were eventually dropped. The film is also known as "On My Honor", which was its working title. This is the first of ten Disney films which Kurt Russell would appear in over the next ten years. A DVD version was released on February 3, 2004.

Plot

After one year too many on the road with a ramshackle jazz band, itinerant musician Lem Siddons (MacMurray) decides to put down roots in Hickory, a small Midwestern town, by taking a job as a clerk in a general store. With the dual purpose of impressing bank teller Vida Downey (Miles) and instilling values in the local boys and keep them out of trouble, Siddons starts a local Scout troop, which sets him on a lifelong roller-coaster ride as a Scoutmaster to a steady stream of high-spirited youngsters. Siddons soon marries local sweetheart Downey and finds the two loves of his life: Downey and Scouting. Eventually, the childless couple adopt and raise Whitey, a troubled and confused boy, after his alcoholic father dies. On another occasion while camping, a nearby Army unit arrests the troop when the boys inadvertently stumble upon a war game, mistaking them for spies.

In the heartwarming conclusion, decades later the aging Siddon is hailed by his former Scouts, now all grown up and successful men, as they return to honor him with a town parade and expressions of fond gratitude for his influence in their lives.

elected cast

*Fred MacMurray - Lemuel "Lem" Siddons
*Vera Miles - Vida Downey
*Lillian Gish - Hetty Seibert
*Charlie Ruggles - John Everett Hughes
*Kurt Russell - Whitey
*Luana Patten - Nora White
*Ken Murray - Melody Murphy
*Parley Baer - Mayor Hi Plommer
*William Reynolds - Hoodoo Henderson as a Man
*Madge Blake - Cora Anderson
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0852698/ Keith Taylor] - Beefy Smith
*David Bailey - Duke
*Jimmy Murphy - P.O.W. Soldier
*Adam Williams - P.O.W. Sergeant
*John Larroquette "as" Army soldier in war games
*Eddie Sallia - Harry

ee also

* Lillian Gish filmography

External links

*
* [http://www.ultimatedisney.com/follow.html DVD review of "Follow Me, Boys!"]
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=18033 New York Times review of "Follow Me, Boys!"]