8/10
Scout's Honor, You'll Like This One
24 May 2011
Clifton Webb becomes Mister Scoutmaster as a matter of show business survival. He's host of a television program which is in danger of being canceled because it's not reaching the youth audience the sponsors of a breakfast cereal want to reach. What to do, but reach the minds of what the youth of America are thinking.

Edmund Gwenn who is the pastor of the church Webb and wife Frances Dee attend has the perfect solution. The Boy Scout troop that meets in his church has just lost their scoutmaster because they're an unruly group of kids at times. Gwenn gets Webb to be the new scoutmaster.

Remember this is Clifton Webb and this will not be an easy relationship given what his movie characters are like. But in the end he bonds with the scouts and with one particular young Cub Scout, George Winslow. Young Mr. Winslow who had an early deepening voice had a spate of popularity at the time. But despite that he comes across as a real kid.

During the Fifties, 20th Century Fox softened Webb's acid image from the Forties. His first film with them, Laura where he also played an electronic media personality Waldo Lydecker had a great deal more bite than his character of Robert Jordan here. But I sure can't see Lydecker leading kids into the woods except to lose them in the wilds.

Standing out as she always does is Veda Ann Borg playing George Winslow's aunt who has legal custody of him. But she's a loose living girl and that kid certainly cramps her style. Veda Ann never fails to steal a film no matter how brief her brassy part is.

The Boy Scouts have undergone a lot of change since Mister Scoutmaster was in theaters. Still the polished and elegant Webb leading a Boy Scout troop will definitely get a few laughs and tug a couple of heartstrings in regard to young Master Winslow.
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