It is directed by Nick Castle, written and co-produced by John Hughes and distributed by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label.

The plot concerns the misadventures of a mischievous child (Mason Gamble) who menaces his next door neighbor George Wilson (Walter Matthau), usually hangs out with his friends Joey McDonald (Kellen Hathaway) and Margaret Wade (Amy Sakasitz), and is followed everywhere by his dog Ruff.

One day, George pretends to be asleep to avoid Dennis, who mistakes this for illness and shoots an aspirin into his mouth with a slingshot.

Henry and Alice leave Dennis with a teenaged babysitter named Polly, who invites her boyfriend Mickey to visit while sitting.

George has been chosen to host his garden club's "Summer Floraganza", having spent almost forty years growing a rare orchid that will finally bloom that night.

During the party, Dennis presses the garage door button, and it opens and upends the entire dessert table, much to George's fury.

While the Wilsons and their guests await the flower's nocturnal display, Switchblade Sam robs their house, stealing George's antique gold coin collection.

Furious and unaware that he has been robbed, George coldly chastises Dennis, who flees to the woods and is abducted by Switchblade Sam.

Sam attempts to stab Dennis again, but Chief Bennett accidentally closes the police car door on his hand, causing him to drop his knife into the storm drain and wince in pain before being driven away.

Additionally, three pop hits were featured in the film: "Don't Hang Up" by The Orlons, "Whatcha Know Joe" by Jo Stafford (from the 1963 album Getting Sentimental over Tommy Dorsey) and "A String of Pearls" by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Walter Matthau does a nice job as Mr. Wilson, but Dennis the Menace follows the Home Alone formula far too closely.

[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on a scale of A+ to F.[10] Vincent Canby, in what would become one of his final reviews for The New York Times, remarked that "this 'Dennis the Menace' isn't a comic strip, but then it's not really a movie, certainly not one in the same giddy league with the two 'Home Alone' movies", adding, "Mr. Hughes and Mr. Castle try hard to recreate a kind of timeless, idealized comic strip atmosphere, but except for the performances of Lea Thompson and Robert Stanton, who play Henry and Alice, nobody in the movie seems in touch with the nature of the comedy," and that the film "simply looks bland, unrooted in any reality".

Of the other performances, Canby stated that Gamble was "a handsome boy, but [that] he displays none of the spontaneity that initially made [Macaulay] Culkin so refreshing".

A mixed review came from Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times, who praised Matthau's performance enormously, yet called the film "pretty tepid tomfoolery but [...] not assaultive in the way that most kids’ films are nowadays": The “Dennis” comic strip, early ‘60s TV show and currently syndicated animated series all opt for an Everytown U.S.A. blandness—pipsqueak rebellion in a ‘50s time warp.

The movie, directed by Nick Castle from Hughes’ script, is still caught up in that warp (with a few concessions, like the fact that both Henry and Alice now work).

[15] In November 1996, it was reported that Dennis the Menace II was still being developed for Matthau, with the possibility of production starting after Grumpiest Old Men.

[16] In September 1997, Don Rickles was announced as replacing Matthau in the role of Mr. Wilson, which may have spurred from the lack of confidence that Warner Bros. felt in Grumpiest Old Men following the underperformance of My Fellow Americans, a film starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner from which Matthau withdrew in favor of The Odd Couple II at Paramount Pictures.