The film stars Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles and Kurt Russell, and is co-produced by Walt Disney and Winston Hibler, directed by Norman Tokar and written by Louis Pelletier.

A DVD version was released on February 3, 2004 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, although it is in 4:3 pan and scan format, not the original 1.66:1 wide screen aspect ratio.

Some time later, Lem becomes an all-around natural leader with the Scout troop, even putting a plan to become a lawyer aside as he helps the town's boys mature into men.

Startled, Whitey falls and sprains his ankle, which Lem bandages using the techniques provided in the Boy Scout Handbook.

The scouts take shelter in a staged base and successfully capture a tank with explosive squibs, meant to resemble land mines, thus freeing Lem from the captivity of the embarrassed military.

His questions of her on the stand reveal that the property was once the location of her family cottage before it burned down in September 1918, two days after she learned that her sons were killed in France.

On September 1, 1945, Lem and Vida celebrate Hughes' birthday by listening to Harry S. Truman announce the end of the war over the radio.

[8] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film as "such a clutter of sentimental blubberings about the brotherhood of the Boy Scouts and indiscriminate ladling of cornball folksy comedy that it taxes the loyalty and patience of even a one-time ardent member of the Beaver Patrol ... What is most painful and embarrassing is the picture this film gives of the American small town as a haven for television-type comedians having themselves a fine time with a routine of rancid clichés.

"[9] Variety was positive, stating that the film "catches the spirit of rural America in the '30s with moving charm, blending comedy, drama and romance in buildup toward an emotionally charged climax.

In thinking, approach, technique and every other way it could pass for a revival of the dear dead days beyond recall, and I sat there unbelieving that this many cliches could not only have been remembered but actually presented as something new.

"[12] Clifford Terry of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "Admittedly, there probably are enough chuckles and sniffles to satisfy the most rabid Disney devotees, but stretched out for more than two hours, the film seems almost as long as the 20 years it covers.