Cinema: Into the Jaws of Heck

Follow Me, Boys! Walt Disney, who sometimes likes to represent America as a giant niceberg floating in an ocean of nostalgia, has now represented the model American male as a simpering scoutmaster.

The scoutmaster is portrayed by Fred MacMurray, whose numerous Disney movies (The Absent-Minded Professor and four others) have made him the studio's most popular character since Mickey Mouse. Fred presents the hero as the sort of six-foot sissy who plays with little kids because he's scared of the bigger boys, and who helps little old ladies across the street because he doesn't dare offer his arm to a slick chick....

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