Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout (1944)

• Director
  • Hugh Bennett
• Writers
  • Agnes Christine Johnston
  • Muriel Roy Bolton
• Stars
  • Jimmy Lydon
  • Charles Smith
  • John Litel

  This was the seventh entry in Paramount's "Henry Aldrich" series, and there were still two more to come. Per the title, trouble-prone high schooler Henry (Jimmy Lydon) finds himself in charge of a contentious group of scouts. He nobly takes the blame for the pranks perpetrated by young Ramsey Kent (Darryl Hickman), to spare Ramsay's dad, a friend of Henry's father (John Litel) from embarrassment. After numerous zany complications, the film wraps up with the old "hanging from a cliff by a rope" scene, which seems to be obligatory in every Boy Scout movie ever made. Though panned at the time of its release, Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout is one of the series' funnier entries.