The Apple Dumpling Gang

This is a fantastic family movie that kids can watch and enjoy and those of us who love the Tim Conway-Don Knotts combination will get our money's worth as well. I know the movie is about Bill Bixby and the kids but really, it's all about Conway and Knotts. They worked so well together that even if the rest of the movie was worthless, they made it incredible. If you watch the scenes with the two of them moving the ladder, you'd swear that all of that was storyboarded and choreographed, but according to Conway on the special edition DVD, they improvised all of it. The bit with Knotts drinking out of the beer glass and Conway trying to get a drink out of too is some of the greatest schtick in movie history. This is a great movie with a great cast including Slim Pickens and Harry Morgan and some of the finest character actors of the day. It's great and even if you don't like live-action Disney movies, you should still be able to appreciate the comic genius of Conway and Knotts.

I saw the Apple Dumpling Gang when I was a child and I found the film to be delightful. The film is intended to be pure comedy and that is what it delivers.

Don Knotts and Tim Conway are both excellent actors and they provided a superb performance in this comedy. This is a show that I was proud to show my children and my grandchildren as it holds wonderful childhood memories for me.

There are a lot of shows out there today that are too violent, and rude. This show is refreshing in that you can be assured that your children are not watching blood splattering or listening to foul language. This show is in true Walt Disney fashion.

Don Knotts and Tim Conway, two very big stars in their own right, teamed to do some very successful films mostly for the Disney Studio. Their comedy style was a lot like Laurel and Hardy, but in terms of individual stars teaming and being successful at both, the only comparison there is Crosby and Hope.

The Apple Dumpling Gang follows the misadventures of these two lunkheads as they try their hand at the outlaw trade. They accidentally shot a really fierce outlaw in Slim Pickens and left him crippled in one leg and he's out for their hides.

Paralleling that plot is that of gambler Bill Bixby who wins what he thinks is a consignment of freight in a poker game, but what he really gets is the delivery of three children. Being a roving bachelor Bixby naturally thinks the kids will cramp his style and they do for awhile. Willing to help is Calamity Jane like character Susan Clark who drives for the freight line that her father David Wayne owns.

One thing I do so like about Disney films is the use of familiar Hollywood faces who were having trouble getting work. For example the brassy Iris Adrian, a little older and heftier, but still full of sass.

But the film really belongs to Conway and Knotts. Conway is the Laurel like figure in the partnership, dumb and he knows it. But he has for a partner Knotts who like Oliver Hardy is full of grand schemes who when they blow up in his face will always blame is hapless partner. But in point of fact Knotts is just a bad planner.

The Apple Dumpling Gang spawned a sequel in The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again where Knotts and Conway have even more hysterical misadventures. This one however and its successor are some of the best films Disney Studios made in the Seventies.

For some reason I don't have a lot to say about this film other then the fact that I liked it. That is a very boring and uninteresting review. But because my goal is to actually write reviews of movies that I see and not just become a bland passive movie watcher, I summit this review for others to look upon.

Don Knots and Tim Conway are a perfect comedy due. Their both nerds in this film but Don Knots is the chief nerd in charge. They provide many wacky and comical moments to the film. But it really isn't a wacky slapstick film. It is a family comedy with a serious storyline. It is filled with touching and tender moments and has the classic storyline of a harden man who doesn't like kids and thinks only of himself only to have his heart turn gooey to the kids he's inherited by the end of the film. If that insight spoils the film for you, you haven't seen that many Disney films.

If you want a fun time in the old west with touching comedic moments, that try the 'The Apple Dumpling Gang'

Fun laughs and dumb, mindless jokes. It had decent screenplay and acting for it's time. The movie had a cut up and divided story like a SpongeBob episode, but again, it is usual for it's time. The character development and relationships such as Dusty and Donovan were fast paced but sweet overall. Don Knott's and Tim Conway (Playing Theodore and Amos) are great actors, and the stars of the movie. In my opinion I love their skits but the focus was not on them throughout most of the movie, and when they did show up they didn't receive much screentime.

Overall "The Apple Dumping Gang" gets a 7/10 from me.