''The Apple Dumpling Gang'' is a 1975 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Norman Tokar Norman Tokar (November 25, 1919 – April 6, 1979) was an American director, actor and occasionally writer and producer of serial television and feature films, who directed many of the early episodes of '' Leave it to Beaver'', and found his g ...

. The plot is about a slick gambler named Russell Donovan (

Bill Bixby Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) professionally known as Bill Bixby, was an American actor, director, producer, and frequent game-show panellist. Bixby's career spanned more than three decades, includi ...

) who is duped into taking care of a group of orphans who eventually strike gold. The film was produced by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

. The film is based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Jack M. Bickham. Don Tait wrote the screenplay. The so-called "Apple Dumpling Gang" are named after their favorite American dessert treat, the

apple dumpling An apple dumpling is a baked or boiled pastry-wrapped apple. To prepare apple dumplings, apples are peeled, cored and sometimes quartered and placed on a portion of dough. The hole from the core may be filled with cinnamon, butter and sugar and ...

. It is also known as being the first film to feature the comedy duo of

Don Knotts Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924February 24, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He is widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on '' The Andy Griffith Show'', a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy Awards. He als ...

and

Tim Conway Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway (December 15, 1933 – May 14, 2019) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. From 1966 to 2012 he appeared in more than 100 TV shows, TV series and films. Among his more notable roles, he portrayed the ...

. Knotts and Conway developed different styles of pulling off their comedy; Conway's characters were usually the less intelligent of the two, which made Knotts usually the brains of the group, though they were both equally inept. Paul J. Smith and

Buddy Baker Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 1980 ...

composed the music for it and its 1979 sequel, '' The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again''. The song "The Apple Dumpling Gang", as heard in the opening and

closing credits Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of a ...

, was composed by Shane Tatum and was sung/performed by

Randy Sparks Randy Sparks (born July 29, 1933, Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and founder of The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority. Biography Sparks grew up in Oakland, California, and attended the Universit ...

and The Back Porch Majority.

Plot

Set in the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

in the year 1879, a slick gambler named Russell Donovan (Bill Bixby) comes to the town of Quake City en route to open a casino in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. In Quake City, Donovan meets his old associate, John Whintle. Whintle is leaving for

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

that night and asks Donovan to sign for valuables coming in on tomorrow’s

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

. Donovan accepts a down payment and promises to pick up the valuables. The next day, Donovan realizes he has been duped into taking care of three little orphans, Bobby, Clovis, and Celia Bradley. The stagecoach driver Magnolia “Dusty” Clydesdale ( Susan Clark) explains that Whintle is in fact the children’s relative and their de facto legal guardian. With their relative gone and Donovan promising to care for the “valuables”, they are now wards of Donovan. The town's

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

, and judge Homer McCoy (

Harry Morgan Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg; April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011) was an American actor and director whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both ''December Bride'' (1954–1959 ...

) tells Donovan that he is legally obligated unless he can have someone else take custody of the children. The children inadvertently cause Donovan much grief by offending all prospective new guardians. The Bradleys wreak havoc in Quake City while riding in an old mine cart destroying much private property. The town’s citizens demand that Donovan pay for the damages, losing him most of his funds for his trip to New Orleans. As soon as Donovan arrived in Quake City, he is the target of the “Hashknife Outfit”. The Outfit consists of two ne’er-do-well former members of the Stillwell Gang, Amos Tucker (

) and Theodore Ogelvie (

). They were once very threatening, until they were ousted by their former boss, Frank Stillwell (

Slim Pickens Louis Burton Lindley Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was an American actor and rodeo performer. Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens transitioned to acting and appeared in dozens of movies and ...

), for shooting him in the leg. Amos and Theodore continuously try to rob Donovan during his stay in town to miserable results. Bobby, Clovis, and Celia decide to help their guardian make money by going to the gold mine that they inherited. They come across Amos and Theodore at their hideout and become acquainted. They direct the kids to the mine after mistaking them for a posse. Despite the gold veins drying up years previously, the Bradley children end up finding a massive gold nugget. This incentivizes many people to adopt the children as it would give them access to the gold. Fearing that the people would not have the children's best interests at heart, Donovan has arranged a sham marriage with Dusty so she can keep custody of the Bradley children while he goes to New Orleans. However, things become complicated when Whintle returns. Whintle has heard of the gold and schemes to get the children back. His attorney has a court order demanding immediate return of the Bradleys. McCoy is forced to adhere to Whintle’s demands. At the same time, Amos and Theodore attempt to steal the Bradleys' gold from the local bank and escape to Mexico. The Hashknife Outfit proves unsuccessful when they try to enter the skylight and wrap themselves up in their rope used for rappelling down. McCoy finds them guilty of attempted robbery and sentences them to hang to scare them out of town. The two men flee to their hideout. The Stillwell Gang enters town and plans to steal the nugget. Frank impersonates a priest to gain more information about the transportation of the gold from Colonel T.R. Clydesdale (

David Wayne David Wayne (born Wayne James McMeekan, January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American stage and screen actor with a career spanning over 50 years. Early life and career Wayne was born in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of Helen M ...

). Frank is able to coerce Colonel Clydesdale into disclosing the time and place the nugget will be moved. The children, who have grown attached to Donovan and Dusty, go to Theodore and Amos and give them permission to steal the gold. If the gold goes missing, Whintle will have no more desire for the children and will return custody. The next day, the Stillwell Gang enters the bank and takes the nugget. Simultaneously, the kids help the Hashknife Outfit rob the bank. Amos and Theodore are recognized by Frank and are almost killed. They are saved when one of the Stillwell Gang starts a shootout with the lawmen and distracts Frank. Frank decides to leave the gold and escape, taking Celia as a hostage. Donovan saves her from Stillwell with the help of Dusty and they realize their love for one another and embrace. Amos and Theodore retreat to the bank’s safe to escape gunfire. Their dynamite is shot by one of the townsfolk, obliterating the bank and the gold nugget gets blown into many smaller nuggets. Whintle renounces his guardianship and leaves town. Stillwell’s bounty is awarded to Donovan, giving him enough money for his casino in New Orleans. He instead buys a ranch for himself, Dusty, and the Bradley children. While on their way to the ranch, a reformed Amos and Theodore catch up with the newfound family asking for work as farmhands, to which Donovan agrees.

Cast

as Russell Donovan * Susan Clark as Magnolia Dusty Clydesdale *

as Theodore Ogelvie *

as Amos Tucker *

as Col. T.R. Clydesdale *

as Frank Stillwell *

as Homer McCoy *

John McGiver John Irwin McGiver (November 5, 1913 – September 9, 1975) was an American character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975. The owl-faced, portly character ac ...

as Leonard Sharpe * Don Knight as John Wintle *Clay O'Brien as Bobby Bradley *

Brad Savage Brad Savage (born December 9, 1965) is an American actor and singer best known for his role as Danny in the 1984 movie ''Red Dawn'', for which he received a nomination for the Young Artist Award in the category "Best Young Supporting Actor in a ...

as Clovis Bradley *Stacy Manning as Celia Bradley *

Dennis Fimple Dennis Clarke Fimple (November 11, 1940 – August 23, 2002) was an American actor. Biography Fimple was born in Ventura, California, the son of Dolly and Elmer Fimple. He graduated from Taft Union High School in 1958 and received a teaching c ...

as Rudy Hooks *Pepe Callahan as Clemons *

Iris Adrian Iris Adrian Hostetter (May 29, 1912 – September 17, 1994) was an American stage, film actress and dancer. Life and career Adrian was an only child, born in Los Angeles, California, to Florence (née Van Every) and Adrian Earl Hostetter, who ...

as Poker Polly *

Fran Ryan Fran Mary Ryan (November 29, 1916 January 15, 2000) was an American character actress featured in television and films. She was born in Los Angeles, California. Career Ryan began performing at the age of six at Oakland's Henry Duffy Theatre. ...

as Mrs. Stockley *

Bing Russell Neil Oliver "Bing" Russell (May 5, 1926 – April 8, 2003) was an American actor and Class A minor-league baseball club owner. He was the father of Hollywood actor Kurt Russell and grandfather of ex–major league baseball player Matt Franco ...

as Herm Dally *James E. Brodhead as The Mouthpiece *Jim Boles as Easy Archie * Olan Soule as Rube Cluck *Tom Waters as Rowdy Joe Dover *Dawn Little Sky as Big Foot *

Joshua Shelley Joshua Shelley (born Joshua Kurzweil; January 27, 1920 – February 16, 1990) was one of the actors blacklisted by movie studios as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee's (HUAC) investigation of the Communist Party in Hollywood i ...

as Broadway Phil *Richard Lee-Sung as Oh So *Arthur Wong as No So *

Dick Winslow Richard Winslow (March 25, 1915 – February 7, 1991) was an American film actor, mostly in supporting roles. He died of complications of diabetes on February 7, 1991, in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California California is a state in ...

as Slippery Sid *Bill Dunbar as Fast Eddie *Wally Berns as Cheating Charley

Reception

The film was a hit at the box office, earning $13.5 million in theatrical rentals.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that the film was "In a lot of ways ... a throwback to the Disney productions of two or three years ago, a period of overwhelming banality in the studio's history. More recently, Disney has given us some genuinely inventive entertainments, especially ' Escape to Witch Mountain' and '

Island at the Top of the World ''The Island at the Top of the World'' is a 1974 American live-action lost world fantasy adventure film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Winston Hibler. It was released by Walt Disney Productions, distributed by Buena Vista Distribut ...

.' With 'The Apple Dumpling Gang,' we're back to assembly line plots about the adventure of squeaky-clean kids."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave the film one star out of four and called it "the latest piece of treacle from the Walt Disney sitcom kitchen. The recipe is well-known: Mix smiling moms and pops with the dash of villains, fold in saccharine children, and beat with slapstick. The resulting cinematic mush is so predictable, it's a wonder that more youngsters don't tell the Disney folks to 'bake off.'"

Richard Eder Richard Gray Eder (August 16, 1932 – November 21, 2014) was an American film reviewer and a drama critic. Life and career For 20 years, he was variously a foreign correspondent, a film reviewer and the drama critic for '' The New York Times''. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "as cheerful and indistinguishable as rice pudding." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "an engaging gentle-humored comedy melodrama ... Don Tait's screenplay based on the book by Jack M. Bickham would benefit by some sharp editing of certain Knotts-Conway routines but otherwise picture generally is a fast-paced situation caper." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' called it "a pleasant and funny Disney family comedy" that was "a bit long but amiable enough to get away with overstaying its welcome." Gary Arnold of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' called it "the summer's second consecutive stale confection from the Disney organization, whose comedy formulas are solely in need of rejuvenation."Arnold, Gary (August 9, 1975). "The Disney Fan's Delight". ''

''. C4.

Home media

In October 1980, it became one of the first Disney movies to be released on

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

. Both ''The Apple Dumpling Gang'' and its sequel, ''The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again'', have been released on Disney DVD in the United States. In the United Kingdom, only the original film has been made available on DVD.

Sequel and TV series

In 1979, Knotts and Conway reprised their roles in the sequel '' The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again''.

, Susan Clark, and the rest of the cast did not appear.

was the only other member of the cast to appear in the sequel, although he plays a different character. In January 1982, Disney aired ''Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang'', a television film remake starring John Bennett Perry in the Bixby role,

Ed Begley Jr. Edward James Begley Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and environmental activist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series ''St. E ...

in the Conway role and

Arte Johnson Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American comic actor who was best known for his work as a regular on television's '' Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''. Biography Early life Johnson was born January 20, 1929, i ...

in the Knotts role. One year later saw the premiere of a television series, '' Gun Shy'', with a completely different cast, including Barry Van Dyke in the Bixby role. Six episodes were produced.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Apple Dumpling Gang, The 1975 films 1970s children's comedy films 1970s Western (genre) comedy films American children's comedy films Films about the California Gold Rush Films scored by Buddy Baker (composer) Films based on American novels Films based on children's books Films directed by Norman Tokar Films set in 1879 Films shot in Bend, Oregon Walt Disney Pictures films American Western (genre) comedy films Films produced by Bill Anderson (producer) 1975 comedy films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films