I noticed that several reviews for "The Apple Dumpling Gang" said it's a good family film. Well, I don't exactly agree. While kids will likely enjoy it, parents will likely struggle because the humor is designed to appeal only to kids. A few examples are the annoying orphans...one whose 'funny' routine is that she needs to pee all the time and the other is a kid who loves kicking people in the shins. Uggh...unfunny and annoying. Not much better are the shennanigans of Tim Conway and Don Knotts...comic relief whose comedy is pretty limp but, again, will likely appeal to kids. My advice is for adults to just turn the film viewing experience as a drinking game and take a shot every time the little girl says she needs to use the bathroom....you'll soon be too loaded to care about the film.

Bill Bixby plays a professional gambler in the old west. Soon after the story begins, he's given custody of three orphans...and he has no interest in being a daddy. He tries repeatedly to give them away but without success. Later, the brats find a huge gold nugget in their dead father's mine...and suddenly townsfolks are willing to take the kids. Fortunately, the gambler isn't willing to dump the kids on these greedy folks but sets his eyes on leaving them with a tom-boy like lady (Susan Clark). But what about the local idiots who want to steal the nugget (Conway and Knotts)?

In many ways, this movie plays like two different movies combined....with the gambler and the kids being one story and the two idiot crooks being a separate story that occasionally intersects.

My feeling is that for kids, I'd give this one a 7. They'll enjoy it but won't love it. For adults adn teens, I'd give this one a 3, as it's often painful viewing. Painful and unfunny. Overall, I'd give this one a 4...and it helps illustrate the sorts of dreck Disney was releasing through the 1970s.

Based on the novel by Jack Bickham, this was the first movie to team up Don Knotts and Tim Conway, who grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia and Willoughby, Ohio respectively, and became beloved for their goofy comedic skills. In fact, Conway was the sidekick to Cleveland's original Ghoulardi - Eric Anderson, later the voice of ABC and father of Paul Thomas - and would even come back home to appear on Hoolihan and Big Chuck and Big Chuck and Lil' John.

Gamber Russell Donovan (Bill Bixby) has agreed to sign for some valuables from an old associate named John Whintle. Turns out they're three orphans named Bobby, Clovis and Celia Bradley, a bunch of kids who destroy so much that they make Donovan poor. Soon, he's nearly robbed by Knotts and Conway, who have left their gang after accidentally shooting Slim Pickens in the leg. Hijinks ensue involving a gold mine and bandits.

Only Knotts and Conway would come back for The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, along with Harry Morgan who plays a different character. Disney also made a TV movie called Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang, which had John Bennett Perry in Bixby's part, Ed Begley Jr. Instead of Conway and Arte Johnson in the Knotts role. They also made a six episode TV series, Gun Shy, with Barry Van Dyke in the Bixby part.

For us late born boomers, Saturday matinees of Disney films was always a great way for our parents to find a cheap babysitter while they went shopping. This Disney film is one of my last memories upset circumstances, and numerous revisits to the film followed with Sunday's Disney night on TV. So it is a fond memory if not a great film, but 40 something years later, still provides enough laughs to have stood the test of time.

TV star Bill Bixby becomes the reluctant guardian for three orphans sent out west to live with a distant relative who asks Bixby to pick up a package for him and quickly leaves town. Bixby is not too happy when he finds out what the package is and Sheriff / Barber / lawyer Harry Morgan tells Bixby that he has no other choice but to take care of them himself. No other couple in the small western town wants them, so it's up to Bixby with the help of tomboyish Stagecoach operator Susan Clark to raise them.

Then there's the buffoonish team of Don Knots and Tim Conway as bumbling crooks who couldn't steal something being handed to them let alone rob a bank. Somehow, Bixby, the two crooks and the kids become tied in together as they discover the existence of a mine, and this leaves a lot of leeway for farcical situations.

Disney went all out in casting this film, putting in David Wayne, John MacGyver, Slim Pickens, Fran Ryan and Iris Adrian, to name a few among its large supporting cast. These familiar faces add plenty of homespun charm and character choose a comedy which is totally unbelievable but without a doubt a ton of fun. Some Disney films featuring a bunch of children can be playing and irritating, but this one is a winner.