The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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.

During the California Gold Rush, gambler Bill Bixby (as Russel Donavan) wins something he wasn't anteing up for - three orphaned children. Declaring, "I'm a bachelor," and in, "no position to care for them," Mr. Bixby tries to unload the cute, but precocious Clay O'Brien, Brad Savage, and Stacy Manning (as Bobby, Clovis, and Celia Bradley). Bixby is unsuccessful, but since he is a latent family man, it really doesn't matter. Herein, he mustn't remain single, unlike in "The Courtship of Eddie's Father".So, tomboyish Susan Clark (as Dusty) provides the prerequisite motherly attention. Sheriff Harry Morgan (as Homer McCoy) insists Ms. Clark has womanly curves, having seen her "in a cloudburst." In the aptly named "Quake City", the kids find their stock rises after discovering gold in an old, abandoned mine. "The Apple Dumpling Gang" all very direct, and obvious, with bumbling gold-diggers Don Knotts (as Theodore Ogelvie) and Tim Conway (as Amos Tucker) effectively stealing the show.***** The Apple Dumpling Gang (7/1/75) Norman Tokar ~ Bill Bixby, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Susan Clark

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'

TITLE: THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG was release in movie theaters in the United States on July 1 1975 and it took 100 minutes to watch this movie. The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 Disney film about slick gambler Russell Donavan (played by Bill Bixby) who is duped into taking care of a group of orphan children who eventually strike gold during the California Gold Rush. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jack Bickham. The eponymous gang is named after the American dessert, the apple dumpling. Buddy Baker 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, was composed by Shane Tatum and was sung by Randy Sparks and The Back Porch Majority.SUMMARY: The movie stars Tim Conway and Don Knotts as a team of bumbling gangsters who try to steal the gold, but later are offered the gold by the children. Conway and Knotts play the leads in the sequel (The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again), in which Bixby and the rest of the original cast - with the exception of Harry Morgan as the sheriff in the first one - does not appear. The Apple Dumpling Gang also features Susan Clark as the stagecoach driver who is persuaded to marry the gambler in an attempt for both of them to keep custody of the children. Harry Morgan plays the role of the sheriff who doubles as the barber and Justice of the Peace; and Slim Pickens as Knotts' and Conway's former boss who tries to kidnap the children and steal the gold.