The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
Encyclopedia
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again is a 1979 sequel to the 1975 family film The Apple Dumpling Gang
The Apple Dumpling Gang (film)
The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 Disney film about slick gambler Russel Donavan who is duped into taking care of a group of orphan children who eventually strike gold during the California Gold Rush....

starring the comedy duo of Tim Conway
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...

, and Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...

. Conway and Knotts reprise their roles as Amos and Theodore. The film also stars Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...

, Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...

, and Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...

. Laugh-In star Ruth Buzzi
Ruth Buzzi
Ruth Ann Buzzi is an American comedienne and actress of theatre, film, and television. She is especially known for her performances on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973.-Early life:...

 appears in a small cameo as a wild farsighted woman. Robert Totten
Robert Totten
Robert C. Totten was an American television director, writer, and actor, best known for his work on the CBS series Gunsmoke. He directed twenty-seven Gunsmoke episodes between 1966 and 1971 and guest starred in eight episodes between 1967 and 1973...

, who directed installments of Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, also had a small part in the film.

Plot

Amos (Conway) and Theodore (Knotts), the old bank robbers turned good guys, arrive in the "boom town" of Junction City, and cause havoc from the start. The duo – who had promised to go straight after the events of the first film – get into trouble when they are framed for robbery at the town bank. The robbers trick them into depositing their money, and then run off with it. The town's feared lawman, Marshall Wooly Bill Hitchcock (Mars), is determined to capture the gang and punish them for their crime, but when he catches Amos and Theodore at the bank and attempts to arrest them, their guns accidentally go off and hit Wooly Bill in the hands as witnesses look on. The accident not only makes Amos and Theodore the new "quick guns" in the town, but it makes the humiliated lawman even more determined to capture the "Apple Dumpling Gang" (as they are now called, since Theodore advised them not to use their own names in the new town.) Things get worse when their donkey Clarise (who joined them from the first film) shows up with the stolen money when the real bank robbers in a hurry put most of the money on her saddle. As they attempt to return it by swinging it from the roof of the building across from the building, the bags land on Wooly Bill and cause even more injuries to him.

To escape Hitchcock's vengeance, the pair enlist in the US Army, but after further bunglings and a run-in with the martial they accidentally set fire to the fort. As a result of this, the fort commander Major Gaskill (Harry Morgan) loses his job and the Apple Dumplings are court martialled and sent to a military jail. This "jail" however turns out to be a cover for robber baron "Big Mac" (Jack Elam) who recruits Amos and Theodore as hired guns for a train robbery. Still determined to "go straight", the boys try to extricate themselves from the situation by dressing up as bar-room dance girls - a disguise which bizarrely fools even Big Mac himself! In the end, with the help of an army intelligence officer (Tim Matheson) who is posing as an enlisted soldier, and their former commander's daughter Millie (Elyssa Davalos), they foil the robbers and are given pardons.

Cast

  • Tim Conway
    Tim Conway
    Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...

     as Amos Tucker
  • Don Knotts
    Don Knotts
    Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...

     as Theodore Olevie
  • Tim Matheson
    Tim Matheson
    Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...

     as Pvt. Jeff Reed
  • Kenneth Mars
    Kenneth Mars
    Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...

     as Marshal Woolly Bill Hitchcock
  • Elyssa Davalos
    Elyssa Davalos
    Elyssa Davalos is a former American television and movie actress. Her father is actor Richard Davalos. She is the mother of actress Alexa Davalos, from her marriage to photographer Jeff Dunas.-Television:...

     as Miss Milly Gaskill
  • Jack Elam
    Jack Elam
    William Scott "Jack" Elam was an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies .-Early life:...

     as Big Mack
  • Robert Pine
    Robert Pine
    Robert Pine is an American actor who has starred on television and in film. He is probably best known for his role as Sgt. Joseph Getraer on the hit NBC television series CHiPs from 1977 to 1983.-Personal life:...

     as Lt. Jim Ravencroft
  • Harry Morgan
    Harry Morgan
    Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...

     as Maj. Gaskill (Milly's father)
  • Ruth Buzzi
    Ruth Buzzi
    Ruth Ann Buzzi is an American comedienne and actress of theatre, film, and television. She is especially known for her performances on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973.-Early life:...

     as Old Tough Kate, aka 'Granny'
  • Audrey Totter
    Audrey Totter
    Audrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...

     as Martha Osten (Blind Cabin Widow)
  • Richard X. Slattery
    Richard X. Slattery
    Richard Xavier Slattery was a long-time character actor in film and television.Slattery was distinguished by a square-jawed look and a rough, gravelly voice that made him ideal as a "tough guy" character, usually as a cowboy or a cop or a drill sergeant type...

     as Sgt. Slaughter (chief soldier)
  • John Crawford as Sherick
  • Cliff Osmond
    Cliff Osmond
    Cliff Osmond is an American character actor and television screenwriter most famous for his role of "Barney" in Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me, Stupid"...

    as Wes Hardin (Bank robber)
  • Ted Gehring as Hank Starrett (Bank robber)
  • Morgan Paull as Corporal #1

External links

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