The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

Very disappointing...

Fantastic!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This film is absolutely fabulous and timeless. It is good old slapstick comedy and you do not need to worry about the content of this movie as this is old Disney. My children 7 and 8 really enjoined this movie. They laughed out loud and really got into the story. Don Knots always brings a light and funny air to any movie he has ever done and this movie is no exception. I think my children's favorite part is when the kids go riding down the hill in the old mine cart. Like any western movie there is a bar but the scenes in the bar do not emphasize the drinks so it was not bad in my opinion. This movie is truly a classic. I wish Hollywood would make movies like this again. Simple, clean, and funny with adorable characters. Heart warming as well. This movie was a real joy for my children, my husband and me.

I'm usually appalled at how vintage Disney (of about 1940-80) ignored the basics of good storytelling, relying instead on cinematic gimmicks.Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, but when you just simply don't invest in good storytelling, you plant poison that somehow catches up with you. The primary reason that I remembered this fondly is that it was that rare project where lots of attention was spent on story structure. It is engineered for lowbrow effect of course, but that is beside the point.The two main story threads are:— a pair of hapless cowboy bandits, whose every move is comedic. It is simple Laurel and Hardy stuff with better facial expressions, and it is this that provides the entertainment value.— a story about the essential power of the nuclear family. It was still the 1950 notion, involving 3 children. They sacrifice wealth in exchange for parents, while Dickensian characters circle around. This provides — even now — the "nourishment" value.The two threads are interwoven in rather brilliant fashion with encounters between the two lost parties (children and adults) few and clear. They meet initially when the erstwhile crooks believe they are to be captured. They meet a second time when they form the Apple Dumpling Gang to steal the children's gold nugget. They meet only a third significant time at the end when the now mommy and daddy adopt both the children and the virtual children.There are many architectural correspondences that work with this and the internal cinematic references. For instance, we have a red "hook and ladder wagon" that we see three times after we are told that the town has one: when it is poses a threat to the little girl who is rescued by the hero; when its ladder is stolen for the bank robbery; and when that same little girl is kidnapped by the real robbers and a chase ensues.This is because Disney at this period had a story lab that was looking at what they considered narrative dynamics. We know much more today, but in that era, the threes came about because there was a deliberate weave of three genres. — The standard western where a Maverick-like character rides into town as a loner and wins someone's heart. Here it is the town redhead. He wears the standard gambler garb, and we track him at the important beginning where the terms of the story are established.— A comedy genre based on a combination of slapstick and Marx brothers quality dialog.— A family movie where what is now called "family values" are celebrated in a lighthearted fashion, but deeply acknowledged.Given this establishment of the three genres, the script was designed around the rule of threes. For instance, the gambler saving the girl from the fire engine is for the family genre; the chase in the fire wagon at the end is standard Hopalong Cassidy fare; and the bit in the middle where the ladder is stolen while the fireman sleeps is from the Marx tradition.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

this western/comedy starring Don Knotts,Tim Conway,and Bill Bixby is a movie the whole family can watch.there's nothing offensive that i noticed.the thing is,though,the movie is not all that great.sure,it does have a few comedic moments(courtesy of Knotts and Conway),which provide some lite chuckles.but nothing great.the story is decent enough,though pretty unoriginal,and predictable.and most of the movie is slow,and maybe a bit too long.but if you go in to it with low expectations,you might actually enjoy it.i found myself mildly amused and entertained.for a lazy Sunday,you could do worse.for me,The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 5/10

The Don Knotts/Tim Conway teamup makes this movie one of the all-time greats. How can anyone not laugh at this duo? They are fall-on-the-floor hysterical. The scene with the ladder is nothing short of brilliant! Once again, we have an example of a 1970s movie that features actual slapstick comedy instead of vulgarity or crudeness.Once again, viewers tend to forget the great character actors and their contributions that make this movie, if not great, at least above-average during the 1970s. I agree there are some horrible movies in the 1970s, but this probably is not one of the worst.Who can resist Harry Morgan's commanding voice? Or the actor (now long dead) who played the bank president? I feel that without these Walt Disney "fluff" movies, as a film buff, the whole 1970s decade would have been a dry desert. The reason is, what other movie studio could round up all the great actors of the period, put them together in a comedy, and make it work? Had these actors not been in these movies, we would not have seen them AT ALL! The children were irresistible, as well as the actors I have just mentioned.This anti-1970s-Disney attitude of viewers mystifies me. This particular movie was a lot better than some of Disney's other disasters, namely the sequel to this. Other Disney disasters: The Shaggy D.A. and Meteor.