The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again

The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Againis a 1979 Americancomedy-Westernfilm directed byVincent McEveety. Produced byWalt Disney Productions, it is asequeltoThe Apple Dumpling Gang(1975), starring the comedy duo ofTim ConwayandDon Knottsreprising their respective roles as Amos and Theodore. The film also starsTim Matheson,Harry Morgan, andKenneth Mars.
Amos Tucker (Conway) and Theodore Ogelvie (Knotts), a pair of bumbling holdup men now going straight, arrive in the "boom town" of Junction City to start anew. But the duo end up causing havoc while getting cheated out of their money by two bank robbers named Wes Hardin (Osmond) and Hank Starrett (Gehring). Things worsen when Amos and Theodore end up suspected of the robbery and on the run from the town's feared lawman Marshal Woolly Bill Hitchcock (Mars), who developed a personal vendetta toward Amos and Theodore after they accidentally humiliated and injured him on two occasions. To escape Hitchcock's vengeance, Amos and Theodore ditch their donkey Clarise, as she was used by the robbers, and enlist in theUnited States CavalryatFort Concho. The duo's bunglings and a run-in with a now insane marshal, who found them by following Clarise, result in the fort being burned to the ground. The following day, the fort commander Major Gaskill (Morgan) is relieved of his position while Amos and Theodore are placed in a military jail.
But the "jail" turns out to be a cover for a robber baron named "Big Mac" (Jack Elam) who proceeds to recruit Amos and Theodore for an upcoming train robbery. Still determined to go straight, the boys attempt to extricate themselves from the situation by warning the local sheriff. The sheriff not available, they are told to visit the saloon as there is a visiting U.S. Marshall. After dressing up as bar-room dance girls to hide themselves from Big Mac's gang, having another encounter with Hitchcock, and making a trade for blankets to hide themselves, Amos and Theodore accidentally end up on the train Big Mac is targeting. With the help of Jeff Reed (Matheson), an army intelligence officer who posed as an enlisted soldier to uncover a conspiracy of military robberies, and Major Gaskill's daughter Millie (Davalos), they arrest the robbers and their inside man Lt. Jim Ravencroft (Robert Pine). Soon after being given pardons, Amos and Theodore decide to resume working at Russell Donovan's farm.
Parts of the film were shot atKanabmovie fort and Kanab Creek inUtah.The railroad scenes were filmed on theSierra RailroadinTuolumne County, California.
Vincent CanbyofThe New York Timesthought that Kenneth Mars was "very funny" and that Harry Morgan "has some nice moments" as well.Varietywrote that the film "lurches from one set piece to another, in a fashion that makes its 88-minute running time seem much longer. Conway and Knotts have perfected their bumbling routines to a very minor art form, but principal laughs are supplied by drunk jokes, and character names such as Jack Elam's Big Mac. When hamburger trademarks become chief yock-suppliers, time has come to look elsewhere".Kevin Thomasof theLos Angeles Timescalled the film "delightful" with "much humor and action. Indeed, it's more inventive — and eventful — than the more sophisticated comedy-westernButch and Sundance: The Early Days".Gary Arnold ofThe Washington Postdismissed it as "the latest uninspired attempt at juvenile comedy from the Disney studio".