By The poster for “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again” (1979) acknowledges the first film in this two-film franchise and its strengths: The Apple Dumpling Gang leaders – Theodore and Amos – hold far more narrative possibilities than the three wet-behind-the-ears orphans, and they occupy most of the frame. Whatever momentum the cute kids had brought has spent itself. They are entirely absent from the sequel, and its poster.
The real guts in the plot of “The Apple Dumpling Gang” (1975) are the romantic duo of Donovan and Dusty and — especially — the slapstick heroics of Theodore and Amos (played by the legendary team of Don Knotts and Tim Conway). Accordingly, these two who peer out goofily from the marketing materials of “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again” – without the three kids. Any who question whether the title should still refer to the eponymous gang when three of its members are absent err by asking too many questions of a Disney film.
Did Sheriff Homer McCoy turn into Maj. T.P. Gaskill, and if so, how?!?
In “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” Harry Morgan plays the Sheriff. And he succeeds in anchoring all the other characters – misfits, lovers, thieves and children – and their conflicts. Morgan appears in the sequel filmed four years after the first, but not as a sheriff – rather an army officer commanding Fort Concho somewhere outside of Junction City.
“The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again” (1979)
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: Don Tait
Stars: Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Tim Matheson
This confused your poor reviewer. Initially, I figured that the Sheriff must have joined (or rejoined) the army after his gig as town sheriff (and barber and judge) wore thin. Both are men of authority and gravitas. But they have different names altogether, and Morgan plays the Major with a smidgen of self-pity and ineffectual leadership abilities that the Sheriff would never have encapsulated.
No, it turns out, the two characters played by the same actor have no connection whatsoever. Setting aside the bewilderment that curious casting decision generates, it’s still a good film, though it stands in the long shadow of its predecessor.
Our hapless pair of former bandits on the run – and conscripted into the Army?!?
In the sequel, Donovan, Dusty and their three children are offstage. Where this film picks up, Theodore and Amos have, after staying with them for a while, set off to find fame and fortune in the far-off town of Junction City – this time, without resort to the crimes that speckled their pre-Dumpling days. But as luck would have it, just as they open their first legitimate bank account, robbers intervene, making off with the bank’s cash and framing the poor comedic duo and their mule, Clarisse.
Before long, Theodore and Amos have been unwittingly conscripted into the Army, thus tying together Fort Concho’s dynamics and the duo’s on-the-run antics.
There is too much buffoonery and not enough romance in this sequel to charm its way into the hearts of viewers like the first film did. But the slapstick routines of Knotts and Conway are worthy of close study. They are brilliant at what they do, even without an adequate supporting cast or noble leads.
See “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again” just to witness how a spilled punch bowl burns down an entire Army fort (hint: quickly!), how not to escape from the brig (hint: Don’t push a heavy cart of pots and pans through the tunnels – much too noisy!), and what Theodore and Amos look like in drag (hint: fabulous!).