ELYSSA DAVALOS IN 'THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN'

Eylssa Davalos and Robert Pine in THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN Year: 1979

The original APPLE DUMPLING GANG is one of those experiences you remember as a kid for two good reasons: Don Knotts and Tim Conway as clumsy bank robbers Theodore and Amos. But upon rewatching you realize they aren’t in the movie enough...

Too much time's spent on Bill Bixby and a group of orphans, who deemed themselves The Apple Dumpling Gang, not named after Knotts and Conway despite this superior sequel keeping the title for continuity’s sake (liken to THE PINK PANTHER and THIN MAN franchises).

Tim Conway and Don Knotts with Morgan Paull in The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again

We begin with the bumbling duo, who’ve gone straight. Riding around on a faithful mule they enter a mining town to hit a bank: actually depositing money this time.

But two genuine bank robbers, posing as tellers, steal their loot and the adventure begins: mostly dealing with the boys being mistaken as sharpshooters since they accidentally thwarted the legendary Sheriff Hitchcock (Kenneth Mars), who keeps on their trail in a Wile E. Coyote fashion...

The beautiful Elyssa Davalos in THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN Rates: ***1/2

Tim Matheson, as a young private in a Calvary fort marauded of supplies, drives the necessary plot; Harry Morgan runs the show with his ambiguous right hand man played by CHiPS sergeant Robert Pine; and providing the love interest (for Pine and then Matheson) is the gorgeous Elyssa Davalos as Morgan’s classy daughter, who'd turn up in another Disney sequel the following year, HERBIE GOES BANANAS. 

Knotts and Conway go from the Fort to a prison to an underground lair run by Jack Elam and his henchman. There are plenty of locations and twists and turns and, while some of the gags aren’t drop dead hilarious, there’s enough going on to keep you entertained. Proving sequels can sometimes be better.

Harry Morgan, Morgan Paull and Richard X. Slatter in The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again

Morgan Paull and Richard X. Slattery in The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again

Elyssa Davalos in the train-rolling climax of THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN

Elyssa Davalos and Tim Matheson in a lobby card for THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN