'The Apple Dumpling Gang' has a classic sort of plot, and I suppose that's the main reason it is, indeed, a classic. Of course, the incredible cast may have something to do with that as well. Bill Bixby, mirroring Warren Beatty's entrance in 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' (of four years prior), and of course, mirroring a hundred other movies as well, rides slowly into a sleepy town, and makes his way directly to a gambling table. A man soon walks into the saloon outfitted as Disney's own version of 'scraggly ne'er-do-well', and manages to get Bixby, Mr. Donovan in the film, to agree to hold some valuables that are arriving on the next day's stage. Our ne'er-do-well, you see, having to travel immediately to San Francisco. We're in a defunct gold-mining town in California, and said ne'er-do-well might not be gone all that long, so Mr. Donovan agrees, for a small fee.
When the next day arrives, accompanied by a snazzy little tune, the valuables turn out to be three children, and Mr. Donovan, bachelor and happy-go-lucky man about town, is stuck. Initially intending to abandon the responsibility, seeing as he was duped into his situation, he's put straight by the town's sheriff, justice of the peace, and barber, Harry Morgan..., that is, Homer McCoy. Throw in a nice introduction to the tomboyish 'Dusty' (Susan Clark) in order to start the matches being thrown toward 'love interest', and you've got your opening. Well, throw in Tim Conway and Don Knotts in their Disney-traditional role as bunglers, this time as the town's resident idiot outlaws, and then you'll have your opening.
Things get underway pretty quickly, and the children, who come with their own mine naturally, stumble onto one of the biggest nuggets of gold ever found. Our fatherly sheriff hatches a scheme to have Mr. Donovan and Dusty marry so that he can give the children to them, thus avoiding having to choose from all the people who now crawl out of the woodwork hoping to adopt them. Of course, our ne'er-do-well returns to claim the children now that they have a staggering net worth. Conway and Knotts hatch a scheme to steal the gold, and so does Slim Pickens as the 'outsider' a.k.a. the somewhat more serious criminal element. Mix it all up in that early-70s style, and hilarity ensues.
'The Apple Dumpling Gang' is a wonderful family movie from the days when Disney still felt much more Walt, and not everything in a movie was hopelessly reigned in by fears of PC backlash. There is actually a great depth to the obviously simple story, and the characters get a lot of room to roam around. Knotts and Conway, in particular, are given a great deal of maneuverability, and they're priceless. Bixby is a perfect choice for the role, and his character truly is very reminiscent of McCabe, though of course Disneyfied and made altogether a family version. The three children are excellent, with the possible exception of Brad Savage, the middle child, but only because he isn't actually given much to do.
If I seemed far more inclined to use the actors' real names, it's probably because that's the sort of movie this is. Harry Morgan, for example, is at his Harry Morganest, and it strikes me as just how it should be. This is, like most Disney films of this period, a wacky bit of fun with something for everyone, and it's really a good time. At every stage the movie moves along in just the way you would expect such a classic Disney plot will, but somehow that's the beauty of it. Sure, Donovan and Dusty are going to end up together, and though they have their fights and are initially aghast at the very notion, there isn't any sort of real doubt about it right from the beginning. Sure, Conway and Knotts are complete stooges, and only Baldric can top them in inability to actually form a cunning plan, so they haven't the slightest hope of having anything go right. Sure, we'll end up with the hook-and-ladder on a merry chase down a steep hill and into a lake..., well, maybe we're getting ahead of things there, but there's just too much foreshadowing not to see it coming. Still, that's just the sort of ride we're on, and we know what we're getting into with Disney, and this is one of the best.
Disney has recently released 'The Apple Dumpling Gang' on a DVD that has a host of special features.
The extras on the DVD are a real treat, and fans old and new will find something of interest. Disney is really making an effort with some of these releases, and they're genuinely worthwhile endeavors.
The first thing you'll probably run into is the cartoon. Disney has been putting cartoons with many of their DVD releases as, according to them, this being the original 'packaging' for theatrical release. For 'The Apple Dumpling Gang', we get 'Two Gun Goofy', an episode with Goofy in the Old West in a quasi-'High Plains Drifter' vehicle.
Each of Disney's recent DVD releases comes with a "Lost Treasure", which might be just about anything, and for this release it is, somewhat appropriately, "The Disney Back Lot". This is an approximately 10 minute documentary on how the Back Lot came to be, which movies were filmed there, and the changes it underwent over the years until its eventual demise.
Each of these releases also includes the Disney Studio Yearbook for the year of the film's release. In this case we get the 1975 version, and we are treated to a three and a half minute montage of what happened at Disney that year. Clips of 'Escape to Witch Mountain', 'The Strongest Man in the World', and 'The Sky's the Limit' mix together with video footage of the Mission to Mars ride opening at Disneyland, along with many other 'events'.
'A Look Back with the Gang' is a 24-minute 'documentary' comprised of interviews with several cast members put together with footage from the film. The Conway and Knotts portions are, of course, worth the price of admission alone, though their comments here do sometimes repeat what is on the film's audio commentary track.
'Conversations with Tim Conway' is something of an autobiography documentary with Conway giving his career the once over. This is not something specific to this movie. He discusses life before show business briefly in a way not completely unlike a stand-up routine, and goes over his work in several films. Basically, it's 12 minutes of Conway putting his own particular spin on his biography/filmography.
'Disney's Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Heroes' is two and a half minutes of a silly (by design) montage of clips from live-action and cartoon Disney westerns, with a heavy emphasis on this movie. It's backed by the theme song to the film, and it's just a small treat to count as another bonus.
The galleries on these Disney releases are like none I've seen before, and because these are reissues of mostly thirty-year old movies, they'd certainly be far more interesting even if other movies did provide their equal. This movie includes a Production Still gallery of approximately 35 stills of 'Behind-the-Scenes' shots, as well as character shots. There is also what Disney calls an Advertising Gallery which has images of several posters, lobbycards (which in itself will confuse newcomers), and a comic book version of the film's story.
The biographies included are wonderful as well. Far more in-depth than we're used to getting on DVDs, many of these go on for four or five 'pages', not including the filmography. There are biographies, and they're quite interesting, for: Don Knotts, Harry Morgan, Director Norman Tokar, Slim Pickens, Stacy Manning, Susan Clark, Tim Conway, Bill Bixby, Brad Savage, and Clay O'Brien.
Head for cover! Don Knotts and Tim Conway are Wild West outlaws who can t hit the broad side of a barn--but never miss when it comes to rounding up la...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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