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The Apple Dumpling Gang
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Norman Tokar
Produced by	Bill Anderson
Written by	Don Tait
Starring	Tim Conway Don Knotts
Music by	Buddy Baker
Cinematography	Frank V. Phillips
Editing by	Ray de Leuw
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution Company
Release date(s)	July 1, 1975
Running time	100 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Followed by	The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 Disney film about slick gambler Russel Donavan (played by Bill Bixby) who is duped into taking care of a group of orphan children who eventually strike gold during the California Gold Rush.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jack Bickham. The eponymous gang is named after the American dessert, the apple dumpling. Buddy Baker composed the music for it and its sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. The song "The Apple Dumpling Gang", as heard in the opening and closing credits, was composed by Shane Tatum and was sung by Randy Sparks and The Black Porch Majority.

Tagline: Wanted: For chicanery, skulduggery, tomfoolery and habitual bungling!

The movie also stars Tim Conway and Don Knotts as a team of bumbling gangsters who try to steal the gold, but later are offered the gold by the children. Conway and Knotts play the leads in the sequel (The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again), in which Bixby does not appear. The Apple Dumpling Gang also features Susan Clark as the stagecoach driver who is forced to marry the gambler in an attempt for both of them to keep custody of the children; Harry Morgan as the sheriff who doubles as the barber and Justice of the Peace; and Slim Pickens as Knotts' and Conway's former boss who tries to kidnap both the children and the gold.

• Bill Bixby .... Russel Donavan
• Susan Clark .... Magnolia Dusty Clydesdale
• Don Knotts .... Theodore Ogelvie
• Tim Conway .... Amos
• David Wayne .... Col. T.R. Clydesdale
• Slim Pickens .... Frank Stillwell
• Harry Morgan .... Homer McCoy
• John McGiver .... Leonard Sharpe
• Don Knight .... John Wintle
• Clay O'Brien .... Bobby Bradley
• Brad Savage .... Clovis Bradley
• Stacy Manning .... Celia Bradley
• Dennis Fimple .... Rudy Hooks
• Pepe Callahan .... Clemons
• Iris Adrian .... Poker Polly
• Fran Ryan .... Mrs. Stockley
• Bing Russell .... Herm Dally
• James E. Brodhead .... The Mouthpiece
• Jim Boles .... Easy Archie
• Olan Soule .... Rube Cluck
• Tom Waters .... Rowdy Joe Dover
• Dawn Little Sky .... Big Foot
• Joshua Shelley .... Broadway Phil
• Richard Lee-Sung .... Oh So
• Arthur Wong .... No So
• Dick Winslow .... Slippery Sid
• Bill Dunbar .... Fast Eddie
• Wally Berns .... Cheating Charley

The film was a hit at the box office. In October 1980, it became one of the first Disney movies to be released on videocassette. It is also known as being the first film to feature the comedy duo of Don Knotts and Tim Conway. Knotts and Conway developed different styles of pulling off their comedy; Conway's characters were usually the dumber of the two, which made Knotts usually the brains of the group. Both The Apple Dumpling Gang and its sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, have been released on Disney DVD in the United States. In the UK, however, only the original film has been made available on DVD at the time of writing.

In 1979, Knotts and Conway reprised their roles in the unsuccessful sequel The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. Without the magic of Bill Bixby, Susan Clark and the three children, the film was not a success. Knotts and Conway would team up for two more films together (both independent films), The Prize Fighter in 1979, and The Private Eyes. They were also in Gus released in 1976, even though they did not share any scenes together; instead, Tom Bosley was Conway's foil in that movie.

• The Apple Dumpling Gang at the Internet Movie Database