abstract
| - The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 Disney western film about slick gambler Russell Donovan 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 1979 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 Back Porch Majority. Tagline: Wanted: For chicanery, skulduggery, tomfoolery and habitual bungling! The film costars Tim Conway and Don Knotts as Theodore and Amos, a pair of bumbling holdup men who try to steal gold, but are later offered it by a group of children. Conway and Knotts play the leads in the sequel in which Bixby and the rest of the original cast – with the exception of Harry Morgan as the sheriff – do not appear. It also features Susan Clark as Magnolia Dusty Clydesdale, the stagecoach driver who is persuaded to marry Russell in an attempt for both of them to keep custody of the children; Harry Morgan as Homer McCoy, the sheriff who doubles as the barber, Justice of the Peace, and the judge; and Slim Pickens as Frank Stillwell, Theodore and Amos' former boss who tries to kidnap the children and steal the gold.
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