Occasionally, the decision to attempt to watching everything on Disney Plus throws up some unexpected gem. A glint of diamond, lost in a sea of content. "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides again" is not such an occasion. It's an interminable dull sequel, taking the worst aspect of the previous film and running them into this unlikable sequel.
Having decided that the cosy life isn't for them, Amos (Tim Conway) and Theodore (Don Knotts) strike out on their own again. With just a donkey to their name, they accidentally blunder into a bank heist and inadvertently incapacitate the towns legendary lawman, Wolly Bill Hitchcock (Kenneth Mars). From they're the land a nearby military outpost and are press ganged into service.
Unlike the first film, which wisely uses the pair as occasional comic relief, there the tiresome duo are the main thrust of the story, blundering from one situation to another, burning the Fort down, accidentally joining a gang, dressing as women to escape. I can't speak to how it went down in 1979, but today it's . . . let's go with "lack of sophistication" makes it a tiresome endeavour. There is a B-Story though. With a very young Tim Mathieson who is a private on the base getting involved with raids on the Fort's supply runs and also wooing Mille Gaskill, played by Elyssa Davalos, a fairly prolific actress in the late 70's and early 80's and mother of "Man in the High Castle" star Alexa Davalos.
It's not lost on me that Conway and Knotts are both legendary comedic performers and it's their popularity that is the reason the film exists at all, but between them they honestly couldn't raise a smile in a film that felt like it would never end.
Having decided that the cosy life isn't for them, Amos (Tim Conway) and Theodore (Don Knotts) strike out on their own again. With just a donkey to their name, they accidentally blunder into a bank heist and inadvertently incapacitate the towns legendary lawman, Wolly Bill Hitchcock (Kenneth Mars). From they're the land a nearby military outpost and are press ganged into service.
Unlike the first film, which wisely uses the pair as occasional comic relief, there the tiresome duo are the main thrust of the story, blundering from one situation to another, burning the Fort down, accidentally joining a gang, dressing as women to escape. I can't speak to how it went down in 1979, but today it's . . . let's go with "lack of sophistication" makes it a tiresome endeavour. There is a B-Story though. With a very young Tim Mathieson who is a private on the base getting involved with raids on the Fort's supply runs and also wooing Mille Gaskill, played by Elyssa Davalos, a fairly prolific actress in the late 70's and early 80's and mother of "Man in the High Castle" star Alexa Davalos.
It's not lost on me that Conway and Knotts are both legendary comedic performers and it's their popularity that is the reason the film exists at all, but between them they honestly couldn't raise a smile in a film that felt like it would never end.