The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 American comedy-Western film directed by Norman Tokar. The plot is about a slick gambler named Russell Donovan (Bill Bixby) who is duped into taking care of a group of orphans who eventually strike gold. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film is based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Jack M. Bickham. Don Tait wrote the screenplay. The so-called "Apple Dumpling Gang" are named after their favorite American dessert treat, the apple dumpling. 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 less intelligent of the two, which made Knotts usually the brains of the group, though they were both equally inept. Paul J. Smith and 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/performed by Randy Sparks and The Back Porch Majority. Plot Set in the Wild West in the year 1879, a slick gambler named Russell Donovan (Bill Bixby) comes to the town of Quake City en route to open a casino in New Orleans. In Quake City, Donovan meets his old associate, John Whintle. Whintle is leaving for San Francisco that night and asks Donovan to sign for valuables coming in on tomorrow’s stagecoach. Donovan accepts a down payment and promises to pick up the valuables. The next day, Donovan realizes he has been duped into taking care of three little orphans, Bobby, Clovis, and Celia Bradley. The stagecoach driver Magnolia "Dusty" Clydesdale (Susan Clark) explains that Whintle is in fact the children’s relative and their de facto legal guardian. With their relative gone and Donovan promising to care for the "valuables", they are now wards of Donovan. The town's sheriff, barber, Justice of the Peace, and judge Homer McCoy (Harry Morgan) tells Donovan that he is legally obligated unless he can have someone else take custody of the children. The children inadvertently cause Donovan much grief by offending all prospective new guardians. The Bradleys wreak havoc in Quake City while riding in an old mine cart destroying much private property. The town’s citizens demand that Donovan