McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965)

Tim Conway cracks me up. I always enjoyed his antics when he was paired with Don Knotts, but now I find he is even funnier with Joe Flynn. Having not seen the television series McHale's Navy, nor the feature film, I plunged into this sequel regardless and loved it! You don't have to be familiar with the show or its characters to enjoy this one. I didn't even miss Ernest Borgnine who wasn't present in this McHale outing sans "McHale".

Why he isn't in this sequel is a mystery... even Borgnine later confessed that he never knew the reason why he wasn't asked to be in it. Perhaps Universal wanted to test the waters with Joe Flynn and Tim Conway as a new Laurel & Hardy-like comedy duo...or they may have been simply saving money by axing the main star. Whatever the reason, with or without him it is a hoot. 

The comedy all starts with a case of mistaken identity—Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) gets confused as a defecting Russian naval officer after having one gin too many, so Quartermaster Christy dresses him in the uniform of Air Force Lt. Wilbur Harkness (Ted Bessell), General Harkness' son, who has a reputation as a ladies' man. Before long, our clueless hero is suddenly irresistible to the likes of Susan Silo, Jean Hale, and other young women who are convinced he’s a legendary Romeo. Things spiral further when Parker is forced to pose as a bomber navigator, dragging a very unwilling Binghamton (Joe Flynn) along for the ride. The two manage to turn a routine flight into a catastrophe, eventually plummeting out of the plane in a jeep dangling from a rope!

Throughout the 1960s, Universal Pictures were outputting the best comedies of all the studios. McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force was a typical product of this studio, much in the vein of the Don Knotts comedies from that same era. Sure, the sets are basic (they look like they were made for the TV series), but the acting is a riot, and it is packed with familiar character actors like Tom Tully, Jacques Aubuchon, Cliff Norton, Henry Beckman, and Willis Bouchey. And let’s not forget Bob Hastings as Carpenter, Binghamton’s ever-loyal lackey.

Best of all, it has plenty of Tim Conway and Joe Flynn. I grew up with Joe Flynn from his Disney work so the character of Captain Binghamton is new to me but it's Flynn all over. He always played men of authority who were frustrated by the idiots around him - yet, he was often the biggest boob of the bunch! McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force has a number of great scenes with Binghamton getting frustrated with Parker...the best of which is when the two of them squeeze inside a link trainer and Parker keeps making remarks that imply that they are flying ("We must be hitting turbulence"..."I think we hit water!"). Binghamton's exasperation keeps growing as he blurts out, "Link trainers can't fly!".... yet they end up in the Pacific Ocean! Another fun scene is where Parker and Binghamton come across a shipment of brassieres without the faintest idea of what they are. It’s all silly, harmless fun—but crazy enough to get you laughing. 

Thankfully, McHale's Navy ran for four seasons on television so now that this film whetted my appetite for navy comedy, I'll be plunging into the series. If you want to check out McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force for yourself, it is paired with McHale's Navy (1964) on a double-feature DVD from Shout! Factory. 

The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

Them thar kiddies are armed and dangerous. They're loaded with winsome ways and beguiling smiles. Why, one glance at them can drive a man.... to marriage? For Mr. Donovan (Bill Bixby), that's exactly what happened. 

Mr. Russell Donovan was just passing through the town of Quake City enjoying a game of poker, when he volunteered to pick up some valuables that was coming in on the next stagecoach for an old acquaintance . Those "valuables" turned out to be three children: Bobby (Clay O'Brien), Clovis (Brad Savage), and Celia (Stacy Manning), and his old acquaintance was nowhere to be found. 

Judge McCoy (Harry Morgan) was of the mind that since Mr. Donovan accepted a down-payment for the valuables, they are rightly his. After numerous attempts to pawn of the youngens fail, Mr. Donovan reluctantly becomes a family man, but the townsfolk suddenly want to adopt the children after the little ones strike gold in an old derelict mine belonging to them. If Mr. Donovan wants to safeguard the children and their fortune, he better "find himself a wife" (the judge declares) and so Mr. Donovan grasps at a last straw and proposes marriage to one of the few single women in town, the rough and tumbled "Dusty" Clydesdale (Susan Clark).

Walt Disney Studios released The Apple Dumpling Gang in 1975, when most of the theaters were showing movies filled with violence and not many laughs. However, Disney knew what families wanted to see and this comedy-western struck gold. The picture reaped in nearly $32 million in box-office receipts and became the 11th top-grossing film of the year*. 

What made the film so entertaining was the featured comedy duo of Don Knotts and Tim Conway. This was their first pairing and the characters of Amos and Theodore ("dumb and dumber") were a boot-fit for this team. Theodore (Tim Conway) had accidentally shot Frank Stillwell (Slim Pickens) of The Stillwell Gang in the leg and so he and Amos (Don Knotts) decide to strike out on their own as the newly dubbed "Hashknife Outfit". They wanted to leave a trail of crime in every town they passed but all they were leaving was a mess. Now the giant gold nugget that the children find is sitting on display at the local bank and Amos and Theodore have their eye on stealing it!

Like most of the scripts for Walt Disney films, there are multiple stories going on at once, all of which intersect and conclude nicely during the finale. The Apple Dumpling Gang was written by Don Tait who had just started with the Walt Disney Studios in 1972 when he wrote Snowball Express. He went on to write many more scripts for the studio, including the sequel to this film, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979), which also featured Don Knotts and Tim Conway. 

Bill Bixby gives a wonderful performance (as usual) as Mr. Donovan and Susan Clark is entertaining as Dusty, but the children are the real scene-stealers. Clay O'Brien has long been a favorite of mine ever since I watched him on Saturday morning showings of The Whiz Kid series, where he played Alvin's friend Shooie. All of the children were well-cast, as were the character actors which also included David Wayne and John McGiver. 

Director Norman Tokar (Leave it to Beaver) kept the action and the entertainment at a steady pace and The Apple Dumpling Gang never becomes dull or tiresome...even after multiple viewings. The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again is equally entertaining. In fact, it is one of those rare sequels that is actually better than the original because most of the story centers on Amos and Theodore instead of Mr. Donovan and the children, and who could pass up more of Knotts and Conway?

* Based on the website The Numbers.