Watch The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again For Free

Too much of everything

Good movie but grossly overrated

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A year previously, the TV movie "The Over-the-Hill Gang" debuted. It must have been successful, as only a year later, a sequel was brought to the small screen. However, in this installment, the star of the original film, Pat O'Brien, is not in the film and instead a new over the hiller, Fred Astaire, is featured along with returning faded stars Chill Wills, Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan and Andy Devine (who in this one has switched sides and is now friends with these other oldsters).In this installment, the four friends have left O'Brien and his town behind and learn that another old friend, the Baltimore Kid (Astaire) has been killed. However, while they are in a saloon drinking and remembering the man, they see him in the bar--an old drunk. They decide to sober him up and help him regain his self-respect. Then, when he's offered a job of sheriff, the gang work behind the scenes to help him out of jam after jam--and they try to keep the Baltimore Kid from knowing they are doing this. Eventually, however, he does learn and must rise to the occasion to prove himself once and for all.All in all, apart from another chance to see these olders and a new oldster (Astaire), the film is relatively dull and uninteresting. My feeling is that it would appeal mostly to their fans--others should probably avoid it due to a rather limp script.

When retiring Texas ranger Walter Brennan (as Nash Crawford) learns old pal Fred Astaire (as "The Baltimore Kid") is in trouble, he rounds up three co-stars from "The Over-the-Hill Gang" (1969) for a western sequel. Still spry, Mr. Brennan finds Chill Wills (as George Agnew) cheating at poker, Edgar Buchannan (as Jason Fitch) in a retirement home, and Andy Devine (as Amos Polk) working on a newspaper. The geriatric set is stunned to discover Mr. Astaire is on a bender, but he cleans up well. This ABC-TV Tuesday "Movie of the Week" repeats the sure-fire viewer pull Brennan and his old friends still had and, in a rare appearance, Astaire shows he's definitely not ready for the old folks home.***** The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (11/17/70) George McCowan ~ Fred Astaire, Walter Brennan, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan

Fred Astaire's first forays into the Western genre, the TV medium and moustache-sporting came via this modest "old men's movie" about a trio of retired Texas Rangers who come together to help their old superior who has been wrongly jailed for robbery and murder. Walter Brennan, Chill Wills and Edgar Buchanan reprise their roles from the original THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG TV-movie made the previous year, while Astaire takes on the role of the troubled Baltimore Kid who might not be in jail or lynched (as newspaperman Andy Devine misinforms them upon their arrival) but has fallen on hard times and become the town drunk instead! The thing is that Astaire is unable to accept his growing old and his shooting abilities not being what they used to so, to build up his confidence once more, the trio convince him to accept the badge of town marshal with them as his deputies! However, Astaire deludes himself further into thinking that the roughnecks who come into town eventually leave it because of his notoriety (rather than through the helpful 'armed and invisible' presence of his friends) and even befriends a much younger saloon gal who turns out to be the girl of the robber behind the crime Astaire was supposed to have committed in the first place! The quintet of Hollywood veterans provide the only pleasure to be had from this meager production because whenever they are offscreen things get pretty dull indeed.

With the all star cast helps to make this a good movie. It has already been mentioned that the movie was transferred from television into movie form. The transfers that I have seen are not the best, but once you get into the movie you forget to look at the quality of the movie and begin watching it.Fred Astaire plays a good part in this film. The film was made in his later years so, you won't be able to enjoy the smooth dances of Astaire's earlier movies. Still, he plays a good part as a drunk and as a fading hero. I really enjoyed the film and the parts that everyone in the cast played.Other than the old-style television viewing, I have no bones against the movie. I'd say it is certainly worth the money...and don't miss the movie before this one. "The Over the Hill Gang" is a good movie in its own right, perhaps even better than the sequel.