wes-connors 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

FightingWesterner Former Texas Rangers Walter Brennan, Edger Buchanan, and Chill Wills get back together in order to help their old comrade Fred Astaire, who's apparently landed in jail. Arriving, they find Astaire dead - dead drunk that is and the jailed impostor lynched. The gang decides to stick around to keep Astaire sober and out of trouble, as he gets hired on as the new town marshal.Marginally better than the first film, this still seems a little too much like a long episode of a television series. Still, the cast of veteran actors and old western stars are entertaining, especially Astaire in his first and only western.Eighteen years later, a new group of aging stars stepped into Brennan, Buchanan, and Wills' shoes for a second, much belated sequel, Once Upon A Texas Train.

MARIO GAUCI 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.

classicalenjoyment 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.