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Customer Reviews of The Over-the-Hill Gang

No Ranger retires perpendicular
Nasty and corrupt Mayor Nard Lundy (Edward Andrews) is challenged by idealistic Jeff Rose (Ricky Nelson) in an upcoming election. Lundy has Sheriff Clyde Barnes (Jack Elam) rough the young upstart up some. Rose's visiting father-in-law, retired Texas Ranger Captain Oren Hayes (Pat O'Brien) sends an urgent telegraph to three of his former command (Walter Brennan, Chill Wills and Edgar Buchanan) to come to Boulder immediately and help him clean up the town.
THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG is a 1969 made-for-television movie that was popular enough at the time to lead to a sequel a year later. For old movie fans it's hard to beat the appeal of this veteran character actor laden movie. It's fun to see them play off each other and confront a situation that their advancing years have forced them to deal with more with guile than brute force. What's not so much fun is seeing them saddled with this tired, predictable plot.
Brennan and Buchanan shine brightest in this one; Brennan as the gun slinger who's lost a bit of speed on his quick draw and Buchanan as the scout who's eyesight has deteriorated to the point that he's drawing his guns on stuffed and mounted bears. With a better script, and a more delicate and penetrating examination of what it feels like to suddenly find yourself old and in the way, this one could have been a classic for the ages rather than an amusing piece of fluff.
The print transfer to dvd is so-so. Some of the night scenes are muddy and it's hard to make out what's happening. The dvd also comes with the Little Rascals' short "Hooky Spooky."
Fans of old movies should enjoy the veteran character actors in this, although they may agree that the folks in front of the camera in THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG deserved far better.

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One more chance to see some ol' western stars
The technical part of this review refers to the Brentwood Home Video or BCI Eclipse version.

From the Aaron Spelling stable of TV movies comes this tale with Ricky Nelson (and his wife Kris Nelson) as an idealistic couple. Ricky is running for Mayor of a small western town against Edward Andrews who plays a corrupt town boss. Jack Elam is his Sheriff and Andy Devine is his Judge, both firmly entrenched in his back pocket.

Pat O'Brien comes to town as Ricky Nelson's father-in-law, a retired Texas Ranger who rounds up his old partners (Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan and Chill Wills)!!! Throw in Gypsy Rose Lee as the owner of the local saloon and you got yourself a pretty good (for TV) rip-snorting western. You know how it's going to play out, but watching the all these stars in action makes up for a sub-par script.

Unfortunately the transfer is from a well-used print that looks like it was recorded in long play mode. At times, scenes taking place at night are almost unwatchable. But the chance to see these stars of westerns in their later years is a treat you should not miss if you're a fan of the western genre.

Brentwood/BCI put in their usual extras, six chapter stops, a DVD dictionary, trivia game and a short subject (Hal Roach's "Little Rascals"). This movie is also in a 10 pack of westerns at about triple the price for this one film from Brentwood Home Video called "The Wild West" and is available from Amazon.com.

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Great Family Western Comedy!!
In this film a group of retired Texas Rangers(Walter Brennan,Edgar Buchanan,Pat O'Brien and Chill Wills)take on a corrupt small Nevada town relying on their brains not brawn.Also co-starring Ricky Nelson,Kris Nelson,Edward Andrews and Jack Elam.It's a great family western comedy!!