I have several problems with this movie

I rate this movie only 5 out of 10. Here's why:

1. After the opening scene we don't see Don Knotts and Tim Conway again for nearly 20 minutes. Are they the stars of this movie or not? If John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were missing from the first 20 minutes of The Blues Brothers and that screentime was instead spent depicting life at the orphanage which they are going to save on their mission from God, that movie would not have been nearly as good.

2. If the town's sheriff/mayor/justice of the peace/barber Homer McCoy (Harry Morgan) is so smart, caring and a quick study of people then he should take custodianship of the three unattended children. He should not grant it to a transient card shark and gadfly like Russel Donavan. McCoy's explanation that the town lacks funds may be true but he could have just taken temporary custodianship of the children himself. He seems to be prosperous and probably has a spare room or two in his home. It would be better than granting custodianship to someone who by all appearances is probably a con man (or worse).

3. The racist depiction of Chinese laundry workers.

4. We hear about very special arrangements to move a gigantic gold nugget from the town's bank vault to a bank in San Francisco. Yet nothing is said or shown about how the children were able to move it from the mine to town.

5. For most of the movie Magnolia Dusty (Susan Clark) is a strong, sensible and practical woman. She agrees to a platonic marriage with Bill Bixby (Russel Donavan) for business reasons and the sake of the children, and because she she doesn't trust Donavan. Later, when she finds out he bought a bed, she immediately jumps to the conclusion it's because he expects her to make love with him (his "husband perogatives"). They have a bar fight but when Donavan is able to explain the bed is actually for the children, she all of a sudden trusts him. She just takes him at his word.