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This film is very entertaining and definitely for all audiences. A group of elderly ladies forms a "neighborhood watch", or better a "neighborhood clean-up crew". They join forces to rid their formerly "nice neighborhood" of the trash that gives it a bad name.

Fearless and determined, the "North Avenue Irregulars" (played by many familiar comediennes) show the bad guys who's boss and reclaim their "turf". Many laughs, and a timely message: Don't let the scum take over your neighborhood!

This kind of story was more timely during the 70s and early 80s, when serious gang violence plagued most of America. In the 21st Century, this once hopeless situation has become much less of a problem. Much of the credit for the "cleaning up" of our streets indeed goes to the countless local "neighborhood watch" efforts, telling the bad guys to clean up their act or be hauled away. Kids will still enjoy this film for its "Home Alone" methods of dealing with "bad guys".

I saw this in the theater with my mom in 1979 (I was 9) and we still have a laugh every now and then when we see something that reminds us of the car chase scene.

Lots of good, clean fun for when you want to enjoy a comedy with kids--without having to explain any embarrassing stuff or naughty words. Also, the 70's are "in" again as well...and they make for a fun trip down memory lane for folks of Gen-X vintage (or their parents).

One reviewer complains that the movie's premise is farcical. But that is exactly what a farce should be. Perhaps someone should warn them that the computer didn't really wear tennis shoes, and Flubber doesn't really fly.

This movie is not brilliant art or deep theatre. It's goofy Disney fun from the 70s to make little kids giggle. And it succeeds perfectly at that. The pop music is hokey in a very 70s "greetings fellow kids" kind of way. But that just adds to the comedy.

I'd recommend it for 10 and under if they aren't jaded by today's aggressive programming. But our family from 20 to 60 just watched it together for a fun evening of laughs.

And it has a few of the best quotable lines ever. "We don't know why, we don't question why. MmmHmm."

The North Avenue Irregulars has Reverend Edward Herrmann, a widowr with two kids coming to town to accept the new post as pastor of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church. Trying to make a big splash he commits a grievous blunder and puts Patsy Kelly in charge of the church's bank account and she gives it to her degenerate gambler husband Douglas Fowley.

Fowley puts it on a horse that doesn't make it and guess what bookie Alan Hale,Jr. doesn't give it back. Bookies are like that.

But that inspires Herrmann to go on a crusade against the bookies. And who does he use for help, his church ladies. All this upsets the straightlaced church secretary Susan Clark.

Dean Jones must not have been available because the reverend was certainly a part Disney Studios would have earmaked for him. Herrman does fine though.

How does it work? The women are earnest but they are also wives and mothers an d not exactly schooled in their mission. That provides laughs for the audience and heartburn for T-Man Michael Constantine.

Funniest in the film are oldtimers Kelly and Fowley. But there are lots of laughs all around in this fine Disney feature.

Excellent movie...Cloris Leachman steals the show...as she usually does in any project she is in..this group of actors work wonderfully together...loved the car chasing scenes and the ending in the junkyard with its smash up derby is funny ...Disney succeeds again

How much better could it get? You have Cloris Leachman (Phyllis !), Patsy Kelly ( too fun), Alan Hale (Junior... Skipperrrr ! unfortunately, his talented dad was already dead by now), and Ruth Buzzi ! and even Michael Constantine and Karen Valentine from Room 222. strange combination of cast members. plot doesn't really matter... with all that talent, it's going to be fun, no matter what happens. Ed Hermann is the new pastor in town, and when he accidentally loses the church funds to a gambling outfit, he's determined to drive them out of town. and Mrs. Porter (Leachman) is flirting with him. it's all kind of a grand caper, but the actors all play it quite seriously, which works. When the pastor convinces the town women to work together, wacky things start to happen! Pretty funny. no big surprises, but fun entertainment. Directed by Bruce Bilson, king of television series!

This is a case of how comedy movies don't always stand the test of time. I saw this when I was a child and thought it was hilarious but upon a recent viewing, there are only a few funny moments.

Cloris Leachman (with extra long fingernails) definitely steals the show. Also look for Alan Hale Jr. who played the Skipper on "Gilligan's Island" as well as an uncredited appearance by Joan Hackett.

The film is good family fun overall and while the pacing is good,the ending is predictable and holds no surprises but alas, this is representative of most Disney movies from the 60's and 70's.

Rates a 6/10

Reverend Michael Hill (Edward Herrmann) arrives at his new parish in a small town only to find the place is rife with illegal gambling operations and corrupt police and city hall officials letting them run unimpeded. Hill in cooperation with two Treasury agents organizes a group of dedicated but clumsy Church ladies to help bust the illegal syndicates.

The North Avenue Irregulars was one of the final "gimmick" comedies to be released under Ron Miller's stewardship with the company looking to refine their image in the approaching 80s decade with film's like The Black Hole. The film was loosely based upon the memoir, The North Avenue Irregulars: A Suburb Battles the Mafia by Rev. Albert Fay Hill wherein he fought against the mob in New Rochelle, New York in the 1960s. The Walt Disney Company had procured the rights to the memoirs in 1969 one year after their publication, but it wasn't until 1977 when Don Tait wrote the screenplay. Like other Gimmick comedies from the company from around this time, The North Avenue Irregulars once again recycles familiar Disney comic caper cliches to diminishing returns that have long since worn out their welcome from the Dexter Riley series.

While based on a true story, the film features the familiar gangster archetypes that are less at the level of That Darn Cat and Blackbeard's Ghost, and are more along the lines of the A. J. Arno character from the Dexter Riley films or the generic gangster archetypes from No Deposit, No Return. Most of the movie consists of very tired gags of women stumbling over themselves as they're beauty regimens or roles as wives/mothers often cause them to stumble over themselves in "comedic" fashion. These jokes were already pretty tired and stale by the end of the 1960s, but by the late 70s when we were in the tail end of the New Hollywood era and Jaws and Star Wars were paving the way for the Blockbuster era, this movie could only feel more dated if it were in black and white and without sound. The movie isn't completely without merit. Cloris Leachman as expected brings comic energy and a few good laughs to material that is beneath her talents, and Susan Clark brings some gravity and credibility to her role as Reverend Hill's love interest/secretary.

A movie like The North Avenue Irregulars is another forgettable entry in the era of forgettable Disney. While not annoying like some of the other Disney comedies from around this time like Million Dollar Duck or Unidentified Flying Oddball, it's a film that's content to be mediocre and nothing more.

I swear, I absolutely loved this movie and I have to go out and find it to buy or buy it online. It really is one of those movies you should own. I remember my Mom, sister and I watching this as a kid. Just for giggles I rented it online and watched it tonight and was taken back to my youth and remember how hard we laughed over this movie. They don't make them like this anymore I guess (I sound old huh?) Cloris Leachman and her nail scene brought tears to my eyes just like it did the first time I saw it. Taking it to Mom's tomorrow so my nephews can watch it,I know they'll get just as big a kick out of it as we did oh so many moons ago! You want clean, family fun, rent this!

They called this "Hill's Angels" in England. "Couldn't you die?" Huh! "Couldn't you die," indeed! Before I go any further with this review....

OMG! I think it stinks! HA! What do you say to that, big shot?!

What have they done to this thing? Who the hell is in charge here, anyway? That's what I'D like to know! Where's that Bruce Bilson? Doesn't he know how to make a picture, or what?

Do I wanna make something out of it??? You bet your bottom dollar, I do! And I'm just the fella to do it, too!!!

Valentine, Capers, Clark, Leachman, Harris, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, they're all members of a special elite task force the feds put together to crack down on criminal behavior called "The North Avenue Irregulars," all of them tightly coordinated by Rev. Hill (played with geeky fever and fervor by a Hawaiian shirt-wearing Edward Herrmann), the newest padre to occupy the North Avenue Presbyterian Church pulpit.

And irregular is just the word I'm looking for to describe these harebrained shenanigans. And by "Irregular," I am (of course) referring to mean "BODILY and PHYSICALLY irregular." Like the way eating too many prunes may make you a little irregular.

Karen Valentine seems to be the only one who comes out of the whole thing smelling like a rose (others like tulips) and her rich, silly, dopey, bumbling fiancée is no Prince Valiant. Dena Dietrich plays his mom, and try as she might to cut the umbilical cord, his ineptitude as a potential husband of strawberry wafer Valentine is quite (if not charmingly) overpowering. Speaking of strawberries, we got the world premiere of the greatest bunch of non-threatening kids to ever come out of North Avenue County, The Strawberry Shortcake! Look out, Raiders! Head for the hills, Monkees! This nutty bunch of bubblegum blowers will throw a cup of ice cream saturated with sugar right smack dab into your lap. As if we could use the extra sap.

Douglas Fowley in drag? That's a little too much for me! ("Blarney Stone to Homeplate...") OY VEY! Where's the bathroom?!

Anyhow, the chase is on! And I don't have any idea why they bothered with it to begin with!

The cameos make you grin, some of them. Like Pat McCormack as an Irish bartender, or Alan Hale, Jr. As Harry The Hat, a cigar-chomping chiseler who runs an illegal OTB in the back of his dry-cleaning outfit. Frank Campanella plays the big baddie, and how unlucky we are to have this going on. Then there's the perpetually-migrained Constantine and his junior partner, the guy who looks like his first name is Dennis.... The guys who play the feds... this pairing had the potential for slapstick, but its enough to make you wanna reach for the pillow and take a slight snooze. Susan Clark does a grand job as the Reverend's (closest thing to a) love interest before the cameras, and I would've loved to have seen her in funnier stuff, and more often, too. She usually does fine when she's in more dramatic fare (the SCTV-riddled psychological sex affair "Double Negative," and the 70's biopic "Babe," to name but two) but I find her to be such a grand talent, that she could've handled broader comedy with as much ease. Ruth Buzzi is here as a Presbytery representative, but she was probably better off staying at home. Her Laugh-Inn cohort, the majestic Jo Anne Worley is sorely missing from this spit-shoeshine cast, and it may have benefited from her presence tremendously.

This Disney confectionery is ice cream, for sure, kinda like (pistachio) "Freaky Friday," (strawberry) "Gus" and (Oregon blackberry) "The Shaggy DA" were, and though it's just plain ol' vanilla most of the time, it delightedly manages to traverse between French, Vanilla Bean, and Old-Fashioned flavors quite seamlessly.

Ho hum. That's it for this review, I guess. Lemme see.... Is there anything else I forgot to mention? Hmmmm.... There's only one scene that's worth it, that's worth ANY of it, and you may know which one I'm referring to if you know me well enough, O fellow film studs and studettes out there! I think the fella what plays in it, you know, the short order cook... I think his name is something like Cliff Gordon or Cliff Norton or something like that. If my memory serves me any good, I think he was in "Kiss Me Stupid" with Kim Novak and Ray Walston (and that singer who used to ham it up with Jerry Lewis) and the nefarious snoop across the street, Chester Purkey, in Billy Wilder's valentine to the Cleveland Browns, "The Fortune Cookie."

"Fin... 2,6,8."

Is it the cutest scene in the history of movies? Hmmmm.... could be.... I'd have to double check that out for myself, but that could take a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, so for the time being, I might as well dub it CUTEST MOVIE SCENE NUMERO UNO!

Edward Herrman, the newly appointed minister at the North Avenue Church and the ladies of his congregation work with Treasury agents Michael Constantine and Steve Franken to bring down the bookies and numbers ring in their town. Like many of the Disney movies of this period, it is filled with stars and character actors of an earlier era, including Douglas Fowely and Patsy Kelly in their last roles, as well as Karen Valentine, Barbara Harris, Susan Clark and Cloris Leachman.

While the story is good, director Bruce Bilson shoots it for economy rather than effect, with the gags of pure destruction shot in tight framing and quick editing, rather than a more effective medium take and leisurely place of cutting. The result is less funny than chaotic in its impact.

For whatever reason, this was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It's the story of a reverend (the same guy who is in Gilmore Girls and who plays President Roosevelt in Annie) who comes to a new town. He and a bunch of church ladies are enlisted by the FBI to help crack down on illegal gambling in their town. The subject matter of the film is probably over the heads of some kids, but they'll love the car chases and general mayhem that abounds.

Disney just doesn't make fun films of this sort anymore. And the all-star-cast movie days seem to be over. I'm glad we have films like this to watch and remember. Everyone has their moments to shine here, but Cloris Leachman IMHO takes the cake! The scene at the end with the fingernails is a scream. This used to be very hard to find, but now it's out on DVD. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a try. It was made in '79, which adds to it's charm - all those bell bottoms & hip phrases of the time. You'll love the crash-up derby at the end. This is just a great family film.

This is one Disney film I liked very well. When I was in New York, I remembered the trailer, straight out. I liked the way the characters were played. And the action was violent, especially the crash scenes, it was not bad. Cloris Leachman did very well in her role as Claire Porter. She was a total riot throughout the movie. All the irregulars had to take action against the crooks was a wing and a prayer. And a thumbs up for each other. Armed with walkie talkies, the odds were in their favor. The one scene I didn't like is when the church caught fire. Ealier I liked the chase scene between the van and the car. The van took one jump and the car did a pop-wheelie. Then I liked where the other group mistook the railroad tracks for a short cut. Then there's the fight scene between the irregulars, and the robbers. Clarie was on the edge when the bad guys messed up her manicure. Is that a little overdoing it? Not by Claire! The "bumpercar" scene was nonstop. The irregulars maybe church-goers, but with the help of some local rock band, the congregation is uplifting. This movie was a lot of fun, I enjoyed very well. Rating 4 out of 5 stars!

This reminded me of a weekly 70's sitcom, just barely entertaining enough to make the ratings for a little. It doesn't provide much comedy, there's no romance, the bad guys are mild & you know the good guys will come out ok because it's Disney. All this is about a Pastor who moves with his two kids to another town to run a church. He appoints someone to be in charge of fund raising for the church & this results in a few thousand dollars of the church's money being gambled away. When the Pastor goes to get the money back he learns the town has a problem with bad guys running a gambling outfit & the cops are in on it. This movie is supposed to be funny because an innocent Pastor & decent church women help the FBI bust up a gambling racket by going undercover. The women don't know the first thing about gambling & crime so they mess up a lot & this is supposed to be funny. I found it mildly entertaining but not really worth renting.

What a pleasant surprise.

Given it has one of the least exciting titles out there and, on Prime Video anyway, a poor cover (the actual cover is neat, tbf) I wasn't expecting much from 'The North Avenue Irregulars'. However, I'm pleased to say I had a fun time watching it.

First things first: The plot. It's manic and rather bonkers, but they execute it nicely. I found the humour suitably amusing, while the main characters are all likeable. The run time perhaps overruns by 5-10mins, though that's nothing serious. The ending is mad, in a positive way.

The cast are good. Barbara Harris, who is terrific in 1976's 'Freaky Friday', stars alongside a whole host of other women - something I only state as it's unusual for this era of Disney. Those alongside Harris include Cloris Leachman, Virginia Capers, Susan Clark, Karen Valentine and Patsy Kelly. Elsewhere, Edward Herrmann and Michael Constantine do fine jobs.

A fun, shenanigan-filled film from 1979.

This was a lame movie, it's opening action sequence seemed to promise of great things, it went downhill after the first 7 mins. This movie is certified trash.

This movie desperately tries to be funny but nothing works, just gratuitous car chases and extraneous cameos from marginally famous and downright obscure actors. The late 70's was full of these wacky chase movies with entire cast chasing after loot or treasure but this was the worst entry. So much was happening but nothing was memorable or funny. Cloris Leachman and the rest of the cast are just horrid.

It's interesting to see that the majority of reviewers deliberately mentioned that this movie has stood the test of time. I think it is an art to create hilarity like this. You have to have an uncomplicated head, which is probably why it is not done today.

The Disney Channel used to air their old great family films on a late night, maybe early a.m. venue called "Vault Disney." It's gone. I taped every one I found. Unfortunately, they went on VHS at that time, and they haven't transferred very well to DVD. However, more of these are showing up on DVD online all the time.

There was one called something like, "The One and Only Family Band." I think there were more words, but John Davidson and Leslie Warren were in it with Walter Brennan and others. "The Happiest Millionaire" was in the lineup, with an older Greer Garson and Fred MacMurray. It's a musical family piece, which is very funny. These were well done also.

"North Avenue" is hilarious, fresh and great fun. Lots of good clean energy.

It's your typical Disney movie. A little slow at first but as the plot picks up so does the comedy - especially at the end. If you're in the mood for a good laugh, I recommend watching "The North Avenue Irregulars".

Yes, it's dated but still hilarious. I saw this in the theater with my mom when it first came out and it's even funnier today than it was then.

Good family comedy with lots of slapstick to keep the kids entertained but plenty of humor to get laughs out of the grownups.

The "Family Film" label is too often attached to children's films, which have nothing to offer adults or more mature adolescence. "North Avenue Irregulars" is still a Disney film, and it still caters to a younger audience, but, unlike other so-called family-films, this movie won't insult the intelligence of the adolescent nor college age film viewer.

Again, even though it has a little more spunk than other Disney films, it is, afterall, a Disney film. As such the topic of locals tackleing organized crime is kept G-rated (clean language, minimal violence, and so forth), but the comic moments and action balance quite well in one of the last of the truly classic Disney Family Films.

Anyone who grew up in the suburban 70's and 80's will feel very much at home with the portrayal of what used to be suburban America; everything from the PTA mom down to the wood paneled station wagon. It's worth a night's viewing.