AllMovie

In this feature-length pilot for an unsold TV series, Bo Hopkins, Tim Matheson and Jim Davis star as Ezel, Owens, and Buckshot, three men carving out a living as the owners of a Mississippi river tugboat. Balancing comedy with melodrama, the story manages to involve our heroes with a gang of hijackers and kidnappers. The film originally aired March 24, 1975, on NBC. For its subsequent overseas release, The Runaway Barge was retitled River Bandits.