Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

revtg1-3 I was beginning to think this show was believable until I saw McQueen fanning the hammer on a sawed-off lever action rifle. The mistake most actors made, even big stars, was to jack the lever two or three time before shooting. As if moving the lever up and down gave them something to do to pass the time. Mutton-headed movie directors never seem to understand what that lever is for. Then I saw McQueen in at least two episodes fire his rifle twice without ever using the cocking lever. Just passing the palm of his hand over the hammer as if it were a single action pistol. That says out loud, we don't know what we are doing so just play along and act like you believe it.

qormi Okay, it's a tossup between Wanted Dead or Alive and The Rifleman. Both shows were no-nonsense westerns and featured very intense actors in the lead. Steve McQueen was just as good in this series as he was in all his subsequent big screen movies. He was a very gifted actor; a prodigy. McQueen had so may subtle, nonverbal nuances and when he delivered his lines, it was completely believable. Like Chuck Connors' Lucas McCain from The Rifleman, McQueen's Josh Randall was a strong, authentic character, although where McCain was an outgoing rancher, Randall was moody and aloof, as would befit a bounty hunter's character. Both men were quick to deal with the bad guys and showed little mercy. Both shows were consistently well-made, with high production values. Unlike many westerns of the genre, Wanted Dead or Alive and The Rifleman have stood the test of time. Too bad there's nothing like these shows on television now.

hondo551 I'm just old enough to remember when Wanted Dead or Alive was first run, when I first went to the show to see The Magnificent Seven, and when I first realized Steve McQueen was on his way to being a "star".I received the boxed set of the first season of this groundbreaking show this past Christmas and have been having great fun with it ever since. McQueen is the real star of the show, honing his craft for later career moves, with the truly offbeat story lines and resolutions coming in a close second.Forget that it's 1877, he was in the Union Army in 1864, which would make him 8-10 years older than his real age at the time. Forget that his sawed off Winchester 1892 didn't exist in this time frame, that it fired short pistol ammunition like .44-40 and possibly .45 Colt, that it couldn't possibly accept the long .30-30 cartridges on his belt that weren't developed until the Winchester 1894 came along. In the first episode he has to bury a murdered doctor and he pulls a U.S. military shovel circa 1944 from under his saddle. While he puts 19th century cuffs on some prisoners, ties some with rope, on one occasion he puts old fashioned leg irons on a prisoner's hands, way too dangerous and way too stupid for a pro like Josh Randall. In a feat too fantastic to believe, an outlaw takes away his sawed off Winchester and removes the firing pin without the aid of tools and without so much as removing the bolt from the receiver. Of course there's also that sawed off rifle of his that sometimes has a D-ring on the lever and sometimes a teardrop ring, a gun barrel that changes from round to hexagon, and a gun barrel that always has a bigger bore than the .30 caliber slug in a .30-30 shell. And let's not forget that the outdoor scenes seldom match the geography of the story lines and that more times than not they use the same western street sound stage for towns ranging from Wyoming to Arizona to Texas with just the store front names changing! All this in just the first half of the first season. LOL The show is all about watching McQueen, watching the offbeat stories that sometimes beg for more time for storytelling, and watching for all the goofs. It's great fun and well worth the time even 50 years later!

jeffhill1 "Wanted: Dead or Alive" is currently playing weekly on Sapporo televsion. When I watch it now, I am reminded of a biography I read of Steve McQueen in 1971 that described arguments young actor McQueen often had with the producers of the show at the time. As is evidenced by what I see almost every week now, the scripts were forever having Josh Randall surrounded by two, three, or four big guys, and Josh Randall diving in to get in as many first strike punches as possible before they beat him up. According to the biography, almost every time McQueen read such a script, he would protest the stupidity of such a scenario. But he was always overruled by the studio brass. But what bothers me much more than the suicidal actions of Josh Randall in the script is the mechanical impossibility of the sawed off Winchester rifle he carried. First of all, the four inch long cartridges he carried would have been far too big to insert into the side slot of the rifle. Secondly, it the rifle had somehow been modified to permit insertion of the elephantine cartridges, the sawed off tube of a magazine below the barrel would have been able to hold three rounds at most. And yet, in the series Josh Randal is often pumping rapid fire shots like a semi-automatic assault rifle. Incidentally, "Wanted Dead or Alive" never shows Josh Randall inserting the cartridges into the weapon and the series almost never shows Josh Randall with his cartridge belt anything but completely full. In other words, he is often shooting his rifle but never using his supply of cartridges.