From Mill Creek comes the complete collection of the Steve McQueen star making television series “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” Easily one of my favorite Western action series of all time, Steve McQueen plays the complex and often swift anti-hero and bounty hunter Josh Randall. Brandishing his trademark sawed off shotgun named “The Mare’s Leg,” Randall travels across the country capturing his latest bounties and being forced to often travel alongside them.
This forces him to confront their own enemies, engage in a battle of wits with them, or make potentially deadly decisions about their roles as his bounty. McQueen’s role as Randall is as charismatic and exciting as it’s ever been, and “Wanted: Dead or Alive” manages to stand on its own as a subversive and very ahead of its time western thriller. Much in the realm of heroes like Matt Dillon, McQueen as Randall is a flawed and fallible character that struggles with his work, but really is bound to it until the very end.
McQueen is fantastic in the role of Randall, diving head first in to this charismatic and deadly hero, and it’s not a surprise he’d carry that over in to great fare like “Nevada Smith,” and “The Magnificent Seven.” Lasting three seasons whole, “Wanted: Dead or Alive” garners an excellent list of respective guest stars including Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Mary Tyler Moor, and Clu Galager among many. There are also the four colorized episodes when the series shifted formats slightly with the episodes. Among them, there are “The Martin Poster” in which Josh Randall seeks revenge on a pair of brothers for murdering a local Marshall.
There’s “The Favor” in where Randall tracks a robbery suspect, “Six-Up to Bannach” where Randall races to stop a man from being executed, and “Reunion for Revenge” in where Randall has to confront a band of men who want to murder his latest bounty. The DVD set garners five featurettes about the series including a segment about the Mare’s Leg, the Women of the series, and the Winchester. There’s also a photo gallery of the original “Wanted: Dead or Alive” comic book, and as an added bonus, one of McQueen’s earliest roles “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery.”
Now Available. Buy It Here.