"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.
Review of Wanted: Dead or Alive
