User Reviews

Veteran actor Everett Sloane plays a bitter old man-father figure who hires Josh "and every other bounty hunter I can find" to track down the man he holds responsible for his son's death.

Actually, it's a woman that first caused his son to accidentally die, but you'll have to watch the episode to see how that all went down. Suffice to say "Tate Bradley" (Sloane) wants revenge big-time.

Josh finds him fast (it's only a half-hour TV show) and captures him without a struggle, actually helping him fend off three bullies in another town and then accidentally discovering who he was when the man shook hands and thanked Randall. "Tony Egan" (Les Johnson) tells Josh his story, that it was just an accident. Josh doesn't care; he wants to do his job and get paid.

Complications arise, however, on two fronts: the old man isn't paying him until Egan hangs; the town is going to make sure that doesn't happen. They like Egan and not too happy with Josh over bringing him in. All of sudden, Randall has nothing but a hostile town against him. Actually, I am making this sound a little more dramatic than it was, although it got a bit hairy near the end. For most of this, nothing much happened but McQueen was his "cool" self and made it worth watching......once.

Everett Sloane was a pretty intense character actor in most of the roles I have seen him in. He committed suicide in 1965.

Even after death, Orson Welles would badmouth Sloane on his frequent TV appearances on talk shows. You had to live in that era to remember how Orson Welles seemed to pop up all the time on talk shows, and he never had a lot to say that was nice about anyone. Welles had a grudge against Sloane because he quit Welles' Mercury Players during filming of Othello in 1951.

Here in this "Reckless" episode of Wanted, Sloane is the bitter and very angry father of Ron Hayes, who was killed in the first scene. Hayes was engaged to Jean Allison, who often played mean or arrogant ladies in most roles. When Hayes was not ready to take her to the barn dance, she immediately spotted Les Johnson, who was ready to go.

Allison tramped out to his buggy and asked him to be her date. Hayes ran out and asked her to stay, but she got on the buggy. Then Johnson whipped the horses and they ran over Hayes and killed him. I do not understand how that was an accident, it seemed pretty intentional.

I can see why Sloane would be upset, especially since he got run down too, and ended up crippled. Two victims, and no charges brought against Johnson? Hardly seemed fair.

Randall brings in Johnson on Sloane's personal bounty, and Sloane refuses to pay the ransom unless Randall kills Johnson. Sloane really ramped up the conflicts in this episode.

The Sheriff, played by Mark Allen, is clearly a friend of Johnson. Allen comes down hard on Randall, and threatens his safety too. I did not like this episode much because everyone pushes Randall around. It would have been nice to see Randall face off against the bullying Sheriff.