The Inheritance

John Litel is not a name that many people would know but he's one of the many faces of the 1950s and '60s television shows that is very familiar. He had a ton of TV roles in the '50s and he usually played very tough guys. His resume of films in the 1940s is a long one and includes a few famous movies, although most are pretty unknown. (I counted about 90 roles in 1940s movies!)

In this episode, he plays a blind, bed-ridden dying man named "Clint Davis" who offers Josh Randall $2,000 if he can find his son, who had run away from home when he was 15. The dying dad wants to atone for his years of mean treatment to his kid......so Josh has to go looking for him.

The sheriff of the town and his deputy also try to help Josh. The sheriff is played by John Anderson, a tall and lanky guy you also you saw a million times on TV back in this period.. Although rarely in the old days of TV and movies do you find the sheriff a bad guy, you just know there is something wrong with this guy if Eldredge is playing him, because he was almost always a villain.. That's all I'll say, not wanting to ruin the story, which is a decent one and will have you in suspense.

Note: Famous feature film actor George Kennedy has an uncredited bit part in this episode.

Nice surprises in this one where a rich father hires Josh to find his long lost son. The catch here is that the father is blind and doesn't have a picture of the son. He only knows that he carries a locket his mother gave him.

Guess star John Anderson was on numerous Westerns of the period, including the Rifleman 11 times and Gunsmoke 12 times. This was his only appearance on "Wanted." He's used to good effect, playing an unusual and surprising role.

I really liked that the episode shows that Josh isn't as money-hungry as he sometimes appears. He is willing to give all his money back $2,000 when he realizes that he has not done his job properly.

The minimal gun-play and reliance on clever and surprising twists makes this an excellent episode.