WANTED: THE SUNDANCE WOMAN (TV)
(director: Lee Philips; screenwriter: Richard Fielder; cinematographer: Terry K. Meade; editor: Sam E. Beetley; music: Fred Karlin; cast: Katherine Ross (Etta Place/Mrs. Sundance / Annie Martin / Bonnie Doris), Stella Stevens (Lola Wilkins), Steve Forrest (Det. Charlie Siringo), Michael Constantine (David Baker /Dave Riley, Shopkeeper), Hector Elizondo (Pancho Villa), Hector Elias (Fierro), Warren Berlinger (Sheriff), Katherine Helmund (Mattie Riley), Lucille Benson (Elsie), Jorge Cervera Jr. ( Maj. Vasquez); Runtime: 97; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Ron Preissman; 20th Century Fox Television; 1976)
“It’s not that bad for a TV movie, but is still below average.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The former schoolteacher and outlaw moll Etta Pace is again played by Katharine Ross, reprising her role from the original film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969. This one is the sequel to the 1974 TV movie Mrs. Sundance Rides Again, that starred Elizabeth Montgomery in the Etta Place role. “Wanted” is directed by Lee Philips (“Barnum”/”Mae West”) and the teleplay is written by Richard Fielder. It’s not that bad for a TV movie, but is still below average. It’s 1903 and Etta is a wanted woman using an alias while hiding out in an Arizona border town, Nogales, as a general store clerk for the past year. Etta travels alone since her ‘Hole-in-the-Wall Gang’ lover has been killed in Bolivia a few years ago. The obsessed Pinkerton detective, Charlie Siringo (Steve Forrest), relentlessly pursues her in town but she escapes his grasp. Instead the detective arrests her employer, the general store owner Dave Baker (Michael Constantine), for harboring a fugitive. Etta returns to stay in town unrecognized in the boarding house of an old friend, Lola Wilkins (Stella Stevens), as she schemes to break Dave out of jail. When Etta learns that one of her former outlaw friends is riding with the nearby Pancho Villa (Hector Elizondo), just across the border, she schemes with the womanizing revolutionary leader to break Dave out of jail and in return informs him how to get rifles being shipped by train to the Mexican army. There are hints of a romance between Pancho and Etta, but their relationship seems forced and unconvincing for any romance to be believed. Though the production values are decent, aside from Ross the acting is far from memorable and the film lacks a telling storyline.
REVIEWED ON 6/5/2017 GRADE: C+ https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/