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Hellbent for Letterbox

Paxton Holley (Nerd Lunch, Cult Film Club) and Michael May (Dragonfly Ripple, Starmaggedon) talk Westerns in movies and sometimes other media.
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Hellbent for Letterbox
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Now displaying: Page 1
Mar 14, 2024

Mike and Pax are joined by their good buddy Jeeg to discuss the 1973 Eastern meets Western, Shanghai Joe starring Chen Lee and Klaus Kinski.

Feb 23, 2024

Michael and Pax celebrate the 150th episode of Hellbent with last year's Bass Reeves mini-series starring David Oyelowo, Lauren E Banks, and Forrest Goodluck. And guest-starring Barry Pepper, Shea Whigham, Dennis Quaid, and Donald Sutherland. 

Pax also talks about his recent guest-appearance on the Authorized Novelizations Podcast discussing Theodore Sturgeon's novelization of The Rare Breed.
Feb 16, 2024

Michael and Pax foray once more into western comedy with the Mae West classic, My Little Chickadee, from 1940 costarring WC Fields.

Dec 19, 2023

Michael and Pax resume their tour of the Ranown Westerns directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. In Decision at Sundown, Scott comes to town gunning for vengeance against the community's most powerful citizen, but Scott's not saying exactly why. The movie also features John Carroll, Karen Steele, Valerie French, John Archer, and Noah Beery Jr.

And in a special Christmas-themed edition of Whatchoo Been Westernin'? the fellas talk about Jack Palance as the title character in Ebenezer, a Western retelling of A Christmas Carol that also stars Ricky Schroeder.
Dec 8, 2023

Mike and Pax talk about the other 1969 western starring Robert Redford and Katharine Ross.  This one also kind of based on true events.

Oct 27, 2023

Michael, Pax, and their Crestwood House podcast co-host Shawn Robare talk about another weird Western just in time for Halloween. The prairie is full of eerie isolation in Emma Tammi's independent film, The Wind, starring Caitlin Gerard, Ashley Zukerman, Julia Goldani Telles, and Dylan McTee.

Oct 12, 2023

It's Friday the 13th! Mike and Pax are joined by their Crestwood House co-host Shawn Robare to begin the Halloween season with Grim Prairie Tales from 1990 starring James Earl Jones, Brad Dourif, William Atherton, and Marc McClure.

Sep 22, 2023

Michael and Pax are in the mood for some Ranown Westerns, starting with The Tall T. Directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, of course. Co-starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Richard Boone. And based on a story by Elmore Leonard.

Also: Michael checks out a stage production of the classic Shane.
Sep 1, 2023

Mike and Pax take a look at the Humphrey Bogart classic Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Aug 4, 2023

Michael accidentally pulls a fast one and makes Pax watch a non-historical Western, John Sturges' The Walking Hills. It stars Randolph Scott and Ella Raines as two members of a party that enters the desert dunes looking for a lost wagon train and (according to legend) the gold that it was carrying.

But even though the movie takes place in the 1940s, the comic Pax read does not. It's the Sixth Gun mini-series Shadow Roads.
Jul 21, 2023

Pax and Michael tackle another western-comedy.  This one stars George Segal and Goldie Hawn and is directed by White Christmas' Melvin Frank!

Jun 9, 2023

Michael and Pax watch the Coen Brothers' anthology movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Plus, Pax listens to the 1001 Stories from the Old West podcast and Michael watches The Secret of Convict Lake (1951) and Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949).

May 11, 2023

Mike and Pax try not to break out into a blood feud when they delve into the History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton.

Apr 21, 2023

Michael and Pax return to the world of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove with the chronologically second mini-series in the saga, Comanche Moon, starring Steve Zahn, Karl Urban, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Banks, Melanie Lynskey, Wes Studi, and Val Kilmer.

Plus: quick thoughts on Robert McCammon's Trevor Lawson books and the movies Station West (1948) and Westward the Women (1951).
Apr 5, 2023

Mike and Pax discuss another Clint Eastwood western, Hang em High from 1968!

Mar 22, 2023

Michael, Pax, and guest Evan Hanson wrap up their Zorro double-feature with the movie that started it all, the silent classic The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Mar 1, 2023

Zorro Double Feature! In this episode we start with The Mask of Zorro from 1998 starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Sir Anthony Hopkins.  And we are joined by our good friend Evan Hansen.

Feb 22, 2023

Michael and Pax watch the Robert Altman revisionist classic, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie with smaller roles for Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, and Rene Auberjonois. 

Pax also checks out Sukiyaki Western Django (2008) and Michael watches a couple of older films: Union Pacific (1939) and Gentle Annie (1944).
Feb 3, 2023

In this episode Mike and Pax are joined by their friend Jeeg to discuss the South Korean western adventure The Good the Bad and the Weird from 2008.

Dec 24, 2022

In this special holiday episode, Michael and Pax watch John Ford's adaptation of Peter B Kyne's Christmas Western novel, The Three Godfathers. Starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr.

Pax also watches a variety of Christmas episodes of TV Westerns and Michael catches up on a spooky Western, From Hell to the Wild West (2017), as well as Walter Hill's new film, Dead for a Dollar.
Dec 8, 2022

For this episode Mike and Pax put on their snow furs and galoshes to discuss this snowbound western by Sergio Corbucci, The Great Silence from 1968!

Oct 28, 2022

Michael and Pax stretch the definitions of both Western and Horror in this second Halloween pick, The Valley of Gwangi starring James Franciscus, Gila Golan, and Richard Carlson. And with visual effects by Ray Harryhausen.

But their Westernin' picks this month are full on horror-related as Pax reads Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell, and Jim Terry's vampire comic West of Sundown, and Michael watches Sam Shepard's Western ghost story Silent Tongue and the super cheesy Teenage Monster.
Oct 18, 2022

For the first of our spooky Halloween double feature, Mike and Pax discuss the newer cowboys vs witches horror wester, The Pale Door from 2020.

Sep 23, 2022

Michael, Pax, and Shawn Robare travel with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford in Robert Aldrich's The Frisco Kid.

Sep 9, 2022

On this episode Mike and Pax are joined by Shawn Robare to discuss the Anthony Mann western Tin Star (1957) starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins.

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