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Hellbent for Letterbox

Paxton Holley and Michael May talk Westerns in movies and sometimes other media.
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Hellbent for Letterbox
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All Episodes
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Now displaying: Page 1
Feb 14, 2025

For Valentine's Day, Michael and Pax watch the Western romance, The Dead Don't Hurt, written and directed by Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen also wrote the score and acted alongside the movie's real star, Vicky Krieps. The film also features Danny Huston and Deadwood favorites W Earl Brown and Ray McKinnon.

Jan 25, 2025

Mike and Pax discuss another OK Corral movie, this one starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as Wyatt and Doc.  And with appearances by DeForest Kelley, Jack Elam, and Dennis Hopper.

Jan 10, 2025

Michael and Pax finally revisit Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a movie that Michael liked on first viewing, but Pax didn't, and neither has seen in a very long time. 

Dec 21, 2024

Mike and Pax discuss The Old Way from 2023 starring Nic Cage.

Nov 22, 2024

Always on the lookout for Westerns starring women, Michael and Pax watch Lamont Johnson's Cattle Annie and Little Britches. Amanda Plummer and Diane Lane insert themselves into a demotivated outlaw gang (run by Burt Lancaster and Scott Glenn) as it tries to avoid capture by Marshal Rod Steiger. 

Pax also watches The Thicket (2024) while Michael takes a look at Heart of Arizona (1938) and The Bold Caballero (1936).
Nov 13, 2024

In this episode Mike and Pax discuss another Clint Eastwood western, Joe Kidd, also starring Robert Duvall, John Saxon, and directed by John Sturges.

Oct 31, 2024

Michael stretches the definitions of both "Western" and "Horror" when he makes Pax and guest Shawn Robare watch House II: The Second Story. Though it does have undead cowboys. The movie is the sequel to 1985's House and stars Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano, John Ratzenberger, Bill Maher, and Lar Park-Lincoln.

Oct 19, 2024

It's October!  Check out the first of Hellbent's Halloween episodes where Mike and Pax are joined by Shawn Robare to discuss Knife for the Ladies from 1974 starring Jack Elam!

Oct 11, 2024

Michael and Pax finish watching the Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott Westerns with Comanche Station, also starring Nancy Gates and Claude Akins.

And Michael also watched a couple of 1930s Westerns: Buck Jones and Louise Brooks in Empty Saddles (1936) and William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy in Partners of the Plains (1938).
Sep 20, 2024

Mike and Pax discuss a listener request; The Last Train from Gun Hill from 1959 starring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.

Sep 4, 2024

Michael and Pax welcome back Evan Hanson (the Classic Film Jerks podcast) as we get back to Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott's Ranown Westerns. This time Scott plays a Union officer tasked with transporting gold from California to Washington DC through Confederate-sympathizing territory. Westbound also features Karen Steele, Michael Dante, Andrew Duggan, Michael Pate, and Virginia Mayo.

Aug 21, 2024

Mike and Pax welcome hosts of the New Classic Film Jerks, Evan and Jeff, to discuss a Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western, The Grand Duel from 1972.

Jul 12, 2024

Michael and Pax celebrate a listener's birthday with a Sam Elliott Western, specifically The Shadow Riders, a TV movie co-starring Tom Selleck. It was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and also features Katharine Ross, Ben Johnson, and Geoffrey Lewis.

Pax also watches James Arness and Angie Dickinson in Gun the Man Down (1956).
Jun 12, 2024

In this episode Mike and Pax are discussing the western comedy Cat Ballou starring Jane Fonda as Cat Ballou and Lee Marvin as the drunken, washed up gunfighter Kid Shelleen.

May 29, 2024

Michael and Pax continue celebrating their birth month with movies from their birth years. This time, Michael picks John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in Burt Kennedy's The War Wagon. The movie also features Howard Keel, Robert Walker Jr, Keenan Wynn, Valora Noland, Bruce Cabot, and (briefly) Bruce Dern.

Pax also talks about the comic Ladies with Guns by Olivier Bocquet and Anlor.
May 21, 2024

For the month of May, Michael and Pax are doing movies released within their birth year.  First, up, Pax picks the Blacksploitation western Boss from 1974 starring Fred Williamson.

Apr 26, 2024

Michael and Pax continue April Fools Month, talking about movies that are Western-connected if not actual Western movies themselves. For this episode, we talk about Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure featuring time-traveling historical figures like Billy the Kid.

Apr 17, 2024

Happy April Fool's Month!  In this episode Mike and Pax cover Bloodrayne 2: Deliverance which features Pat Garrett and a vampire Billy the Kid!

Mar 27, 2024

Michael and Pax continue exploring the Ranown Westerns with Budd Boetticher's Buchanan Rides Alone, starring Randolph Scott and also featuring one of our favorites, LQ Jones. And Pax reads a Western detective novel, Holmes on the Range.

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.

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