Hellbent for Letterbox

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!

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).

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 .

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.

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 Bre...

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

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 ed...

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

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.

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.

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 .

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

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 G...

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

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).

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.