Hellbent for Letterbox

This time on Hellbent Pax and Michael discuss the 1965 TV series The Wild Wild West starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin.  We talk about the stars, we talk about the villains, we go all through our favorite episodes.  It's a deep dive into the 4 season long TV series.

Michael and Pax finally watch the epic classic from directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall; starring Carroll Baker, Debbie Reynolds, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, and George Peppard. And with cameos by everyone else alive at the time. Does it live up to its reputation? Will the fellas finally be able to tell it apart from  Once Upon a Time in the West ? Only one way to find out. A...

This episode Michael and Pax delve back into the world of spaghetti westerns with the Lee Van Cleef vehicle, Sabata, about a supernaturally accurate gun for hire and the crazy cast of characters he meets on the job.  

Michael and Pax deal with the shock of realizing that Tom Gries'  100 Rifles is not the light-hearted heist movie they expected from the cast of Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, and Burt Reynolds. But before they get to that, there's some discussion of the TV show  Rawhide , the comic book  Brimstone , and the 1965 film  Cat Ballou . Closing music for this episode by Daniel Pemberton from his score to  Th...

Much of our discussion with guest Chris Schweizer happened outside of the shows we recorded.  Here's a part of our discussion where we talk about a bunch of different western movies and books.

Michael and Pax are once again joined by Chris Schweizer to talk about Lawrence Kasdan's 1994 historical biopic, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid.  And a literal cast of thousands.  We talk a bit about the history of the movie, we talk about Costner during the mid 90s, we also compare this movie a lot with Tombstone.  It's a good juicy discussion.  Join us!

After a brief  in memoriam  for Bill Paxton, Michael and Pax are joined by historical-adventure comics writer/artist Chris Schweizer ( The Crogan Adventures ) for the first part of an OK Corral double-feature. Chris brings his extensive knowledge of the turbulent making of  Tombstone  as well as the original script. What works, what doesn't, and how did the movie get that way? We talk about it all...

In this episode of Hellbent Michael and Pax discuss the 1985 ensemble western Silverado starring Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy and Jeff Goldblum.  

Pax and Michael dig into the first '30s Western on the podcast, George Marshall's  Destry Rides Again  starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart. And in "Whatcha Been Westerning," Michael recommends  The Duel  (2016) starring Woody Harrelson and Liam Hemsworth.

Pax and Michael discuss the 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma starring Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda and Alan Tudyk.

Pax and Michael discuss one of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott's many collaborations. Ride Lonesome  also stars  James Best, Pernell Roberts, James Coburn, Karen Steele, and Lee Van Cleef. Plus: Season 1 of Westworld and Marvel's Apache Skies mini-series by John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco.

This week Pax and Michael discuss the 1989 TV series, The Young Riders, starring Ty Miller, Stephen Baldwin and Josh Brolin.   We talk about the premise of the show, the obvious connections to the Young Guns franchise and whether or not we thought it succeeded on its own merits.

Pax and Michael discuss Danish director Kristian Levring's  The Salvation , starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Also:  HBO's Westworld ,  Warlock  (1959), Gunfight at the OK Corral  (1957), and listener mail!

Before he was Doctor McCoy, DeForest Kelley was a cowboy. On this Hitchin' Post episode of Hellbent for Letterbox , Michael visits with author Kristine M Smith whose freelance writing career was launched by DeForest Kelley in 1969. It was DeForest and his wife Carolyn who encouraged Kris to try Hollywood on for size, which she did from 1989 to 2003. Most of Kris's Hollywood career was spent at War...

Pax and Michael are joined again by DiGio and Bloom of the Classic Film Jerks podcast . One of our favorite parts of the Classic Film Jerks show is when they re-cast older movies with modern actors, so we did that with 1988's  Young Guns , each of us picking new actors to play the six main characters and maybe a side character or three. 

Michael and Pax welcome our very first guests this episode.  We are joined by Digio and Bloom from the Classic Film Jerks podcast and all four of us discuss the classic western remake, The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke.

Pax and Michael get ready for the upcoming remake by sitting down with the original  Magnificent Seven  starring  Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Brad Dexter,  Horst Buchholz, and Eli Wallach. We also revisit DC's  Justice Riders , talk over Chuck Dixon and John Buscema's  Punisher: A Man Named Frank , discuss Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy in  Blackthorn ,...

In this special Hitchin' Post Michael and Pax delve a little bit more into Sergio Leone's influences by discussing the 1961 samurai classic Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa which was the influence behind A Fistful of Dollars.  We also discuss the 1998 TV movie Dollar for the Dead starring Emilio Estevez which itself was inspired by Leone's Dollars Trilogy.

In this episode, Pax and Michael finish Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy with the epic  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach. It's the longest of the trilogy, but is it the best? And how does it fit in with the other two? Tune in as we hash that out, right after a discussion of the Weird Western comic  The Sixth Gun , William R. Cox's novel  The Guns...

Pax and Michael continue exploring the Dollars Trilogy with the second installment,  For a Few Dollars More , starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and a bunch of Sergio Leone's other favorite actors. We talk about the difference in Eastwood's character between  Fistful of Dollars  and this one, and we also start the discussion of whether or not the Dollars Trilogy works as a straightforward sto...

In this episode Mike and Pax start their three episode look at Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy.  We start with the movie that made Clint Eastwood a star, 1964's A Fistful of Dollars.  We talk about our history with this movie, we talk about Clint's performance, Ennio Morricone's score and we even discuss the rarely seen 4 minute CBS TV prologue filmed with Harry Dean Stanton.

At last! Pax and Michael discuss one of the greatest Westerns of all time. Or at least, certainly one of their very favorites. Grab your feather cape and gather 'round the campfire as we talk about the comedy classic starring Tom Berenger, GW Bailey, Marilu Henner, Sela Ward, Andy Griffith, and Carson from  Downton Abbey . Also up for discussion are the comic book series Six-Gun Gorilla, Trailblaz...

Michael and Pax this week are watching the John Ford classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Lee Van Cleef and Woody Strode.  Before we talk about the movie we mention other things we're doing like reading the comics Galveston, Manifest Destiny, Kid Colt Outlaw and watching the movie The Big Trail starring a young John Wayne. 87bbvdpk

Pax and Michael bring noodles and meatballs to the campfire with the podcast's first Spaghetti Western episode. It's the Sergio Leone classic, How the West ... no, wait...  Once Upon a Time in the West . Keep getting those confused. Pax also shares Western reads  To Hell on a Fast Horse and the two  Rawhide Kid mini-series, Slap Leather and  The Sensational Seven . Michael discusses the weirdness...

This week Michael and Pax are talking about The Quick and the Dead from 1995 directed by Sam Raimi and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.