The Searchers

We know you loyal listeners aren't chicken… or are you? Following Ghostwatch and Legend, The Searchers punch their tickets for the last train of spooky season, and the irony is thick: Ben, our resident horror hater, made the most horror pick of the bunch! It's Terror Train (1980), a movie pitched as "Halloween on a train" (even though it's New Year's?) so this year Halloween comes with a caboose. It stars a young Jamie Lee Curtis in her early scream queen days, with one of our faves, John Ford regular Ben Johnson, as the conductor, and a young David Copperfield as the magician on board! We dig into Roger Spottiswoode's directing debut (yes, the future Tomorrow Never Dies guy), Kubrick cinematographer John Alcott lighting those cramped train cars with Christmas lights, and the Ford advice that had Ben Johnson asking for fewer lines. Plus we watch the 2022 Tubi remake trailer live, play our Letterboxd guess-the-rating game, and pitch a silent movie told in text messages. Did Ben survive his own pick? All aboard to find out!

Hey, everyone, spooky season continues, and this time Kevin leads us into the dark forest of Legend (1985). It's Tom Cruise's only team-up with Ridley Scott, a year before Ridley's brother Tony made Cruise a box-office giant with Top Gun. Throw in Mia Sara in her first film and Tim Curry under a whole lot of prosthetics. Which cut did we watch? The theatrical, Tangerine Dream score and all, so yes, there's a Director's Cut debate. We also dig into the forest built on a soundstage, the editing that left Chris saying "the beat's off," and why Jack might just be Link. Is it unicorn-worthy, or should it have stayed in the dark? Tune in to find out! PS: A fond farewell to the great Tim Curry, who made Darkness unforgettable.

Two episodes in one day? It's a double drop! Hot on the heels of The Haunted Palace (1963), Ben and Chris trade the haunted castle for the high seas with The Searchers' first-ever pirate movie: Robert Siodmak's The Crimson Pirate (1952), starring Burt Lancaster and his old circus partner Nick Cravat, with Eva Bartok and a young Christopher Lee. Is a swashbuckler a fair October pick? Is Burt swinging from the masts doing his own stunts the most Jackie-coded thing in Golden Age Hollywood? What does the "Crimson" in the title have to do with the Hollywood blacklist? Plus a brand-new guess-the-Letterboxd-rating game, a hair-raising Christopher Lee stunt story straight out of a Lancaster biography, some listener mail, and Ben powering through a cold. Listen and find out! Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. Thank you. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched. Ben, Chris, & Kevin Our episode catalogue: https://searchersfilmpodcast.podbean.com/

Horror Adjacent™ Month rolls on! With Kevin off the trail this time, Ben and Chris light the torches for Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace (1963), starring Vincent Price in a dual role opposite Debra Paget (in her final film), Lon Chaney Jr., and Elisha Cook Jr. It's sold as "Edgar Allan Poe's," but it's really H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and the guys can't get over the irony of the first major Lovecraft movie getting credited to Poe. Is this Price's most fleshed-out role of the Corman era? How do you finance a movie with the change in a pay phone's coin slot? And why does Albert Pyun keep coming up? Add fire effects that hold up, makeup that doesn't quite, a pitch for a Mr. Vampire bonus episode, and a closing Vincent Price impression. Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. Thank you. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched. Ben, Chris, & Kevin Our episode catalogue: https://searchersfilmpodcast.podbean.com/

Hey, everyone! So Chris and Kevin have been hopping on the documentary train even when they don’t realize it! Following our coverage of the mockumentary, Waiting for Guffman, and a real documentary, Linsanity, the dudes jump onto the horror pseudo-documentary, Ghostwatch, from 1992. It’s not just any simple horror flick! This little gem scared the bejeezus out of viewers when it first aired on BBC1. Can art transcend such boundaries through a special live broadcast format nowadays, or are we past it? Tune in to hear the guys wax poetic on this unexpected kick-off to Horror Adjacent season here on The Searchers! Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. Thank you. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched. Ben, Chris, & Kevin

Ben and Chris try something very different with their first Searchers review of a Spanish language film. Was it a terrible idea? Listen and find out. 

The Searchers are running the mainstream trail on this last episode before Horror Adjacent™ Month. Kevin and Chris cover whiny Spike Lee's claim to fame, Do the Right Thing (1989). Ben definitely did not use his newborn as an excuse to skip this episode.  Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched. Ben, Chris, & Kevin Our episode catalogue: https://searchersfilmpodcast.podbean.com/ Follow Mitch on Letterboxd, HERE. Also, find him on his podcast is on YouTube, HERE. 

On the latest entry of The Searchers, Ben is joined by returning guest Mitch Capps to cover not a Western but a "Western-adjacent" film. This time we're going back to a favorite director of the show, John Ford, with his early talkie The Lost Patrol starring Victor McLaglen and Boris Karloff. Listen as we compare this to the rest of Ford's filmography, discuss McLaglen's career, evaluate religious symbolism in Boris Karloff's performance, and maybe a very random DCU tangent. Is this John Ford movie a hidden oasis out on the trail? Listen and find out. Thanks for listening, y'all! Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched. Ben, Chris, & Kevin Our episode catalogue: https://searchersfilmpodcast.podbean.com/ Follow Mitch on Letterboxd, HERE. Also, find him on his podcast is on YouTube, HERE.   

Back to Hollywood's Golden Age! Following our recent episode on David Lean's The Passionate Friends, Chris picks another gem from the '40s: Vincente Minnelli's The Clock, starring Judy Garland opposite Robert Walker. Does the perfect romance film exist? Take it from Haddaway: "What Is Love?" This one makes a strong case — strangers on a New York street become strangers on a train, and strangers fearing the future become strangers in love in the present. Who cares what tomorrow brings when happenstance can unlock romance like this? It's a film of rare firsts and lasts: one of only three non-singing roles in Garland's career, and one of Walker's few against-type performances. The tragically short lives of both leads add a haunting layer to the film's meditation on time — could a movie like this get made today? Join Chris and Kevin as they roll back the nitrate reels of Golden Age Hollywood to find out.

Following last year's coverage of Buffalo '66, The Searchers turn to Vincent Gallo's second feature, The Brown Bunny (2003) — a film that generated controversy from its infamous Cannes premiere and the now-legendary feud between Roger Ebert and Gallo himself. Opinion on the film remains split, but a growing faction of cinephiles has embraced Gallo's cult status as filmmaker, actor, painter, musician, and songwriter, championing The Brown Bunny as an underrated, raw portrait of an artist. Do Chris and Kevin agree? One of them has actually seen Gallo in person at a screening of his personal 35mm print — so expect some firsthand insight. Tune in to hear their take on Gallo's last released film, and sound off: do you think Gallo will ever release unreleased projects like Promises Written in Water and April?