Advertise on podcast: The Searchers

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?

The Searchers return to familiar territory with acclaimed Japanese arthouse director Wim Wenders — the second film of his covered on the pod, following The American Friend on episode 89. Ben and Chris dig into Japanese culture and the influences shaping Wenders' work. How good is Koji Yakusho's performance? Is Ozu the ultimate touchstone for Japanese cinema? And when will switch-glass bathrooms finally make it to America? All that and more on this episode of The Searchers.

Two episodes dropping in the same week; aren't you all so lucky?! It’s been two years since we’ve covered a film from one of our favorite eras. What better than to return to it with another pick from Chris! It’s 1949’s The Passionate Friends, directed by David Lean and starring Ann Todd and the great Claude Rains, one of Kevin’s personal faves and known more to him as Senator Joseph Paine in Frank Capra’s beloved Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And so, folks, with the heart and soul of Brief Encounter and the airy enthusiasm of In Which We Serve, join Chris and Kevin as they head forth into known waters of beautiful people, beautiful environments, and just a rather beautiful film. The Golden Age has been waiting for the gang’s return!   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

We here at The Searchers Podcast have taken you, dear listeners, over rough terrain, sprawling seas, steaming asphalt, and about 30,000 feet in the sky… but have we not yet taken you back in time?? Or even into the future?? Join Chris and Kevin as they embark on a rather intriguing journey, traveling through time. The Searchers are covering Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes by filmmaker Junta Yamaguchi in his directorial debut! Hop on the stagecoach with us as we retrofit it with a time traveling device to take you two minutes into the future! Wait a minute… now wait another! You knew you’d still be reading this! Hah! Don’t change the future! 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

Folks, it’s flabbergasting that we haven’t covered an historical epic until now! So in light of the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, we choose to either prep your palette for that new cinematic adaptation of Homer’s epic poem or provide you with a possibly better rendition of screen poetry with a previous Homeric adaptation of Iliad. One that made its debut over twenty years ago in bright form with a classic ensemble cast. It’s 2004’s Troy! Covering the Director’s Cut of the film, come join the gang as they ride off into Ancient Greece to discover souls older than they are and with some arguably better drip! Should you listeners choose to return to an era of bright epics such as this one or join the zeitgeist of praise for Nolan’s new feature? We review, you decide! This is going to be great, peeps! Also, if you saw The Odyssey in theaters, what’d all of you think?? Worthy of your time, or might an older cinematic epic be more delectable? Email us at [email protected].

Following John Candy: I Like Me and I Am Patrick Swayze, we’re on our third coverage of a documentary, peeps! This time an exploration of the life of not an actor, but an artist. An artist of sportsmanship, former NBA star, Jeremy Lin. It’s been over a decade since the film was released, but where has this hometown hero of Kevin’s been? It’s about time he takes a little journey with Chris and explore why his fellow Southern Californian and Torrance-born son left the NBA, the trials he’s faced to make it to one of the most lauded leagues in North America, and leading up to his status during the 2012-2014 era of playing for the Houston Rockets. So if you love sports, especially the NBA, and underdog tales, Chris and Kevin have a lil’ treat for y’all! Also, who’d all of you root for during the NBA Finals?? Are you Knicks fans? Spurs? There’s no hate here, we welcome you fellow hoop fans, so don’t you worry! Email us at [email protected]. PS-Send us some jerseys! 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/

THE SEARCHERS PODCAST! Having journeyed through 124 episodes of questions, conversations, rabbit holes, revelations, and the occasional detour into the absurd, Ben and Chris continue onward. Ever since they first set out, they have traveled the highways and byways of cinema—collecting stories, challenging assumptions, and learning about life to the fullest. Striding ahead into Episode 125, microphones at the ready, they continue forth, seeking kino wherever it may be found. And who knows!? Perhaps they're destined to uncover a long forgotten OVA that changes everything. Or... maybe not. Either way, the search continues! 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/

Long time listeners know that there are two Schitt’s Creek fans on this show and no, Kevin ain’t one of them, and apparently that needs to be fixed. It’s Ben and Chris! Yet, Kevin’s pick for this episode is a little charmer that stars Schitt’s Creek’s two leads, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara! In an entry that is sort of a spiritual successor to our episodes reviewing John Candy: I Like Me and Only the Lonely, Chris and Kevin dive into this lesser known mockumentary, imbued with the spirit and talent of two other Second City Television stars and set in a humble city of small-town America where ambition, innocence, and silliness are all wrapped up in one package. Join us because this is a fun one!