The Pink Smoke podcast

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Sam Peckinpah and David Lynch, two of the most recognized directors of their day, were each in their mid-30's when they embarked on their third feature film: an epic studio movie to be shot in Mexico (headquartered at Estudio Churubusco). In both cases, the resulting film was a commercial disappointment and a critical disaster. What went wrong? Who's fault was it? Do these maligned movies deserve reappraisal?In tribute to the legendary Sam Peckinpah's 100th birthday and the recent passing of the great David Lynch, the Pink Smoke has recruited artist David Lambert and filmmaker Martin Kessler to revisit these two films. Lambert takes us through the history of Peckinpah's 1965 debacle Major Dundee, including how star Charlton Heston almost murdered his hellfire director, while Kessler walks us through the production of 1984's infamously derided adaptation of Dune.  Exclusive "Major Dune-dee" art by David Lambert. Hey! Look! It's our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: x.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on X: x.com/thelastmachine David Lambert on X: x.com/DavidLambertArt Martin Kessler on X: x.com/MovieKessler

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. The early 70's was a particularly transitional period for Japanese cinema in which major stars and directors found themselves shut out by the studios while the "Pinku eiga" era, in which celluloid sex and violence ran rampant, was on the rise. Surviving this shift in the landscape, director Yoshitaro Nomura, leading man Tetsuro Tamba and legendary screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto collaborated on the police procedural The Castle of Sand. On the other end of the spectrum was audacious auteur Masaru Konuma and his muse Naomi Tani who in 1974 teamed up for two movies including the BDSM melodrama Wife to Be Sacrificed, featuring "perhaps the most beautifully photographed flogging scene ever." Join us for this bizarre double feature programmed by Daniel Castro, writer and co-founder of the Colombian online film criticism portal Filmigrana, in which we discuss the state of Japanese cinema in the 70's, the pushing of boundaries versus the tugging of the heart, and the thin line between art and pornography. Hey! Look! It's our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Who better to spend the holidays with than rebellious hair hopper Dawn Davenport, who goes from pinning her screaming mother under a Christmas tree for failing to provide the desired gift of Cha Cha heels to becoming the brightest star to light up the electric chair. Kate Wilkiinson returns to talk about the *most* John Waters movie ever made, his 1974 cult classic that puts his favorite obsessions of crime, fame and grotesque glamour center stage. Is there anything more lovable than a hideous Baltimore accent? Can anyone deny the sex appeal of Edith Massey sewn into a tight leather S & M outfit? And is there something about all this that's weirdly wholesome? 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Wig Wurq on Tumblr: www.wigwurq.tumblr.com/ Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. We start winding down the series with a great companion piece to our past episodes on "wilderness adventure" classics Dersu Uzala and Quest for Fire. Filmmaker Jeremy Workman returns to discuss Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn, the story of three whalers who become stranded in the Northern Arctic and end up integrating with an Inuit tribe. There's a lot to talk about, from Kaufman's status as possibly the most underrated of 70's directors to Michael Chapman's naturalistic photography, the film's inspired use of diegetic music, authentic regional language and frozen landscapes, and how this movie is definitely not Louis Malle's Black Moon. Jeremy Workman on social media @jeremyworkman on Twitter Jeremy Workman's website https://jeremyworkman.com/ Website for Secret Mall Apartment secretmallapartment.com Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Debuting in competition at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival was British thriller Symptoms from Catalan director José Ramón Larraz, a difficult-to-synopsize terror tone poem featuring Angela Pleasence being threatened by psychosexual hallucinations and a peeping odd-job man. Joining us to rake the leaves of this moody manor are Dan Pullen and Bradley J. Kornish of the Movies from Hell website and podcast who give their opinions on Spanish genre directors of the decade, the film's place among hysterical women movies like Repulsion and how horror movies were beginning to evolve in 1974. Movies from Hell website: moviesfromhell.com The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Host Martin Kessler hops on The Nickel Ride, one of the more unjustly neglected films of that hallowed cinema year that sees director Robert Mulligan instill a distinctively L.A. setting with a shadow of noir desperation and a tinge of French crime drama melancholy. Martin is joined by two ardent cinéastes, podcaster Felicia Maroni and film writer Andrew Nette, to discuss how Mulligan creates a precis of mid-70's American movie constructs - fading machismo, pervasive paranoia, volitional isolation - that thrills even when there's more talking than shooting. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Andrew Nette on social media: @pulpcurry.bsky.social Andrew Nette's Pulp Curry website pulpcurry.com Andrew Nette's Substack newsletter: andrewnette.substack.com Felicia Maroni on social media: @CineMaroni Seeing Faces in Movies Podcast seeingfacesinmovies.com/episodes

What is there left to be said about the greatest horror film ever made? Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most killer-ish and dozer-y of all audiences, one week before their general release Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke celebrates the Spooky Season with the most terrifying subject imaginable: a sentient, vengeful bulldozer! Guest Joe Gibson has chosen this TV movie from the pen of science fiction legend Theodore Sturgeon to discuss for our 1974 series, one that comes between the highway horror of Duel and apocalyptic chaos of Maximum Overdrive. Can the half dozen construction workers stranded on an island off the coast of Africa survive the wrath of a meteorite-possessed Killdozer? This is a very fun movie. 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Joe's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/zoltarak/ The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas" Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

Episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke "'It doesn't seem important anymore.' Her eyes held a vacant stare which bothered Dee. They appeared to be looking but not seeing anything. 'I didn't think I'd ever want anything more than I did, gold and good times and excitement. I guess I lived it day and night. Gold! Bread! Loot! I quit school to get it. Money was the only thing that was important in the whole world to me and I didn't care much how I got it. And I liked it so's I could buy fly juice and powder! Pot! Hashish! Now it's all changed. I don't want any of it. Why fly when there's no place left to fly?" In celebration of Edward D. Wood Jr.'s 100th birthday, The Pink Smoke dives into one of the many pulp books the venerated "worst director of all time" churned out in the last decade of his life. In spite of being overstuffed with characters and subplots, Devil Girls from 1967 is also packed with the kind of half-clunky/half-poetic dialogue and potboiler action sequences that made his films so entertaining. Devil Girls tells the story of The Chicks, an all-female gang of juvenile delinquents involved in drug running within their kill-crazy gulf port town. Between jazzing on the big H, heisting soda shops and taking part in hazy orgies with the local thugs, these young troublemakers also arrange the murder of a schoolteacher and kill a parent or two. Which of them will see the light and follow Reverend Hank Steele's path to salvation? Which will end up under a boat propeller? Listen to this episode before you light another fix candle - your life might depend on it! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available one week before their general release to Patreon subscribers. Subscribe to get early access & so much more: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Falling somewhere between his more restrained films about Elgar and Delius and his untamed biopics of Strauss and Liszt, in 1974 Ken Russell released a portrait of Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer Gustav Mahler and his silently suffering spouse Alma. We welcome back Russell's wife and collaborator Lisi Tribble Russell, who shares her insights on this low-key masterpiece and memories of her friendship with its star, the wonderful Georgina Hale. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas” Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available one week before their general release to Patreon subscribers. Subscribe to get early access & so much more: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke A dead body! A trainful of suspicious movie stars! Real authentic exotic locations! Sidney Lumet's all-star adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express is the ultimate comfort movie for mystery aficionados and fans of ritzy, old-fashioned Hollywood productions alike. Melanie Daniels of the Cinema Parlor Podcast is both, which makes her the ideal guest to discuss the performances of the movie's top-notch cast, the eclecticism of Lumet's filmography and how solidly Hercule Poirot's cases would hold up in court. 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Melanie Daniels on Twitter: twittter.com/plasticwerewolf Cinema Parlor Podcast: twitter.com/cinemaparlor The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke All good things must come to an end. Hosts John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg are joined by Marcus Pinn to discuss their memories of attending the Toronto International Film Festival over the course of twenty years. This set of personal reminiscences is not necessarily intended for general audiences; this is the deepest of Pink Smoke deep cuts. Their thoughts on two decades of cinema and one of the premiere international film festivals are intertwined with a discussion of poutine, junk shops selling rare novelizations, the Brass Rail and how much fun it is to bust Pinn's chops over his love of To The Wonder. They talk their favorite films they saw at the festival, their most memorable experiences, the changes to the festival throughout the years, the best years, the worst years, food poisoning, Andrew Wilson, Sportos in Batavia New York, crank-call party mix-tapes and, of course, the Eagles' sudden and unexpected transition from the Kevin Kolb era to the Michael Vick era. A tribute to one of the most important film festivals in the world and the trio's time spent there. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg are back with their rundown of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival! From the highest highs (Hard Truths) to the lowest lows (It Doesn't Get Any Better than This) and the poutine in between, they take a look at the state of cinema as explicated by one of the world's premiere film festivals. They discuss new works by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Mike Flanagan, Tomas Alfredson, Thomas Vinterberg, Ron Howard and so much more - they discuss not just the highlights, but every single goddamn film they saw on their final trip to the Queen City for the festival! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most vioiently anti-Canadian and finestkind of all audiences, one week before their general release. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg return to the Queen City for our 20th trip to the Toronto International Film Festival to watch all the best in the current world of le cinema. With a line-up brimming (filled to the brim) with possibility, we talk our must-see films, wildcards, and the ones we're dreading. Included in this year's slate are new works by Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Timo Tjahjanto, Pedro Almodovar, David Cronenberg, Thomas Vinterberg and more …choosing which titles among the 300+ entries to see is going to take guts. And brains. And human decency.  We introduce both the Possibility-o-meter and the Donnybrook-o-meter. Get psyched! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Host Martin Kessler is joined by Ally Pitts to discuss Thorold Dickinson's 1949 British fantasy-horror film, The Queen of Spades. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most pulchritudinous and buxom of all audiences, one week before their general release. Support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke It's time to talk tits. We're joined by the peerless Wendy Mays to discuss softcore porn impresario Doris Wishman's breastacular Deadly Weapons, the story of Chesty Morgan hunting down a cadre of creeps and killing them with her massive 73 inch bazooms in a kind of brain-damaged, sleazy The Bride Wore Black knock-off. It. is. a. delight. 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on X: x.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: x.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: x.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most secertive and sinister of all audiences, one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} Continuing our episodes on Richard Stark's 24-book Parker series, we delve into the third book The Outfit, in which Stark (pen name for the legendary Donald E. Westlake) expands the violent world Parker to epic proportions and offers a smörgåsbord of heists (a metaphorical (not veritable) Swedish buffet of heists instead of pickled fish!) centering minor characters who would grow in importance as the series progressed. We also look in-depth at John Flynn's 1973 adaptation, possibly the most Parker-ish of all Parker adaptations. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

The Pink Smoke welcomes back fan favorite John Arminio for a companion episode to our epic 100 Years of Spy Movies two-parter from last year to discuss the 2018 mini-series The Little Drummer Girl, starring Florence Pugh and Michael Shannon, directed by Park Chan-wook. Adapted from the 1983 novel by John le Carré, it is like most of the famed author's work a taut and intricate web of postwar intrigue and espionage. Set in 1979, it follows the recruitment of an English actress by a seasoned Mossad spymaster to infiltrate a Palestinian bomb-maker's network in order to prevent a potential terrorist attack on London. John himself has recruited his father, Captain Tom Arminio USN Retired, to join host John Cribbs in crossing into the treacherous world of le Carré where morality, identity and personal values are routinely compromised. They discuss the relevance of this 40-year-old story, the culpability of those who choose not to take sides in international conflicts, and the fate of characters who suffer moral injury: having perpetrated, failed to prevent, or witnessed events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs. They also make fun of Diane Keaton's haircut from the little-loved 1984 film adaptation. link to the War Peace and Justice Project https://www.warpeacejustice.org/ Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. For William Mendoza of the Men on Film Podcast, 1974 is marked by the rise of Paul Morrissey from Warhol Factory's house filmmaker to international sexploitation auteur. Filmed in unison with his FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, Morrissey's broad Stoker adaptation BLOOD FOR DRACULA casts Udo Kier as the sulky, shirtless count lurking around an Italian estate, hoping to seduce "wirgins" and consume their pure fluid in order to revitalize his strength. He's impeded by Joe Dallsandro playing a Marxist handyman and famed Italian Neorealist filmmaker Vittorio de Sica who's doing...something. Mendoza loves this movie even though he admits it's a "failure of Italian exploitation," "too artsy to be a horror movie, too stupid to be an art movie." Fascinatingly the whole thing plays out like a classic dirty joke or an 80's sex comedy. There's still plenty to love, and we have a great time breaking down the Morrissey magic which stems from good filmmaking collaborators and a plentiful cast of weirdos to exploit. It's a goofball discussion, with more than a little off-roading. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com William Mendoza on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler Men on Film podcast on X: twitter.com/menonfilmpod The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Host Martin Kessler welcomes film writer and curator Vanya Garraway to discuss the various film versions of J. M. Barrie's oft-adapted Peter Pan, from the 1924 silent film to last year's Peter Pan & Wendy. Giving their personal assessment of each movie, they dig into the history of the free-spirited boy who refuses to grow up, what makes it such an enduring tale and the sadness inherent in this story of pirates and fairies and a ticking crocodile. Along the way, Kessler and Garraway discuss which Captain Hooks are too sexy, why a Peter Pan story needs a Wendy and yes, they dig into the Tiger Lily issue. Tying Barrie's original work to the thematic concept of what nostalgia really means, they break down the highs and lows of each film adaptation to determine the value of a great story told over & over again. Vanya Garraway on Twitter: @nostalgiaphile @PaidInSweat Paid in Sweat https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=841875~fc639be0-110c-4035-a588-842aceff5ef6&epguid=9416d3bf-ad16-479c-9d40-f0abda7cb4e9& Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most tender and sensitive of all audiences, one week before their general release. https://www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke We're joined by the great David Lambert to discuss one of the greatest Western subgenres, stories of cattle drives and the swarthy, sweaty men who oversee them! It's an overlooked subgenre despite the fact that from Red River to Lonesome Dove, some of the defining films of the Western genre are about the grueling world of cattle-men. When it comes epic Westerns about terse, determined men pushing themselves to the limit under the biggest skies imaginable, there's few subgenres as likely to deliver. Join hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs for a lively, comprehensive conversation that sets out to do justice to the suprising breadth of work found in "le cinema de cattle drive," as the French call it. And as always, there's no better guest with whom to discuss Westerns than the bottomlessly knowledgeable Mr. Lambert! This is an incredibly fun journey spanning decades of saddle adventures which make up the western equivalent of the road movie. Questions asked along the way include: Is cattle driving exclusive to men? Who would be your preferred trail boss: Monomaniacal John Wayne from Red River? Reformed gunman Billy Green Bush of The Culpepper Cattle Co.? Tough but fair Glenn Ford in Cowboy? Should anyone under any circumstance have to experience 1951's Vengeance Valley? Join us as we blaze this trail - keep your eyes open for rustlers and we'll meet you back at the chuckwagon. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X: twitter.com/DavidLambertArt The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Anyone familiar with actor Marjoe Gortner's background as a child evangelist preacher (and his later milking of said image as depicted in the Oscar-winning 1972 documentary Marjoe) will know he often commanded his congregation to pray. But is there any prayer that could help the Wildcats? Anthony King - husband, father, beer leaguer, hockey player and film writer - is also a huge fan of Marjoe Gortner, and he's here to discuss the former minister's first full length film, Pray for the Wildcats, which debuted on ABC in January of 1974. A murderer's row of television personalities make up the titular squad: Mayberry's own Andy Griffith, Robert Reed of the Brady Bunch and William Shatner fresh off the USS Enterprise are joined by Marjoe on a dirtbike trip to the Baja California desert. Desperate to impress Griffith's sociopathic business exec, the three ad execs bring along plenty of personal baggage on a trip fraught with resentment and failure that ultimately ends in death. It's a terminally square yet truly strange and somewhat obscure TV movie that we're glad Anthony unearthed for us to survey. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Anthony King on X: x.com/akdonelly John Cribbs on X: x.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: x.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: x.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most determined and unsparing of all audiences, one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} The Cannes Film Festival, May 1994. Two independent American crime films featuring guns, gangsters, torture, redemption, stylized artificial dialogue, quirky comedy, a cool soundtrack, a main character who dies and is resurrected and a criminal's kept woman with an Anna Karina haircut made their debut at the southern tip of France. One of them went on to conquer the world and become one of the most beloved and imitated films of the ensuing 30 years. The other faded into obscurity and is barely brought up three decades later. The films are Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Hal Hartley's Amateur, and their divergent paths clearly shifted the cultural space of American independent cinema moving forward. We welcome back Pinnland Empire guru Marcus Pinn (like us, a teenage budding cinephile in the mid-90's) to talk about these two films, how they were shaped by the climate of late 80's/early 90's indie cinema, their impact and their legacy. Despite Hartley's deep meaningful contemplations proving no match for Tarantino's sheer exuberance, these are two films that were meaningful to all three of us, so we also get pretty heavily into some formative personal history and lament the slow death of a truly specific kind of American movie. Who's the real amateur here? Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Marcus Pinn on Twitter: twitter.com/PINNLAND_EMPIRE The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. One of the more neglected films of the year was The Education of Sonny Carson, the coming-of-age tale of an inner city kid who moves from life with a street gang to fighting for survival during a stretch in prison. Directed by The Mack's Michael Campus and adapted by civil rights activist Sonny Carson from his autobiography, the film packs a more brutal punch than any movie from its time yet barely gets mentioned these days. Marcus Pinn returns to discuss the film's curiously underwhelming reputation despite its decades-long legacy through hip hop music and influence on the next 50 years of cinema. Even with a messy aesthetic and muddled narrative, Campus' film is an unquestionably powerful artwork that captures individual struggle and the cruel reality of life in Bedford-Stuyvesant with the use of real locations and real Brooklyn gangs. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Despite the domination of Coppolas, Polanskis and Cassaveteses, 1974 really belonged to Mel Brooks. Nearly 50 at the time, the legendary comedy writer had risen from his Borscht Belt origins to release two classic films in one year, 1974's #1 box office smash Blazing Saddles and trailing all the way back at #4 highest grossing picture Young Frankenstein. While both films became instant perennial favorite parodies of then out-of-style genres, Young Frankenstein is a true love letter to the Universal Monster movies of yore and a masterfully-made horror flick that just happens to have jokes in it. We welcome back Pink Smoke favorite and wig expert Kate Wilkinson to join our chorus of praise for co-writer Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (sorry, Fronk-en-steen), Marty Feldman as Eye-gor, Teri Garr as Inga, Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher, Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth, Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp, recent Oscar-winner Gene Hackman as the Blind Man and true 70's superstar Peter Boyle as The Monster - each performer at the absolute top of of their game. We discuss the film's origins being deeper than the iconic 1931 James Whale movie, whether this is more a triumph for Brooks (who was banned from casting himself) or Wilder (it was his baby) and how it fit into the comedy mindset of the mid-70's. Wig Wurq on Tumblr: https://wigwurq.tumblr.com/ Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

A Pink Smoke tradition resurrected: our once annual Summer Movie Blockbuster Preview Extravaganza returns from the dead as we train a beady and judgmental eye on all that Hollywood has to offer over an increasingly marginalized and marginal summer blockbuster season. Even if audiences no longer flock (in droves!) to big budget star-studded special effects spectaculars the way they used to, it's still worth considering what the immediate future holds for le cinema du multiplex. Hosts John Cribbs, Martin Kessler and Christopher Funderburg are joined by Pink Smoke copache Marcus Pinn to discuss Fall Guys, Deadpools, Borderlandies, the ways in which Howard Stern resembles Brandon Lee, under what circumstances you might be willing to watch Daddio, how much of a benefit of the doubt George Miller has earned and betraying the true essence of Garfield. It is essential listening for All True Cinephiles. As essential as A Quiet Place: Day One or Despicable Me 4. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Marcus Pinn on Twitter: twitter.com/PINNLAND_EMPIRE Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

“War… war never changes…” Attention wastelanders, time to strap on the ol' power armor and grab a rusty gauss rifle, we're headed into (and out) of Vault 33 to explore the new streaming TV series based on the massively popular open-world RPG Fallout video game series. Host Christopher Funderburg is joined by fellow fans of the video game series, screenwriter Tom Vaughan and critic Stephanie Crawford, to discuss the 8-episode first season of the new show from executive producer Jonathan Nolan (who also directed a few episodes.) They talk about how to adapt a video game into a different kind of narrative art, how the specificity of the Fallout world translates into a new medium, the rifts within Fallout fandom, the charm of Walton Goggins and the perks of creating a bloody mess. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Tom Vaughan on X: twitter.com/storyandplot The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} For the first episode of our new series 197:4 Fifty Years Later, we're joined by the first guest ever to appear on the podcast, the peerless man of le cinema Brian Saur. The Pure Cinema and Just the Discs podcast impresario selected for our conversation to discuss one of the most maligned and neglected Best Picture nominees of all-time, the ne plus ultra of blockbuster disaster films, The Towering Inferno. Star-studded cast featuring Steve McQueen (at the height of his box office power), Paul Newman (coming off 1973's Best Picture winner, The Sting), Fred Astaire (shamelessly nominated for Best Supporting Actor), William Holden & Faye Dunaway (together two years before Network), Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain and too many others to name battle a high-rise blaze in a special effects extravaganza that puts the spectacle in “Outrageously Outsized Hollywood Spectacle.” We do our best to ignore the consistent presence of OJ Simpson and put the focus where it belongs: on Sterling Siliphant. We dig into the split-direction of disaster movie mastermind Irwin Allen and actor's director John Guillermin, McQueen and Newman's amazingly petty competition for screen-time, the utterly ridiculous Oscar the film did win, and why there should be more appreciation for Hollywood cinema doing what only Hollywood cinema can do. Stars, explosions, character actors, air-tight screenwriting and buckets of poured money into the blaze: join us in standing in awe of this monument to Hollywood blockbusterizing. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Just the Discs podcast: https://justthediscs.libsyn.com/ Pure Cinema podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pure-cinema-podcast/id1204885502 The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. In this introductory episode, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs discuss the idea behind the series and their relationship to movies from the year 1974. They go over the biggest films of the year: which were the most successful in terms of box office, critical success and long-ranging canonization? Why are these movies still relevant 50 years down the line? Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

In this episode, host Martin Kessler welcomes John Arminio of the Popcorn Eschaton! podcast to discuss Kevin Reynolds' underappreciated 1988 war film The Beast. Set during the second year of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, it follows a Soviet T-55 tank unit who lose their way in the mountains following a savage attack on a Pashtun village and the vengeful mujahideen soldiers tracking them, committed to destroying "the Beast."  Kessler and Arminio dig into this "holy grail of tank movies" and how it smartly deals with themes of revenge and mercy, the Islam faith, Pashtunwali, overcoming language barriers and humanizing both sides of a "rotten war." Popcorn Eschaton!: https://soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-1 Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

The Pink Smoke brigade is back to discuss the movies of 2023. Hosts Martin Kessler, John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg look back on a year replete with above-average horror films, new works from tenured auteurs and theoretical physicists battling it out at the box office with living dolls. The conversation naturally digs into their personal favorites, including two animated masterpieces, a kaiju showpiece, a surprising amount of mainstream and direct-to-streaming releases, and a new bona fide classic from Brazil. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most tender and violent of all audiences, one week before their general release. Support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Hosts Christopher Funderburg & John Cribbs are joined by filmmaker & pulp paperback aficionado Steven Sheil to discuss semi-legendary, semi-forgotten crime fiction author Charles K. Williams. The group looks at a pair of nautical thrillers, Aground & its sequel Dead Calm (most famously adapted into the Billy Zane/Sam Neil classic (& also unsuccessfully adapted in yet another Orson Welles production debacle.)) Following the story of a no-nonsense charter boat captain & the charming, irrepressible widow he falls for, the aesthetic/philosophical difference between the books represents the shift happening in pulp crime in fiction of the era: the move from classic hardboiled, masculine stories to psychological thrillers concerned with the inner lives of criminals. It's a fantastic conversation about one of the most successful crime writers of his era, an author undeserving of his slow fade into obscurity. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Steven Sheil on X: https://twitter.com/SSheil The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most tender and violent of all audiences, one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven often comes up in conversation about the greatest Westerns ever made, and even ones about the greatest films of the last 30 years. It served not only as a culmination of Clint's fabled career in cowboy movies but as an austere reflection on 100 years worth of Western cinema, and was lauded as the ultimate revisionist response to a genre that never tackled serious themes of violence and morality or presented a realistic portrait of life on the late 19th century American frontier. But was it really? The Pink Smoke welcomes back artist/historian David Lambert to expand upon the thoughts he presented in his epic Twitter thread examining the minutiae of its script, casting, authenticity, costuming, influences and actual place within the overall Western genre. Unforgiven is a great film, but do people even understand what it's trying to say? Lambert makes a strong case for reappraisal with hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs. David Lambert's Twitter/X thread that inspired the episode: https://twitter.com/DavidLambertArt/status/1556511206029946880?t=LgtylPHI5v2XdS5FhtDgeg&s=19 The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X: twitter.com/DavidLambertArt The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} Having outmaneuvered the Outfit, shatterproof heister Parker resurfaces with a new face and a new caper. But there might be too much to watch with this armored car knockover in Jersey: a shaky accomplice, a surly waitress planning a double-cross and an oafish chauffeur looking to avenge his murdered employer. Can our criminal anti-hero juggle all these uncertain angles and still come away with a sweet boodle? Continuing our series of episodes on Richard Stark's 24-book Parker series, we jump into the slick and streamlined second book The Man With the Getaway Face, in which Stark (pen name for the legendary Donald E. Westlake) presents a line-up of memorable characters including reliable sidekick Handy McKay, broken heister Pete Skimm and the tragically obstinate Stubbs. How has the Parker character developed since his first adventure? And has this book been adapted into an obscure Mexican film or not? Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Hosts Christopher Funderburg, John Cribbs & Martin Kessler are joined by legendary poster artist Tony Stella to discuss Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1981 masterpiece Quest for Fire. A personal favorite of both Kessler and Stella, this is one of the most enthusiastic & passionate conversations ever recorded for the podcast. Set 80,000 in the past, Annaud's film, despite being positioned as high-class awards bait in Europe, plays like a rollicking and funny adventure film with more in common with The Vikings or a classic Hollywood swashbuckler than a dour and serious look at humanity's beginning. But while the film is an expression of pure cinematic joy, it's also a serious and thoughtful look at the origins of civilization in terms of science, language, morality, humor & emotion. An exciting conversation about a knockout film! The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Tony Stella on X: twitter.com/studiotstella Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

In this emergency bonus episode, hosts Martin Kessler and Christopher Funderburg sit down to discuss Marvel's The Marvels of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With an all-time low box office debut for an MCU film, the hosts use the film's various artistic, conceptual and financial failures as a jumping off point to discuss the seeming impending end of the superhero era of blockbuster cinema. From the passive performances to shoddy special effects to audience fatigue, the Kessler and Funderburg look at the failures of the film not as a celebratory “ding dong the witch is dead” moment that so many Serious Cinephiles are receiving its flop as representing, but by placing the film in the context of the larger history of popular cinema and what it means when those popular eras come to a close. It's a diagnosis of what went wrong with the film that gives full respect to what has gone right with the superhero genre for the past 20 years. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

This is it. Frank Henenlotter's perfect six. Hosts John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg discuss one of their favorite filmmakers and his half dozen brilliant, unforgettable exploitation (not horror) films: Basket Case and its sequels, Brain Damage, Frankenhooker and Bad Biology. What more needs to be said? Put it in your ear. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke "Central County was a big, rangy county with mountains to the north and mountains to the south and a vast loneliness in between. The mountains were filled with trees and creeks. The loneliness was called the Dead Hills. They were thirty miles wide. There were thousands of hills out there: yellow and barren in the summer with lots of juniper brush in the draws and a few pine trees here and there, acting as if they had wandered away like stray sheep from the mountains and out into the Dead Hills and had gotten lost and had never been able to find their way back...poor trees..." The podcast heads west for this October's horror fiction episode, where they find a couple cowboy killers recruited from a brothel to vanquish a mischievous monster in an isolated mansion out in Eastern Oregon. Richard Brautigan's rugged, experimental, very funny The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western begins as a travelogue of turn-of-the-century frontier life and makes a drastic shift to the surreal when the two gunmen (who don't put any lace on their killings) reach their sinister assignment. Artist and American Western history expert David Lambert is on hand to offer his take on whether countercultural cult poet/novelist Brautigan passes muster as a western writer, or if Hawkline Monster is a xerox copy of an audacious literary achievement. Lambert talks with hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs about the unmistakable Brautigan-ness of the novel, how the book fares when it moves into much stranger territory in its second half, and the fascinating decades-spanning background of multiple failed movie adaptations. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X: twitter.com/DavidLambertArt The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. We're joined by screenwriter Tom Vaughan to discuss a pair of cult classics by director Gary Sherman. We dig into the small-town murder-conspiracy thriller Dead and Buried as well as the ne plus ultra sleaze-thriller Vice Squad. The strengths and weaknesses of the films make for an interesting contrast that leads into a larger discussion about the practical intersections of screenwriting and on set filmmaking (with some talk about meddling producers thrown in for good measure.) The trio compares Dead and Buried's wonky & lumpy script (by Alien and Total Recall scribes Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett) to Vice Squad's drum-tight story to consider how screenwriting plays into (or interferes with) making two such memorable films. It's the Wings Hauser appreciation hour, folks, come get baptized in the neon slime. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Tom Vaughan on X: https://twitter.com/storyandplot The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke dives headfirst into the world of American pulp magazines of the 30's & 40's with two tales of derring-do featuring adventurer/scientist/detective/explorer and superhero prototype Doc Savage. Known as the Bronze Man, Savage trots the globe with his fabulous five-man brain trust facing off against all manner of ostentatious villains and colorful henchmen. Doc was the hero of 213 stories from 1933 to 1949, popularized for a new generation when revived as paperbacks between 1964 and 1990. Hosts Christopher Funderburg, Martin Kessler and John Cribbs chose two of them to read and discuss: The Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Genghis, both written by Lester Dent under the by-line "Kenneth Robeson" and published in 1938. Featuring death rays, giant amazon women and one of the most diabolical supervillains ever created who'll stop at nothing short of total world domination, the stories were so filled with action and intrigue it made each host emit a low, mellow growl subconsciously, something like the trilling of a strange bird from the jungle. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg are back with their rundown of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival! From the highest highs (The Boy and the Heron) to the lowest lows (Limbo) and the poutine in between, they take a look at the state of cinema as explicated by one of the world's premiere film festivals. They discuss new films by Wim Wenders, Anna Kendrick, Ethan Hawke, Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris, Victor Erice, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater, Shinya Tsukamoto and so much more - they discuss not just the highlights, but every single goddamn film they saw while in the Queen City! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg return to the Queen City for the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival to watch all the best in the current world of le cinema. With a line-up seemingly handcrafted to get us excited, we talk our must-see films, wildcards, and the ones we're dreading. Included in this year's slate are new movies by Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris Victor Erice, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater, Shinya Tsukamoto and more …choosing which titles among the 300+ entries to see is going to be tough. Get psyched! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Christopher Funderburg is joined by Martin Kessler to discuss Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Bundesrepublik Deutschland trilogy: Lola, The Marriage of Maria Braun and The Longing of Veronika Voss. Collectively one of the most incisive looks at post-war West Germany and the re-birth of a nation shattered by Nazism, Fassbinder's uncompromising and tender BRD films represent, for many, the highpoint of his legendarily prolific career. All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available a week early to our Patreon subscribers, the most sophisticated, urbane & hoity/toity of all audiences. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
 www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X:
 twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: 
twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X:
 twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” 
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available one week before their general release to Patreon subscribers. Subscribe to get early access & so much more: https://www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Reality is under attack! Chaos reigns in an unnamed capital city where unwholesome apparitions exist among the besieged citizens, projected by apparatuses invented by magician/mad scientist Dr. Hoffman which modify the nature of reality itself. The city's last hope is to send a Ministry of Determination clerk on a picaresque journey to assassinate the doctor and destroy his device, a mission that will involve river cannibals, Sadeian pilgrims, religious centaurs and anatomical acrobats. This is the world of The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, written by the inimitable Angela Carter. Joining hosts Martin Kessler and John Cribbs to travel Carter's mythological landscape of desire is Melanie Daniels, producer and co-host of the Cinema Parlor Podcast. Together they attempt to traverse this almost indefinable, orgiastic blend of romanticism, horror, fantasy, surrealism, magical realism, philosophy, science fiction, Gulliver, Kafka and Conrad from one of the most unique voices in English literature. Melanie Daniels on Twitter: twittter.com/plasticwerewolf Cinema Parlor Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/cinemaparlor The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

A classic episode (utterly classic) episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. Savor it like some kind of a savory soup. Hosts John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg are joined by Marcus Pinn of Pinnland Empire as well as Calgary's own Carly Schmidt to discuss the new film from Olivier Assayas, NON-FICTION.

What more can possibly be said about Dziga Vertov & Mikhail Kaufman's Man With a Movie Camera, one of the most studied, discussed and written-about films ever made? Is everybody sick of hearing how amazing it is? Perhaps it speaks to the film's timeless artistic energy and bold experimentation that there's always something to say about the camera techniques, radical editing and unique blending of avant-garde and documentary styles which come together using "no titles, no scenario, no actors, no sets" to create an "absolute language of cinema." To help get the best possible insight into this giant artwork, hosts Martin Kessler and John Cribbs welcome Jeremy Workman, a filmmaker who's taken inspiration from Vertov in everything from his award-winning film Lily Topples the World to his latest short documentary Deciding Vote. How has Workman trained his Kino-Eye to the subjects in front of his own movie camera? Is a one hour-long, nearly-100 year old Russian movie's impact so far-reaching that it continues to inspire modern art and filmmaking around the world? Jeremy Workman's website: www.jeremyworkman.com The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

The Pink Smoke is coming in from the cold to debrief our listeners on 100 years worth of espionage thrillers. Starting in the 1920's, we chose one notable spy movie (as well as a few alternate picks) for each decade leading to our present day in order to decode how they reflect the history and pop culture of their respective epoch. From the years leading to World War II through the Cold War and up to the modern age of counterintelligence in the time of domestic terrorism and the internet, we recruited agents John Arminio (co-host of Popcorn Eschaton!) and Bill Scurry (co-host of I Don't Get It) to analyze these cloak-and-dagger tales and what they have to say about the excitement and morality of the spy profession. In Part Two, we deal with the 1980's, an era of glorified excess in which the spy movie survived by integrating itself within other popular subgenres, and make our way up to the 2020's, a much quieter and retrospective period for espionage thrillers. In between, we discuss the most charmingly repugnant spy of them all, a rip-roaring roller coaster ride about the CIA's greatest asset with amnesia (no - not that one!), betrayals and double crosses set in the corporate world and plots critical of counterintelligence agencies that can't detect deception among their own ranks. Popcorn Eschaton!: https://soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-1 I Don't Get It Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-get-it-podcast/id1205228194 The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

What if every single print of every single film by 5 esteemed filmmakers were housed in a burning warehouse and there was only time to save 5 of them? This is the hypothetical hot seat into which guests are placed on the recurring Five from the Fire series, tasked to choose a handful of movies to rescue from oblivion! On this episode, the Pink Smoke invites writer Katharine Coldrion (author of the new book Junk Film: Why Bad Movies Matter) into the burning warehouse from which she'll triumphantly emerge with such non-junky films as a cult high school horror movie, an entry in a B-movie legend's "H.G. Wells cycle," and one canonized "juice bomb." What's the reasoning behind her rescues? How do Norman Mailer, Bill Watterson and Weezer fit into this conversation? And will Katharine take advantage of a new twist where she's allowed to exchange one of the five listed directors for another filmmaker? Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available a week early to our Patreon subscribers, the most open-minded and good-natured of all audiences. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Hosts John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg discuss (possibly) their favorite film of the year, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters. This episode, recorded in 2018, was released from behind our Patreon paywall. Enjoy it. Think about it. Perhaps someday... learn to love it.

The Pink Smoke is coming in from the cold to debrief our listeners on 100 years worth of espionage thrillers. Starting in the 1920's, we chose one notable spy movie (as well as a few alternate picks) for each decade leading to our present day in order to decode how they reflect the history and pop culture of their respective epoch. From the years leading to World War II through the Cold War and up to the modern age of counterintelligence in the time of domestic terrorism and the internet, we recruited agents John Arminio (co-host of Popcorn Eschaton!) and Bill Scurry (co-host of I Don't Get It) to analyze these cloak-and-dagger tales and what they have to say about the excitement and morality of the spy profession. In Part One, we cover the 1920's through the 1970's which includes one epic silent masterpiece, various adventures set behind enemy lines during the war of nations, intimate stories of British citizens who exploit governments for personal gain, human dramas about moral degradation behind the Iron Curtain and post-Watergate paranoid thrillers. Support our Patreon! All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available a week early to our Patreon subscribers, the most open-minded and good-natured of all audiences: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Popcorn Eschaton! https://soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-1 I Don't Get It Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-get-it-podcast/id1205228194 The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

1988 saw the release of two action movies that have become classics of the genre, both of which just happen to have been made by directors named "John" and feature heroes named "John." In a bit of shameless gimmickry, The Pink Smoke's John Cribbs has recruited fellow "John," frequent guest and action movie enthusiast John Arminio for a Patreon-exclusive dive into John McTiernan's Die Hard and John Carpenter's They Live. Cribbs and Arminio have spent hours on The Pink Smoke Podcast going through the James Bond series, but here they examine a more reluctant, blue collar, battle-damaged kind of hero: terrorist-taunting, barefooted, jet-lagged John McClane and alien-spotting, bespectacled, gum-chewing John Nada. Can our host "Johns" find enough common ground between these two iconic warriors to connect the movies beyond their likewise labelled lionhearts? The odds are against them...and that's just the way they like it. This special episode is exclusively available to Pink Smoke patreon subscribers, such as yourself. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Arminio on Twitter: twitter.com/QuasarSniffer John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”