The Pink Smoke podcast

Star Trek episodes, the title credits of Alien, the architecture of Star Wars and Blade Runner, the work of Joseph Campbell, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker and Alejandro Jodorowsky. You'd be surprised how many iconic artworks have been influenced by transformative themes traced back to Mesoamerican mythology and Ancient Maya theology. On this episode, host Martin Kessler is joined by Mesoamerican occultist Solomon Pakal to discuss the Mesoamerican influence on science fiction/fantasy and horror. If you enjoy this chat make sure to hop back to Episode 69, in which Martin goes deep into Apocalypto, Mel Gibson's Mesoamerican action movie. The Pink Smoke on Twitter: x.com/ThePinkSmoke Martin Kessler on Twitter: x.com/MovieKessler Solomon Pakal on Substack: solomonpakal.com

In this super-sized episode of our ongoing series where we discuss the exploits of career criminal Parker from the books by Richard Stark a.k.a. Donald E. Westlake, we're tackling three big Parker-based works. We start by jumping ahead in our chronological reviews to discuss The Handle, the eighth book in the Parker series, in which our professional thief is enlisted by a former enemy syndicate to rob an island casino and burn it to the ground. Next, we dive into the new Shane Black written and directed adaptation Play Dirty, starring Mark Wahlberg as Parker and LaKeith Stanfield as fellow heister Alan Grofield. This opens up the table to talk about Westlake's spin-off series starring Grofield, with its first book The Damsel. It's an epic conversation with some surprising developments and unexpected turns - much like a job pulled off by Parker or Grofield!

With the fifth entry of the Parker series, The Score, Richard Stark aka Donald E. Westlake puts his career criminal anti-hero in charge of his most ambitious heist yet: the 12-man robbery of a North Dakota mining town. This allows the author to expand the violent world of Parker by introducing a slew of fresh characters, including thespian-thief Alan Grofield, who would go on to star in four solo novels of his own. We discuss the series' change in scope and structure in a book that would set the scene moving forward, the first of several to make the spectacular job the whole show. We also talk about the little-seen French movie adaptation, the introduction of this goofball Grofield and why Parker insists on taking jobs with such obvious risks. The Score artwork by Tony Stella. The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / "Tea for Two" Outro music: Marcus Pinn / "Vegas"

If you're a fan of Larry Cohen, the maverick filmmaker behind such mind-bending genre pictures as It's Alive, God Told Me To, Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff, you owe it to yourself to check out his newly published memoir: I Killed Bette Davis and Other Confessions of Heinous Crimes Committed in the Name of Moviemaking. The legendary director recounts all the great anecdotes you've already heard - driving a cab on actual NYC sidewalks, firing machine guns from the top of the Chrysler Building with no permit - and about a thousand you haven't. He recounts his fascinating origins as a Borscht Belt comedian and in-demand television writer, includes tribute chapters to Bernard Herrmann and Samuel Fuller, details his ambitious cinematic efforts and the struggle to bring screen legend Bette Davis to the public one last time. We're joined on the episode by James Kenney, who not only edited Cohen's memoir but also discovered and published an unproduced screenplay of Cohen's called Headhunter, the insane tale of a superhero who dresses like a doctor and "cures" criminals of their evil vices. We've also got Andrew Overbye, host of the Authorized Novelization Podcast and recent Cohen enthusiast, to share his feelings on the memoir and the nutty Headhunter. We love Larry Cohen and could have discussed him all day! Find I Killed Bette Davis here: stickingplacebooks.com/i-killed-bette-davis/ Find Headhunter here: stickingplacebooks.com/headhunter/ James Kenney's website: tremblesighwonder.com/ James Kenney on Twitter: x.com/jfkenney The Authorized Novelization Podcast on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/authorizedpod.bsky.social The Authorized Novelization Podcast on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/68YhhFLKW5m6ibJJDZ147M

“I went to a different planet where the spacemen drink coffee and don't cheat on their wives.” Cryptozoologist Christopher Funderburg and parapsychologist Martin Kessler meet in an undisclosed location to perform a secret autopsy on Visitors from Lanulos, "a history book about something that never happened." Ostensibly the chronicle of Woodrow Derenberger, a West Virginian contactee who reported encounters with Indrid Cold and his extraterrestrial buddies from the galaxy of Ganymede, the book would extend apophenic red strings to Jacques Vallee, Carl Higdon, John Keel, Whitley Strieber and Barney & Betty Hill. Are these con artists, crackpots or genuine survivors? Asking questions like these, Chris and Martin examine how a person differentiates between truth and fantasy; how ufology relates to the function of language, engaging with hypotheticals and identifying the turning point for conspiracy theories in American culture. They both want to believe! The Pink Smoke on X:x.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X:x.com/CFunderburg Martin Kessler on X:x.com/MovieKessler

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! We entrust the hosts of Director's Take: A Sony Pictures Podcast, Becky D'Anna and Jon Laubinger, to charge fearlessly into the flames and make some tough decisions. Will their choices be based on childhood nostalgia? Will they consider the history of le cinema? Does the single. neglected film of a one-and-done director stand a chance against four other filmmakers with dozens of classics under their belt? Since their new podcast is focused on directors, Becky and Jon make ideal candidates for our ruthless little experiment! The Director's Take website:https://www.sonypictures.com/directorstake Becky D'Anna on Twitter:https://x.com/hwoodminotaur Martin Kessler on Twitter:https://x.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter:https://x.com/thepinksmoke

For this year's Halloween theme, the Pink Smoke sets its sights on the mid-80's to early 90's trend of "mischievous little monsters" horror movies modeled after a certain masterpiece by a certain Joe Dante. Is there anything of quality to be found in such creature feature cash grabs? Do any cinematic critters, ghoulies, munchies or hobgoblins break the mold of the Gremlins template and discover their own identity? Is there any joy to be had in the low budget exploits of tiny varmints terrorizing people in small towns, big cities, carnivals, universities and outer space? We demand answers. Show us your goobers! We want to see those party-loving goobers! The Pink Smoke on X: x.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: x.com/CFunderburg John Cribbs on X: x.com/thelastmachine

We journey out to Montana Territory in the latter half of the 19th century to break biscuits with John "Liver-Eating" Johnson, subject of the books Crow Killer by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker and Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher, both of which were subsequently adapted by John Milius for the Sydney Pollack film Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford. All three detail Johnson's life as a hunter/trapper and his war with the Crow Indians after the killing of his wife, and while the accounts of foes stomped and scalps collected by the vengeful "Dapiek Absaroka" are outlandish at best, it makes for some fun Old West mythologizin'. And who better to discuss Old West mythologizin' than artist/historian/something of a myth himself David Lambert, who has graced the Pink Smoke with his expertise on such subjects as Cattle Drive Westerns, Sam Peckinpah and faux-Wyatt Earp movies. Here he brings light to some of the tall tales, the rampant mutilating and biscuit-baking of Crow Killer, the brilliant original Milius script for Jeremiah Johnson and the changes made for the movie. Waugh!! Hey! Look! It's our Patreon:www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X:x.com/DavidLambertArt David Lambert on bsky:@davidlambertart.bsky.social The Pink Smoke on X:x.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on X:x.com/thelastmachine

We watched Arthur. A New York love story. Pure lightning in a bottle. The little movie that went on to become the #4 biggest hit of 1981. And we watched Arthur 2: On the Rocks. A critical punching bag. An outcast. Something considered a travesty of elegance and taste, when it's considered at all. More to the point, what is Arthur in 2025? It's weird that it was so successful back in the day, and even weirder that we'd still want to discuss it now. We dig into that weirdness, and the double weirdness of its denigrated solo sequel: why it happened, how it happened and how it happens to work for us, just a little. 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"

We continue our series on the Parker books by Donald E. Westlake, published under the nom de guerre Richard Stark, which follow the various criminal activities of hard-boiled heister Parker and the shady characters surrounding him looking to screw up the score. Coming after the 'Outfit Trilogy' that kicked off the series, 1964's The Mourner is one of the weirder entries, focusing specifically on the eponymous MacGuffin: a lost historical statue sitting in the art collection of an embezzling expatriate from a small Slavic country who has himself been targeted by a secret policeman whose desire for a new life of luxury in America will mess everything up for Parker and his partner Handy McKay.  The Mourner artwork by Tony Stella. 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"

Ever since Dogfight was released in 1991 to middling reviews and invisible box office, it's slowly developed a following among viewers who appreciate Nancy Savoca's empathetic story of two young people making a meaningful connection at a pivotal point of the early 60's. Two such viewers are host Martin Kessler and his guest, film writer and programmer Vanya Garraway. They explore this very human film and the richness of its lead characters, an aspiring folk singer and a young soldier due to deploy to Vietnam who chooses her as his date for a party where the marine who brings the ugliest girl is rewarded. Over a single night, the couple find themselves challenging rigid gender roles and finding unexpected inner strength, leading to what Garraway refers to as "one of the most romantic scenes you'll ever see in cinema." Support our Patreon:www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:www.thepinksmoke.com Vanya Garraway on Twitter:@nostalgiaphile@PaidInSweat Paid in Sweatprod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pag…0abda7cb4e9& 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"

Last year, the Pink Smoke Podcast created a series called 1974: 50 Years Later, each episode featuring a different guest who chose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. But since all our guests are cool outsiders with eccentric tastes, most of them stayed away from the most iconic movies of that fabled cinematic year, eschewing The Godfather Part II in favor of forgotten TV movies and experimental horror films. While that was just fine with us, we decided it might be a good idea to back up and cover some of the acknowledged classics of 1974, starting with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. The first of four projects released by the ultra-prolific auteur (two theatrical, two for TV), Ali tells the tale of a 60-year-old window cleaner who falls in love with a Moroccan Gastarbeiter half her age, much to the disapproval of their contemporaries. One of the enfant terrible's more gentle movies, it's still populated by his lovably repellent characters in whom Fassbinder seeks to excavate some humanity in a miserable post-war West German society. We discuss the director's destructive creativity, how his worldview is more complicated than those of directors with whom he's often connected (Douglas Sirk and Ken Loach fans maybe give this one a miss) and how his most endearing and connective theme is loneliness. 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 finds himself in the middle of an angelic civil war, complete with soul-sucking seraphims, ritual exorcism, apocalyptic implications and an intervention from Lucifer himself, as he opens the ancient book (or should it be a scroll?) on Gregory Widen's 1995 theological thriller The Prophecy. Luckily, he's able to enlist first-time Pink Smoke guest Matthias van der Roest and fan favorite John Arminio to confront Christopher Walken's celestial terminator Archangel Gabriel before he turns heaven into hell. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler John Arminio on X: twitter.com/QuasarSniffer Popcorn Eschaton! soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-60-dead-man Matthias van der Roest on X: twitter.com/MattRSays The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / "Tea for Two" Outro music: Marcus Pinn / "Vegas"

Host John Cribbs is joined on the latest episode of The Pink Smoke podcast by Martin Kessler of Flixwise: Outpost Canada to discuss Mike Leigh's latest film, Peterloo. A historical drama looking at the semi-forgotten massacre at St. Peter's field in 1819, the film sees Manchester-ite Leigh returning to his home turf and somewhat unfamiliar artistic territory. With Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner, historical dramas aren't precisely strange terrain for Leigh, so what makes Peterloo feel like the filmmaker has stepped outside of himself?

Hosts John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg discuss the legendary documentarian Errol Morris' latest film AMERICAN DHARMA, an extended interview with Steve Bannon (the architect of Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign). It's another typical Morris study of self-deception, specious reasoning & the strange intersections of pop cultural & real life. The podcast discussion also addresses the issues of deplatforming, how the film fits alongside FOG OF WAR & THE UNKNOWN KNOWN and the politics of fear. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/CFunderburg Intro & outro music by Marcus Pinn of Pinnland Empire.

For Clint Eastwood’s 90th birthday, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs have each selected one of the actor/director’s films to discuss. This Eastwood Double Feature looks at Don Siegel’s The Beguiled and Eastwood’s own Unforgiven, a pair of films that illustrate why the star-auteur achieved his iconic status while remaining hard to pin down as an artist. The intense hothouse sexual politics of The Beguiled and the irony-soaked destruction (and rebuilding) of myths found in Unforgiven serve as a jumping off point to exploring Eastwood’s cinematic legacy, philosophies and elusive politics. It’s an unflinching discussion of one of cinema’s most towering, embattled, and controversial figures. The Pink Smoke site:
 www.thepinksmoke.com Patreon: 
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke on Twitter: 
twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter: 
twitter.com/TheLastMachine Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: 
twitter.com/CFunderburg Intro & outro music by Marcus Pinn of Pinnland Empire.

The myth of Wyatt Earp ignited at the ascent of cinema, his alleged Old West exploits embellished on celluloid during the Silent Era so that he was a full-fledged American legend come the golden age of Hollywood. Earp westerns were such an established staple that Law and Order, the first movie to star a surrogate Wyatt, was already out in 1932. All the familiar elements were there - Tombstone, Doc Holliday, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral - but the names of the players were different. From fairly straight biographical retellings including The Arizonian and Dodge City to radical revisions like Sam Fuller's Forty Guns and Edward Dmytryk's Warlock, the "Wyatt Earp movie without Wyatt Earp" has developed into an obscure but crowded subgenre. Who could identify such a subgenre but artist/Old West historian David Lambert, returning to The Pink Smoke to share his thoughts on the cinematic legacy of the killin'est peace officer who ever lived. Why so many thinly-veiled adaptations of the gunfighter's printed legend? How do they stack up next to the official versions, like John Ford's My Darling Clementine? Come for a nice long dive into these and other inquiries, stay for Lambert's killer Andy Devine impression. 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

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”