The Pink Smoke podcast

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"