The Pink Smoke podcast

In 1985, William "Hurricane Billy" Friedkin was back on the streets with the savage and illusive policier To Live and Die in L.A. Filmed with gritty precision, photographed in painterly textures by the immortal Robby Müller and encompassing one scorcher of an extended city-wide high-speed pursuit that leaves even the celebrated chase from The French Connection in the dust, the movie electrified the screen yet couldn't produce a spark critically or commercially. It has since been rightfully recognized as a classic, much to the satisfaction of hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs who sit down to review the fatal errors of Richard Chance, Rick Masters and John Vukovich on the blood-red scorched inland valleys of the City of Angels. A would-be presidential assassin exploding midair, bungee jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the intricate art of creating "funny money," a foot chase at an airport terminal, canvases set ablaze, kabuki-inspired performance artists, dumpster death, strip club stoolies, botched stakeouts, prison yard hits, a sleazy lawyer who work both sides, a speedy escape down a wrong way street, Steve friggin' James - there are a million reasons to love this movie. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com 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"

“You just like children. Have eyes but don't see. You try live in taiga, soon dead.” We’re joined by illustrator and poster designer Tony Stella to discuss what might be Akira Kurosawa’s most neglected masterpiece, Dersu Uzala! The trio discusses where the film, an unexpected Russian-Japanese co-production, fits into the filmography of a filmmaker any reasonable cinephile would consider to be among the greatest to ever do it. Coming shortly on the heels of Kurosawa’s suicide attempt, Dersu represents a strange spiritual transformation for the filmmaker but one that led directly to his stunning creative rebirth with Kagemusha, Ran and Dreams. The film follows a Russian army officer in the early 20th century on a series missions exploring the far reaches of the taiga on the border between Russia and China. On his initial trip into the extreme and unforgiving wilderness, he meets the titular character, a strange woodsman who yells at fire, shoots with supernatural accuracy, and knows the landscape better than anyone who ever lived. It’s the story of an unlikely friendship between impressive, seemingly indomitable men. Tony Stella on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiotstella/ The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com 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"

On this episode, The Pink Smoke welcomes back podcaster and physical media maven Brian Saur to bite into the succulent apple that is The Lady Eve. The gleaming center of an unparalleled four-year, 7-movie run of masterpieces from the peerless Preston Sturges, Eve strikes an immaculate balance of comedy that is high and low brow, impressions of love both cynical and romantic, and a leading lady who's positively anything but good and positively anything but bad. With a top-to-bottom phenomenal cast including Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette and William Demarest breathing life into Sturges' brilliant dialogue and deftly executing his pratfalls, it's hard to argue against this movie being the pinnacle of Hollywood's age of slapstick. Along with co-host Elric Kane on the Pure Cinema Podcast, Brian originated the phrase "handshake film" to describe great movies that are easy for fellow cineastes to bond over and The Lady Eve is certainly that. Like Brian, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs are huge Sturges fans who find every frame of Eve irresistible, so this episode quickly turns into a gush session in which they quote favorite lines, deconstruct favorite scenes and have a great time doing it! Just the Discs on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCffVK8TcUyjCpr0F9SpV53g The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Brian Saur on Twitter: twitter.com/bobfreelander Pure Cinema Podcast on Twitter: twitter.com/PureCinemaPod 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"

“It came to Mr. Blood, as he trudged forward under the laden appletrees on that fragrant, delicious July morning, that man - as he had long suspected - was the vilest work of God, and that only a fool would set himself up as a healer of a species that was best exterminated.” Join hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs on the high seas as they celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rafael Sabatini's seminal swashbuckler Captain Blood. Detailing the odyssey of Dr. Peter Blood from his unjust persecution in the Bloody Assizes to his enslavement on the sugar plantations of Barbados and escape to a spectacular career as the most feared and beloved buccaneer on the Caribbean, it's the very definition of a page-turner that transported the romance and adventure of Dumas into the 20th century. Famously adapted by Michael Curtiz as the 1935 classic starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Sabatini's tale of honor and morality is as timeless now as it was 100 years ago. Our hosts glide through a rip-roaring narrative that chronicles Blood outfoxing a Spanish Admiral, crossing swords with lascivious pirate Levasseur, sacking the cities of Maracaybo and Cartagena with his fellow Brethen of the Coast and romancing the unattainable heart of Arabella Bishop, the niece of his greatest enemy! The flags fly and the cannons roar as Sabatini reshapes the adventure novel for the next century. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com 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"

We're joined by Steven Sheil, co-curator of the Mayhem Film Festival, to discuss this fantastic 50's crime novel written by H. Vernor Dixon, a truly obscure author who deserves more attention. Sheil describes the surprisingly literary book as Westlake's Parker combined with The Great Gatsby!

“Jim, you don't ask the Almighty for his I.D.” It’s something you didn’t dream was possible, the unlikeliest scenario in all the universe: four people sitting down together in praise of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Hosts John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg are joined by a pair of friends the show (perhaps the best friends of the show), John Arminio and Bill Teck, in defense of one of the least-defended films in all of le cinema. The group discusses the pros (and undeniable cons) of the film: from the brilliant casting of virtual unknown Laurence Luckinbill as the Vulcan prophet Sybok to what makes a Star Trek film Star Trek-y to how the success and genial humor of Star Trek IV got the series pointed in the wrong direction. Each of the group has a different perspective and relationship to the series, so the discussion approaches from a variety of directions the seemingly unapproachable task of recusing the film’s reputation. Join us for a trip to the great beyond and the fraudulence to be found there. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Bill Teck on Twitter: twitter.com/billteck John Arminio on Twitter: twitter.com/QuasarSniffer 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"

Hosts John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg discuss the "voodoo" thriller that was adapted for the screen into John Schlesinger's The Believers as well as the real-life criminal enterprises inspired by the book/movie. It's a story of oblivious racism, NYC grime, goofy acronyms & the endless recounting of what our hero read in research files.

“The Experiment is The Experiment.” We’re joined by critic & filmmaker Martin Kessler to discuss the Strugatsky Brothers’ magnum opus, The Doomed City. Long self-suppressed by the brothers due to fears of retribution by Soviet government under which it was written, the book has a potency and imagination that rivals their best work like Hard to Be a God (adapted into the legendary film by Alexei German) and Roadside Picnic (adapted by Andrei Tarkovsky into the all-time classic Stalker.) The story concerns a bizarre city operating unstuck from time under the incomprehensible parameters of an opaque social-metaphysical project known only as The Experiment. Theological novel, pointed political allegory, mind-bending sci-fi story; like the land of The Experiment itself, The Doomed City is an ever-changing landscape with mysteries apt to be interpreted wildly differently depending on who is doing the interpreting. We go deep on this challenging but wildly engaging masterpiece from some of the most important science-fiction writers ever to exist. Support our Patreon: 
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: 
www.thepinksmoke.com Martin Kessler on Twitter:
 https://twitter.com/MovieKessler 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"

The great Bill Duke, immortalized onscreen for his roles in Car Wash, Predator, Action Jackson, The Limey and Mandy, also boasts a distinctive five-decade career directing film and television. On this episode, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs welcome back Pinnland Empire guru Marcus Pinn to discuss Duke's 1984 feature debut, The Killing Floor. After premiering on the PBS American Playhouse series, winning the Special Jury Prize at Sundance and being chosen as an Official Selection of the "La Semaine de la Critique" section at Cannes, the movie practically disappeared from sight until its recent 4k restoration and preservation by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Set during a period of migration of Southern black workers to the giant Chicago slaughterhouses during the first World War, Killing Floor concerns the struggle to build an interracial union even as meatpacking management actively plotted to divide the workface along ethnic lines, a conflict which boiled over in the race riots of 1919. Featuring early performances from Alfre Woodard and Dennis Farina, an exhaustively researched screenplay by Leslie Lee (from a story by producer Elsa Rassbach) and assured direction from Duke, it's a film that deserves more recognition for both its subject matter and its own time and place in American filmmaking. Support our Patreon: 
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Marcus Pinn on Twitter: https://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"

"I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, high up there. That's how I began to hate you." On this episode hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs discuss the namesake of this very site, Akira Kurosawa's intense crime masterpiece High and Low! A long-standing favorite of the Pink Smoke, its founders are always excited to dig into this thriller about the harrowing moral decisions forced into play by a botched kidnapping. The film's unique structure moves from a single-set drama about corporate back-stabbing to an expansive police procedural that winds its way through every level of Tokyo and, consequently, shifts its focus from Toshiro Mifune as an executive under pressure to Tatsuya Nakadai as the detective chasing down every lead. Brilliant from start to finish, there's a case to be made that High and Low represents the culmination of the finest era in the Japanese master's body of work. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com 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"