Austin Williams is the author of Crimson Orgy, which I reviewed a few years ago. The Platinum Loop is his second novel, and it's quite a bit different from his earlier one.It's 1973. Gene Hoffman is a producer of sleazy films. He's broke and needs cash badly. Floyd Manning is a guy who hustles celebrity memorabilia. The two meet cute (or brutal), and Floyd tells Gene about the choicest item in his collection, a porn loop, once the property of J. Edgar Hoover, starring none other than a famous blonde whose initials are MM. Sell the loop, get rich. Simple, right? Well, not exactly. Gene's not telling Floyd the whole truth about himself, and Floyd isn't exactly being square with Gene. Complications, as we like to say, ensue. Lots of them.
The plot moves quickly, the sleazy characters live up to their sleaziness, and there are even some laughs along the way. Besides all that, there are some interesting settings, off-the-Strip Las Vegas in the '70s, with Hollywood and Tijuana thrown into the mix. Off-beat, off-kilter adventure. Check it out.
6 comments:
Love the setting. The sleaze film world is certainly rife with material.
This summer there was a flurry of stories about some guy in Argentine who was auctioning off a purported Marilyn Monroe stag film from 1948. I guess this was supposed to be a survivor of Joe DiMaggio's alleged campaign to buy up all the prints.
The seller expected to get half a mil, but got no offers & a lot of sneers. There are purported copies of the film on the net. I've seen it; the resemblance to MM is only so-so. Nobody with sense seems to believe it's MM. Why pay $500K when you can download it for nothing?
Art Scott, cinema researcher
Not to spoil anything, but Williams was ahead of the curve.
OK, I clearly forgot to order the first book when you reviewed it so have corrected that by reserving it at the library.
Jeff
Am I reading correctly--the two main characters have the same last name (Hoffman) but are not related? Is that germaine to the plot?
BTW, Don Delilo's RUNNING DOG uses the hunt for some supposed porn footage featuring Hitler and Eva Braun as a key element in the plot.
Just a stupid blunder on my part, Deb, and thanks for the catch.
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