In the mid-70s, Jill, a sex-change in denial, buses west with the hope of becoming a star. She meets an aspiring gay photographer, Andernach, who instigates her discovery at a pool party. She pratfalls into a frenzy of tacky guerrilla film making, leaves her bonehead nudist boyfriend (who thought he was her manager) to live with a grand sex-change—not in denial—but dying of liver cancer. Jilly's cult fame finally allows her to save an elderly reclusive silent-movie glamour-queen from her hallucinations. A drag queen sewing circle gets her to a big gay bar, and her ensuing stand-up comedy and bad tabloid press lands her the underdog role in a major studio comedy. All the while bullets fly, as a mysterious man in an assortment of rubber monster masks stalks Jilly and the members of her new studio family.
Check it out at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Movies-Peter-Joseph-Swanson/dp/1600760783/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310327764&sr=1-2
Review by Kay M
Bad Movies
December 02, 2008
Bad Movies is the third and final book in Peter's Tinseltown Trilogy. If you've read Peter's Hollywood Sinners and The Joan Crawford Murders you might wonder if this book could get any wilder. The answer is yes. I will admit that I blushed more while reading this book than I did the others. Perhaps it is because this one is set in the 1970's, a time that I was alive, and so the 70's slang and situations seem more real to me. But blushing or no, I had to find out what happened to Jill.
Others seem to notice something different about Jill that she isn't completely aware of. When she has those fleeting and distant memories of Mexico and surgeries and a body part long gone, she brushes them aside and looks to her pretty manicure for reassurance.
She's a pretty girl who won the tile of Miss Milk in her hometown pageant and she arrives in Tinseltown believing that the modeling agencies will surely be impressed. But life is tough in the city and her new acquaintance, a pirouetting photographer, lets her know that she will have to pay some dues if she wants to be a star. He introduces her to the world of bad movie making, mobsters and her new boyfriend, a nudist named Bod.
While living in a shaky house near a nuclear power plant with Bod (whose name is actually Bob but thinks Bod sounds more studly), she works on the films that she believes will catapault her to stardom. How could a movie with a scantily clad cavewoman in a desert with giant turtles and simulated naughtiness not be a hit? It ended up being the kind of film that 70's SNL's Leonard Pinth Garnell would have deemed "exquisitely bad."
If bad movies were all that she had to worry about than life would be relatively easy. But no, there are murders and earthquakes and fires and a psycho in a leisure suit and rubber mask chasing her about. And those strange bits of fleeting memory........
This book is a smorgasbord of hilarious characters and outrageous situations. Read this book and you'll feel that you've taken a very entertaining walk on the wild side.
Fabulously Fun Summer Read, "Love it!" By Book Marie "Marie" on August 9, 2009 Format: Paperback
If you loved To Wong Foo and The Bird Cage as my daughter and I do then this is a must read for you! BAD MOVIES, by Peter Joseph Swanson was non-stop fun from the very beginning. My daughter was waiting for the book before I even finished.
You will fall in love with the fabulous characters and exciting scenes. I began reading at night and wanted to stay up and finish the book even thouhg my eyes were getting tired ... I finished it over the next two days.
The silly characters, Jilly's new family, are so endearing that you can't help but fall in love with them: Andernach, Bod, Candy Cane, Dixie Dawn Don and you can't forget Dunkel Morgendammerung.
It's non-stop excitement from the time they yell 'action' until they run out of film and yell 'cut'! I couldn't wait to read what would happen to Bod's hillside house built on stilts OR see if Jilly's small-town innocence would be ruined by Tinsletown!
It reminded me of my first childhood job at a Florida fabric store where I helped many a drag queen purchase fine fabrics for their gowns and my fun adventures dancing the night away with friend's at 'Discovery' an Arkansas gay bar.
You won't want to put this one down until you discover who the mystery monster masked man is that stalks Jilly and her friends.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! All I can say is, "Love It!"
If you loved To Wong Foo and The Bird Cage as my daughter and I do then this is a must read for you! BAD MOVIES, by Peter Joseph Swanson was non-stop fun from the very beginning. My daughter was waiting for the book before I even finished.
You will fall in love with the fabulous characters and exciting scenes. I began reading at night and wanted to stay up and finish the book even thouhg my eyes were getting tired ... I finished it over the next two days.
The silly characters, Jilly's new family, are so endearing that you can't help but fall in love with them: Andernach, Bod, Candy Cane, Dixie Dawn Don and you can't forget Dunkel Morgendammerung.
It's non-stop excitement from the time they yell 'action' until they run out of film and yell 'cut'! I couldn't wait to read what would happen to Bod's hillside house built on stilts OR see if Jilly's small-town innocence would be ruined by Tinsletown!
It reminded me of my first childhood job at a Florida fabric store where I helped many a drag queen purchase fine fabrics for their gowns and my fun adventures dancing the night away with friend's at 'Discovery' an Arkansas gay bar.
You won't want to put this one down until you discover who the mystery monster masked man is that stalks Jilly and her friends.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! All I can say is, "Love It!"
Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars I loved this writer.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
A really good writer who knows their back ground and has a gripping way with their story. I will not miss a book by this writer.