Baldwin Hills - Simon, King Of The Witches

[dem bones]

Baldwin Hills - Simon, King Of The Witches (New English Library, June 1972)

Blurb:
Simon was in bed when he first discovered the amazing power he possessed.
The potency of his magic led to his rapid rise in the world.
His new-found necromancy enables him to bewitch any woman he likes for as long as he likes. And he owes it all to his bewitching instrument!
Now a major film: Directed by Bruce Kessler— starring Andrew Prine as Simon and Brenda Scott as Linda.

Been fascinated by this one ever since Steve first posted a cover scan way back on Vault MK I. Even after reading a review of the film, am not quite sure what I was expecting but the clue is in said "bewitching instrument" and the purple pentagram tattooed there-on. I persevered with fifty pages until Simon manifested his first demon - all three foot of it: looks like all the Marx brothers rolled into one - and became so irritated had to rush back to Cornell Woolrich and Graves For The Living which I should never have abandoned in the first place. But I'll be back!

[franklinmarsh]

Baldwin Hills?!?!?

If that isn't a superb author name.....

[timothymayer]

Oh wow, a paperback tie in. You should try and find the movie on video if you can. It's goofy as hell. More 60's garage surrealism than can be imagined.

[lordfroggy]

This was released on DVD in the US in 2008 and here's a handy link to a review www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=555

The cheapest I could find was from a market place seller on Amazon.co.uk .

[dem bones]

Cheers, Froggy! Yeah, it did strike me that the film would be more fun than this novel, none of which I can recognise from Jari Kovalainen informative DVD review, although admittedly am still stalled on p50. In the book, Simon Sinistrari's adventures begin as a gawky thirteen year old Jewish boy in California (he's still known as Melvin at the time) when his father sends him to deliver a piano stool to the home of Goldie, a huge black prostitute-cum-tattooist. In less time than it takes to tell, Goldie has him laid out on her faux leopardskin sheets for a marathon session. Goldie is so impressed with Simon's performance that she engraves a purple Star of David on his dick to denote that he is a King. Only trouble is, she messes up in the excitement of the moment, and what Simon winds up with is actually a Pentagram.

Fortunately, one of Goldie's regular clients, Alastair the Astrologist, is in the market for an unpaid assistant, general dogsbody and someone to regularly sodomise. The old fraud generously agrees to take on Simon as his apprentice. His charitable gesture pays off handsomely, Simon's "extraordinary divining rod" proving a big success with the housewives of Rockaway Beach. As to our young hero, he's taking his magic very seriously indeed and it's at this point he summons his first demon (the Marx Brothers lookalike mentioned above), and that sequence so did for my patience that I can't face going back to Simon, King Of The Witches just yet.

Its disappointing, but I can't seem to warm to this book at all. There's something about good old Baldwin that ... I dunno; he's a really talented author, some of his set-pieces even made me laugh, but the more I read, the more I felt suffocated by the creeping smugness that seems to exude from every page, which was surely not his intention! But it really might just be a case of not being in the right frame of mind to appreciate it. Had a dip into the Harvard Lampoon's Twilight piss-take at the weekend. laugh? Doubt I ever will again ....

[helrunar]

Thanks for the review, Kev. Sounds like a real dud. And nothing at all like the film, which is just a bit of loopy early 70s occultnik fun.

S.