Sue is a mega-tease she is stringing along a rich fiancée, having regular private sessions with one of Mike's former teachers, servicing assorted clients at the baths, and getting her perverse kicks turning on Mike. In an extraordinary scene an aging Diana Dors explores Mike's interest in football (soccer). Asher plays Sue, an older co-worker who reveals that some of the clientèle are good for extra money in exchange for titillation in the private rooms. Just out of school, 15 year-old Mike (John Moulder-Brown) goes to work as the towel boy at a seedy London bath house. Probably because the gritty is evenly blended with the abstract in a storyline that nicely cuts between accidental and destined. But 'Deep End' is too grounded to be overwrought its romantic obsession - coming of age story rings surprisingly true. If you are looking for a more useful comparison think of a bizarre marriage of 'The Summer of 42' (1971) and 'Play Misty For Me' (1971). I was also reminded of a Judy Geeson film from about the same time 'Goodbye Gemini' (1970) a London setting and a doomed pair of mismatched lovers. Skolimowski was Polanski's screenwriter for 'Knife In the Water' and stylistically 'Deep End' has a Polanski flavor (it certainly has its 'Repulsion' moments). From Asher's red hair (in the film itself and in the promotional poster where it trails off into blood), to the new color being painted on the walls of the bathhouse, to the blood that punctuates certain climatic moments in the story.

My association of the color red now makes perfect sense as that was obviously the imagery that Skolimowski meant to drill into each viewer's mind. Meaning that director Jerzy Skolimowski managed to create some powerful imagery that stayed in my mind over all those years, which is more than I can say for a lot of films. About all I recalled from my long ago first viewing was the Jane Asher full-size cardboard stand-up and the color red. I finally got the opportunity to view it again last week and was not disappointed. Films on base ran for only one day (three shows) and this was one of a handful that drew capacity crowds to the later shows due to 'word of mouth' praise by those who attended the first screening. I first saw 'Deep End' shortly after its release, it played at the base theater during my Air Force days.

Who play in the deep movie