Phase Three. Director Geoff Steven; Producer John Maynard; Screenplay Piers Davies, Roger Horrocks, Geoff Steven; Camera Leon Narby
Jim Macfarlane
Ken Blackburn
Alan Jervis
Grant Tilly
Bill Johnson
Arthur Wright
Skin Deep, New Zealand's long-awaited breakthrough film, is a soberly-paced but absorbing tale of a small country town which is making its bid, via a publicity campaign, to attract tourists and industry.
When a masseuse is imported from the nearest big city and Vic's Gym becomes a massage parlor and sauna the inevitable happens. Many local males are anxious to try the parlor-style sex that previously they had only read about, and the respectable matrons pressure the police to shutter the den of vice.
An excellent script and three-dimensional characters flesh out this skeleton. Central to the theme and payoff is Sandra Ray (Deryn Cooper), the masseuse who, though she still emits plenty of erotic voltage, has had enough of the sex side of the business.
Leading the parade of straying husbands on the prowl for parlor extras is Bob Warner, (Ken Blackburn) chairman of the fund-raising group, the town's leading business man and the first to run for cover when the squeeze comes on the massage establishment.
(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1978. Running time: 103 MIN.
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