SKIN DEEP – Director: Lancer Brooks (Tom De Simone) (1982) – 80 minutes running time
Starring: Michael Christopher & Johnny Dawes; plus: Chris Burns, Ben (Benjamin) Barker, Matt Michaels, and special appearance by Beau Matthews and Giorgio Canali
“This compelling story of a contemporary relationship confronts and questions some comfortable stereotypes. Johnny Dawes plays the author of pornographic novels who picks up a hustler, mainly for inspiration. But the hustler (Michael Christopher) turns out to be a thinking, feeling human being who challenges the writer’s preconceived ideas about sexual involvement.” – Bijou Video
In a spectacular conclusion, (the scene shown above) Dawes has sex with the hustler while imagining himself getting topped first by hustler Michaels, then by the other characters (fictional & not), Beau Matthews (rare for him!), Matt Michaels, Ben Barker, and Chris Burns. They surround him on the bed for the climax. (note: no Giorgio Canali – I read in an unpublished interview with De Simone that he was unhappy with Canali’s performance, or rather, lack of it as he had sex off camera with Beau before their filming, and wasn’t turned on after that first, off-camera attempt!)
“theme” music – Need Somebody by STUFF (at least one other STUFF tune appears, This One’s For You) plus Jerry Goldsmith’s – The Wrong Clue, and The Last of Ida; plus Serenade In The Night from Primo Scala & His Accordion Band, Herb Alpert’s The Factory (during the Beau/Giorgio scene) and Beyond in the subsequent scene between Johnny & Michael; and of course, PINK FLOYD’s On The Run. I love that the director’s original choices for music withstood the transfer to VHS, etc (unlike the case in The Idol). You can tell the film and music editing was coordinated, not just a random slap up job.
review: Skin Deep (Emerson Films, 1982)
6 replies on “SKIN DEEP”
Wow, you got a lot more music from this one than I ever had (basically everything you noted aside from Pink Floyd). Kudos!
This does seem like a film where the music was deliberately chosen and placed right where the director wanted, as opposed to the frequent ‘sure just play that disco song here’ or music on a loop throughout, especially the silent ones like Nova etc.
Mr. Christopher is absolutely adorable as the big-hearted hustler looking for love.
Apparently, the bathroom scene with Ben Barker started with a golden shower – anyone seen it?
WOW! initially, I thought that would surprise me, coming from this director, but just to be sure, took a quick look, and you can see/hear the set up (from the narrator/writer) as Ben and Michael are shown separately, but as the narration says “golden” – CUT! disco music, no more narration, and Ben is looking up – too bad, it must’ve been cut out!
The cut WS scene from ‘Skin Deep’ is included in this compilation of piss loops and scenes from other films. Starts at 1:12:16.
https://thisvid.com/playlist/111112/video/what-hollywood-pissed-away/
WOW – thanks – took a look, and the CUT! is the same spot, but yes, there’s the piss scene – nothing remarkable, but I had no idea (did you notice the narrator, Dawes’ voice sounded funny? was the tape slightly sped up?) – perhaps a future post with both versions of the scene?
Beau Matthews as a top is rare. He bottomed most of the time.
He must have bottomed for Giogio Canali off-camera since he performs well in this scene.