Deep End (1970)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

15-year-old Mike takes a job at the local swimming baths, where he becomes obsessed with an attractive young woman, Susan, who works there as an attendant. Although Susan has a fiancé, Mike does his best to sabotage the relationship, to the extent of stalking both her and her fiancé. Mike becomes increasingly desperate to have Susan for himself, with tragic results. A boring 70's forgettable film starring a bunch of untalented actors in horrible roles that make for a horrible and even more forgettable set of perfomances in the end. (0/10)

Jerzy Skolimowski's masterful 1970 film Deep End went under the radar for half a century until a recent DVD release revealed its treasures. Deep End looks like but is not a coming-of-age film. The two main protagonists, 15-year-old Mike (John Moulder Brown) and 24-year-old Susan (Jane Asher), unfortunately never come of age. Neither is it a so-called black comedy, a horror film, or a surreal, dreamlike exercise in teenage angst, though it has elements of all of them. It is basically unclassifiable but is definitely closer in tone to Clockwork Orange than to The Graduate.Darkly erotic and sexually ambiguous, the film opens with a vision of dripping red paint backed by the music of Cat Stevens singing "But I Might Die Tonight." Mike, a high-school dropout, has gone to work as a pool attendant at Newford Baths, a sleazy and deteriorating public pool that is filled with middle aged patrons looking for something other than a swim. Having been accosted by a bosomy, obese middle-aged woman (Diana Dors) for her own pleasure, Mike realizes that his first job experience may not look good on his resume. The boy's interest is channeled to his co-worker Susan who reassures him that harassment by patrons is just part of the job, one that could lead to some liberal tips.A part of the job he had not bargained for, however, is his growing infatuation and obsession with the 24-year-old Susan, who has a fiancé (Christopher Sandford) and boyfriend, a married former high school teacher (Karl Michael Vogler), and also may just be an expensive call girl. Their relationship starts out full of fun and brotherly concern but it starts to turn creepy when he follows his mentor and her date to a porno movie and starts annoying her by touching her breasts. When her boyfriend alerts the manager, she thrills him when with a kiss on the lips just before he is ushered out of the theater.When Mike steals her poster found at a Soho strip club and attempts to compete in a footrace against runners at his old school, where he was himself a celebrated athlete, we know that the deep end is not far away. Mike's lust for Susan begins to include stalking and threatening and we begin to realize that his out-of-control emotional immaturity is the stuff of impending tragedy. Beginning and ending with the silence and comfort of water, the powerful and unsentimental Deep End may make you think twice before going for a swim.

"Oh, it's you boy" signals the first scene in Deep End that presents sex in its most grotesque form. Mike's overly aggressive client proceeds to grab his head and rubs it over her breast and body fuelling her desire before forcing Mike out of the door. The client had manipulated Mike for her own sexual needs and in Deep End, the manipulation rises to ugly peaks. Naive concerning the wider world, Mike begins his first job alongside Susan at the local swimming bathes which happens to be a place where sexuality is ripe in an astonishing manner. This causes friction between Mike and the loose Susan who he is immediately fascinated by yet jealous of her exploits. Susan plays with this infatuation in her mind games with Mike. He acts in a child – like manner when his Mother visits annoying Susan. "Your Mother's a cow", she tells Mike. He responses back by insulting Susan's Mother before she tells him, "She can't be, she's dead". Her cold expression indicates her lies, the pillows above her of different faces symbolise the many personalities Susan portrays to trick others.Her manipulation of Mike soon turns sexual. Discussing a safe sex poster leads Susan to place the poster on Mike teasing him. When discussion leads to sex itself, Susan takes off her sandals to put her bare feet against Mikes, revealing her dark sexual nature at play. Mike reveals he's a virgin and becomes embarrassed; Susan acts on this by stroking his hair and face before putting herself closer to him. Her actions establish Susan as a cruel deviant, who enjoys teasing Mike and abusing his emotions confusing his inexperienced mind. Yet it fuels Mike's longing for Susan even more. After following Susan and her fiancé to a pornographic screening, Mike sits behind her letting his passions out by placing his face gently on Susan's arm. She looks over and lets Mike play into her game. She lets Mike feel her breast before gaining the attention of her fiancé by slapping Mike, landing him into trouble. Whilst her fiancé calls security Susan quickly turns to Mike and kisses him passionately, causing Mike to smile with delight seemingly unaware of not only the trouble he is in but once again he has become the victim of Susan's twisted game. Yet her manipulation slowly backfires as Susan has ignited Mike's compulsive passions for her even more, resulting in dangerous consequences.Wandering around the seedy streets of London stalking Susan, Mike is first offered into strip clubs by employee's blunt description of the distasteful acts which are performed, another element in Deep End which portrays sexuality in a filthy manner. He then notices a cut out of 'Angelica', a bare breasted girl with a staking resemblance to Susan. Bewildered he hides out in a prostitute's room who once he decides the coast is clear she begins to blackmail him for money. "You've had my time and my emotions" she states in a sly, coy manner. Yet another woman manipulating Mike with her sexuality. Once Mike runs off after Susan, he lays out his ill – fated love for her. "Look at it! Is this you?", Mike asks. "I'm much worse than that" Susan replies sarcastically. This engages into a bitter argument between the two as Mike, still showing his naivety of Susan's true nature by asking her how she can pose nude. This brings out his obsessive behaviour trying to force Susan to explain herself. It shows what Susan's mind games have lead Mike too, becoming obsessed with Susan to the point of fantasising about her on a dangerous level. Throwing 'Angelica' into the pool before he himself jumps in nude, the underwater shot shows Mike holding on to a make – believe Susan. Immersing himself into seemingly unpredictable depths within his imagination. These deranged depths come to ahead once Mike plays a dirty trick on Susan by knocking out the diamond in her engagement ring. Once Mike manages to find the diamond, instead of giving it right back to Susan he attempts to create his dim fantasy by stripping off naked and wait for Susan to return in order to blackmail her into sex. Mike has learnt a technique from Susan which shows how tragically desperate he is as well as the extent of manipulation Susan has reached, corrupting Mike's mindset. At first hesitant, she decides to strip nude to entice Mike into letting his guard down taking the diamond back, leaving Mike to sulk. Yet suddenly Susan has a change of heart, she goes back to Mike and offers her body to him. Was it out of pity or was she playing an even crueler trick on Mike? Either way the raw natured Mike attempts to take advantage of his fantasy becoming reality. Yet it's a bittersweet experience. He may have finally got his arms around Susan's bare body but he fails to accomplish what he wanted. It was not the meaningful encounter he desired but rather a disastrous one with none of the emotions he had hoped for. Embarrassed and angry by the experience Mike attempts to explain himself to Susan, who wants to forget it. Her coldness towards Mike eventually leads to her demise, in the heat of the moment Mike swings the ceiling lamp at Susan knocking her unconscious. She slowly sinks into the water as the swinging lamp knocks down a tin of red paint, mixing with the pool water in a symbolic gesture of Mike's dangerous passions for Susan along with his demise. Rather than trying to save her Mike simply cringes on to her dying body. Both paying the price for their obsessions and manipulations respectively.

Cute working class fifteen-year-old John Moulder-Brown (as Mike) gets a job an attendant in a London bathhouse and falls "head-over-heels" in love with his co-worker, sexy red-haired Jane Asher (as Sue). He meets "ladies of a certain age," like overweight Diana Dors, "who favours young boys" - but, Mr. Moulder-Brown can't stop fantasizing about the delectable Ms. Asher; she was the inspiration for many of The Beatles' love songs, "And I Love Her"..."Deep End" is an imaginatively shot, by Jerzy Skolimowski with Charly Steinberger, story involving obsessive teenage love, with Moulder-Brown very effectively essaying the "mature for his age" protagonist. You also get a good look at Ms. Asher as an actress, which she was before achieving world-wide fame as a Paul McCartney's first significant relationship. The film's ending is somewhat disappointing; it certainly could have been more... electric.****** Deep End (3/18/71) Jerzy Skolimowski ~ John Moulder-Brown, Jane Asher, Diana Dors, Karl Michael Vogler