Hypnotism has always had this magnetic, mysterious lure as a surreptitious means to break down sexual barriers, and it's used quite effectively in Skin Deep in Love.

Kind of like the Separate Tables of urban sleaze, this little potboiler tracks the lives, loves and interactions of the employees in a New York City night spot.

Judson Todd, who appeared as Uncle Russ in Joe Sarno's The Bed and How To Make It plays a nightclub magician, Mark Hess, a guy who specializes in cheap parlor tricks and even cheaper love affairs.

Mark's assistant Tanya has a crush on him, but he tells her he likes women, lots of women—a polite way of telling Tanya she looks like the wrong end of the woman-sawed-in-half trick.

Mark, however, has got the hots for Nancy (a Sixties decade precursor to Cyndi Lauper), one of the cocktail waitresses at the club. Mark invites Nancy up to his room to watch him pull a rabbit out of his pants, but she inexplicably freezes up when the energizer bunny wants his batteries changed.

Tanya, though, figures if she can get Nancy to screw Mark relentlessly, he'll get her out of his system, thus clearing the path for their affair. This ploy sets up the hypnotism angle in which Tanya puts Nancy in a trance (not a difficult gesture), to eliminate her fear of flying. Adding complications to this stew is the fact that Nancy really has the hots for nightclub owner Rick, who looks like a young Tommy Lee Jones.

A sleaze classic with some of the most melodramatically rendered lines and over-the-wall facial grimaces since Godzilla. An unintentional hoot.

Stars Joanna Mills, Judson Todd, Carla Desmond, Chris Koersen, Nick Linkov, Cherie Winters.