Score

Rating:
Summary: 'Score' The Edited Version.
Review: A fun film that still amuses today, even though it was much more viable in the 1970's as we weren't accustomed to this type of entertainment fare at the movie theatre. Originally an Off-Broadway installment that starred Sylvester Stallone. The original version of the film on The Audubon Film Library label was in the hands of Radley Metzger the director. That version contained several scenes that have been deleted from this First Run Features version. It surprised audiences at the theatres as after one hour into the film the sex scenes are tastefully hard-core. I have seen both versions and vastly perfer the original uncensored version. But this version is still plenty of fun.

Rating:
Summary: Mindless fun
Review: A wonderful bit of fluff, "Score" takes a wry look at sexual mores circa 1972, as they unravel over one night at a swanky swingers pad in "the village of Leisure." Radley Metzger was one of the few directors who tried to push erotic cinema into the rarefied atmosphere of Art (though whether he really succeeded is another question altogether; Bergman he ain't). This movie, consequently, is much better made than you might think.

Sure, there's a lot one could complain about, but personally I like it all--the silly but clever one-liners, the pretentious camera angles, the dopey "where is the girl?" song (who did that, anyway?) that crops up in the background every five minutes or so. You might recognize Lynn Lowry, who plays the wide-eyed Catholic ingenue, from the horror flicks (Shivers; I Drink Your Blood) she made around the same time. The movie manages to be entertaining precisely because it's so cheerfully simple-minded, because it adds up to not much of anything except some breezy do-your-own-thing philosophizing. It's fun stuff, if you're reasonably open-minded--that is to say, not mortally offended by depictions of omnisexual hedonism. Above all, though, it's a pleasant hymn to innocently lazy summer days with not a dark cloud in sight....

(NOTE: I am actually willing to admit that I've seen the "long lost" hard-core version of this film, which I caught during a Radley Metzger retrospective in Los Angeles a few years ago. The version I saw then is NOT identical to DVD/VHS version available, which has been cut. This is why you'll find all these "jumps" in the soundtrack of the DVD or video during the film's climax. Personally, this doesn't bother me much. Absolutely nothing pertaining to the plot (such as it is) has been cut; only about a minute or two of additional footage--mostly involving the two male leads, if I remember correctly--is missing. It's really nothing you need to see, in my opinion. In other words, don't feel you've been cheated by the DVD/VHS version.)

Rating:
Summary: 'Score' The Edited Version.
Review: A wonderful bit of fluff, "Score" takes a wry look at sexual mores circa 1972, as they unravel over one night at a swanky swingers pad in "the village of Leisure." Radley Metzger was one of the few directors who tried to push erotic cinema into the rarefied atmosphere of Art (though whether he really succeeded is another question altogether; Bergman he ain't). This movie, consequently, is much better made than you might think.

Sure, there's a lot one could complain about, but personally I like it all--the silly but clever one-liners, the pretentious camera angles, the dopey "where is the girl?" song (who did that, anyway?) that crops up in the background every five minutes or so. You might recognize Lynn Lowry, who plays the wide-eyed Catholic ingenue, from the horror flicks (Shivers; I Drink Your Blood) she made around the same time. The movie manages to be entertaining precisely because it's so cheerfully simple-minded, because it adds up to not much of anything except some breezy do-your-own-thing philosophizing. It's fun stuff, if you're reasonably open-minded--that is to say, not mortally offended by depictions of omnisexual hedonism. Above all, though, it's a pleasant hymn to innocently lazy summer days with not a dark cloud in sight....

(NOTE: I am actually willing to admit that I've seen the "long lost" hard-core version of this film, which I caught during a Radley Metzger retrospective in Los Angeles a few years ago. The version I saw then is NOT identical to DVD/VHS version available, which has been cut. This is why you'll find all these "jumps" in the soundtrack of the DVD or video during the film's climax. Personally, this doesn't bother me much. Absolutely nothing pertaining to the plot (such as it is) has been cut; only about a minute or two of additional footage--mostly involving the two male leads, if I remember correctly--is missing. It's really nothing you need to see, in my opinion. In other words, don't feel you've been cheated by the DVD/VHS version.)

Rating:
Summary: Mindless fun
Review: A wonderful bit of fluff, "Score" takes a wry look at sexual mores circa 1972, as they unravel over one night at a swanky swingers pad in "the village of Leisure." Radley Metzger was one of the few directors who tried to push erotic cinema into the rarefied atmosphere of Art (though whether he really succeeded is another question altogether; Bergman he ain't). This movie, consequently, is much better made than you might think.

Sure, there's a lot one could complain about, but personally I like it all--the silly but clever one-liners, the pretentious camera angles, the dopey "where is the girl?" song (who did that, anyway?) that crops up in the background every five minutes or so. You might recognize Lynn Lowry, who plays the wide-eyed Catholic ingenue, from the horror flicks (Shivers; I Drink Your Blood) she made around the same time. The movie manages to be entertaining precisely because it's so cheerfully simple-minded, because it adds up to not much of anything except some breezy do-your-own-thing philosophizing. It's fun stuff, if you're reasonably open-minded--that is to say, not mortally offended by depictions of omnisexual hedonism. Above all, though, it's a pleasant hymn to innocently lazy summer days with not a dark cloud in sight....

(NOTE: I am actually willing to admit that I've seen the "long lost" hard-core version of this film, which I caught during a Radley Metzger retrospective in Los Angeles a few years ago. The version I saw then is NOT identical to DVD/VHS version available, which has been cut. This is why you'll find all these "jumps" in the soundtrack of the DVD or video during the film's climax. Personally, this doesn't bother me much. Absolutely nothing pertaining to the plot (such as it is) has been cut; only about a minute or two of additional footage--mostly involving the two male leads, if I remember correctly--is missing. It's really nothing you need to see, in my opinion. In other words, don't feel you've been cheated by the DVD/VHS version.)

Rating:
Summary: A very good film that still crosses boundaries
Review: A young naive couple are slowly seduced by a veteran swinging couple. Some of the comical remarks are hilarious and adds a light touch to this fun film. Jack and Elvira are playing a game where they challenge each other to pick out a person and have to seduce them within a timeframe and they keep "score", thus the title of this movie. Mike the phone guy plays an interesting role in the beginning and end. Calvin Culver plays Eddie who is married to Betsy, but his sexual inclinations are towards men. Betsy is a typical young curious bride, who is enchanted by Elvira's worldly ways. Elvira bet Jack her husband that she could seduce Betsy into bed. This movie is not for the prudish and was way ahead of it's time when introduced. The odd Pink Floydish musical soundtrack seems out of place, but doesn't distract you from the antics going on. Watch this with open minded people only and have fun!

Rating:
Summary: Score's a bullseye. Well, almost...
Review: Having explored familiar heterosexual obsessions in well-regarded softcore dramas like CAMILLE 2000 (1969) and THE LICKERISH QUARTET (Esotika Erotika Psicotika, 1969), director Radley Metzger upped the sexual ante with SCORE (1972), a good-natured bisexual romp which crosses the boundary into hardcore territory, recently poularized in US theaters by the likes of DEEP THROAT and THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES (both 1972). Based on a play by screenwriter Jerry Douglas, SCORE tells the tale of swinging couple Claire Wilbur and Gerald Grant, who make a bet that they can seduce freshly-scrubbed newlyweds Lynn Lowry and Calvin Culver during a weekend get-together at their luxury Riviera villa. Having plied the hapless duo with drink nd soft drugs ("I'm not a very good junkie!" Lowry complains) and dressed them in costumes which tally with their sexual fantasies (cowboy, nun, sailor, etc.), Wilbur and Lowry pair off for a lesbian encounter, while Grant and Culver descend into the basement bedroom for a full-blown gay seduction.

Artfully photographed by Metzger himself and veteran cinematographer Franjo Vodopivec on location in Yugosalvia, and framed as an adult fairy tale (the delightful opening narration locates the action "...in the lush little land of Plenty, in the enviable state of Affluence... deep within the Erogenous Zone"!), the movie is distinguished by clever dialogue which removes outmoded notions of sexual parameters from the outset. When asked how she differentiates between sexes during the orgies she's attended in the past, Wilbur replies: "First you don't know, then you can't tell, then you don't care!" The plot is wafer-thin, and the acting is merely OK (the women fare best in this regard), but Douglas' script - played out for the most part in a single interior set, with only a handful of outdoor sequences - allows Metzger to build slowly and surely to the climactic double seduction, using reflective surfaces (amongst other devices) to convey sexual dualities within the characters. Viewers hoping for a non-stop flesh-fest may be irritated by the long narrative preamble (punctuated by Wilbur's rough-house tumble with studly repairman Carl Parker), but there's still plenty of uncompromising nudity, and the film manages to stimulate the brain whilst simultaneously tickling your, er... fancy. Great music, too, including an ultra-groovy (and uncredited) theme song!

Fascinating trivia: 'Calvin Culver' is actually gay porn star Casey Donovan, who made his name in groundbreaking titles like BOYS IN THE SAND (1971) and THE OTHER SIDE OF ASPEN (1978), though he later re-temaed with Metzger for the director's hardcore masterpiece THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN (1976). Co-star Gerald Grant only appeared in two other films (Metzger's NAKED CAME THE STRANGER [1975] and Umberto Lenzi's EATEN ALIVE [Mangiati Vivi, 1980]), and it's sad to report that both he and Donovan have since passed away. Claire Wilbur featured in the original stage version of SCORE, but her only other screen acting credit appears to be TEENAGE HITCH-HIKERS (1974), while the beautiful Lynn Lowry has since pursued a career in mainstream movies, including THE CRAZIES (1973), SHIVERS (1975) and CAT PEOPLE (1982). Writer Jerry Douglas adopted the pseudonym 'Doug Richards' and made a name for himself in gay porn, writing and directing a number of celebrated productions, including THE BACK ROW (1973), BOTH WAYS (1976) and MORE OF A MAN (1991), the latter featuring Joey Stefano and Chi Chi LaRue, while SCORE's production manager Branko Lustig has since become a major Hollywood producer, with titles like SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) and GLADIATOR (2000) to his credit!

Photographed in hard-matte 1.85:1, Image's region-free DVD preserves SCORE in letterbox format for the first time on home video. The print is a little ragged in places, but the framing is excellent and colors are sharp. The upper matte sometimes intrudes into frame, even on 16:9 monitors (including the opening shot, so don't adjust your set!), but never long enough to cause a major distraction. Sound format is 2.0 mono - music and sound effects are fine, but some of the dialogue is a little muffled and sibilant in places, which appears to have been a fault of the original recording. Unfortunately, this print - which bears a 1976 copyright - is the softcore version, running 84m 40s. Metzger reportedly prefers this cut of the film, but the all-important sex scenes are seriously compromised by jarring edits and obvious gaps in the soundtrack. The film remains a worthwhile curio, but its erotic potency has been severely blunted by unnecessary censorship. The DVD includes a typically delirious trailer ("Bring someone you want to excite!"), but there are no captions or subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: A GOOD FILM
Review: I just bought the VHS copy a couple of weeks ago. I had never seen it before. Solely on the basis that Lynn Lowry was in this film. I must say I quite like this film. It was fun. Lynn Lowry as always is very charming.

From the VHS, nothing appeared to be cut. All the nudity was intact.


Rating:
Summary: Too bad, it so severely censored.
Review: I saw the original hardcore version of this film a few years back during a Metzger retrospective in Greenwhich Village and I was bowled over. Cinematically the movie is very well done and manages to capture a snapshot of a world so far gone from anything that even remotely exists today that it borders on the ridiculous. It has a genuine plush feel, like a Harvey's Bristol Cream ad set in a baby blue shag carpeted ski lounge with a red metal hooded fireplace circa 1972. The plot revolves around a bet made between a husband and his wife on their anniversary that they either seduce a younger couple or call it quits on their marriage. What follows is a series of absurd and amusing plot twists involving tons of innuendo, bad costumes, drugs, psychadelic lighting, and fumbled attempts at seduction. My favorite scene is at the end of the film when the young husband flips out and his wife declares that now that she's been inducted into the swinging world of bisexuality, she can never go back to being just an ordinary housewife. Meanwhile, Elvira (played by the Erika Gavinesque Claire Wilbur), the older mentor-swinger is trying to push quaaludes and poppers left and right. Eventually, the husband chills out and he, his wife, and the cable guy run off.. or a key party or something equally 1970's hedonisitic and extreme. Just watching this film is enough to inspire a spontaneous case of the clap - which is what makes it so much fun - a pre-AIDS, pre-mass drug addiction, pre-Civil War Yugoslavian romp that should be shown in a museum somewhere as evidence that the Babyboom Generation is by far the most self indulgent group of mental retards to walk the face of the earth to date. All this and a dazzling soundtrack courtesy of some Velvet Underground inspired garage band come together to produce a total gem of a film.

Rating:
Summary: soft core masterpiece
Review: I saw the original hardcore version of this film a few years back during a Metzger retrospective in Greenwhich Village and I was bowled over. Cinematically the movie is very well done and manages to capture a snapshot of a world so far gone from anything that even remotely exists today that it borders on the ridiculous. It has a genuine plush feel, like a Harvey's Bristol Cream ad set in a baby blue shag carpeted ski lounge with a red metal hooded fireplace circa 1972. The plot revolves around a bet made between a husband and his wife on their anniversary that they either seduce a younger couple or call it quits on their marriage. What follows is a series of absurd and amusing plot twists involving tons of innuendo, bad costumes, drugs, psychadelic lighting, and fumbled attempts at seduction. My favorite scene is at the end of the film when the young husband flips out and his wife declares that now that she's been inducted into the swinging world of bisexuality, she can never go back to being just an ordinary housewife. Meanwhile, Elvira (played by the Erika Gavinesque Claire Wilbur), the older mentor-swinger is trying to push quaaludes and poppers left and right. Eventually, the husband chills out and he, his wife, and the cable guy run off.. or a key party or something equally 1970's hedonisitic and extreme. Just watching this film is enough to inspire a spontaneous case of the clap - which is what makes it so much fun - a pre-AIDS, pre-mass drug addiction, pre-Civil War Yugoslavian romp that should be shown in a museum somewhere as evidence that the Babyboom Generation is by far the most self indulgent group of mental retards to walk the face of the earth to date. All this and a dazzling soundtrack courtesy of some Velvet Underground inspired garage band come together to produce a total gem of a film.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Radley Metzger film!
Review: Ignore the "Video Description" above! They obviously missed the point of this movie. (It should read: "A happily married young couple make a sport of introducing their frustrated neighbors to the joys of sexual liberation.")

A carefree story with plenty of wit and eroticism thrown in, this film beautifully captures the spirit of the 70's "Sexual Revolution." Unlike so many other "adult" films of the time (and even some made today), this story really does have, *something for everyone.* All taboos are obliterated--with no consequences other than joy.

Based on a successful play, the script remains sharp and well-paced. Score also has excellent cast; including the legendary Cal Culver (best known as Casey Donovan), who had recently finished Boys in the Sand (reportedly what convinced Metzger to have him cast as "Eddie" in Score).

Radley Metzger is an amazing filmmaker, and Score showcases all the techniques that have kept him in a class by himself. Buy this video! Otherwise, you'll just spend a fortune on rental fees!