Porn pioneer Radley Metzger, who retired in
1984, had an interesting history in cinema. He
was a film editor who also lent his talents to
trailer editing, an art in itself, who did several
Ingmar Bergman films. He got his start in the
porn film business when he imported and showed
a Swedish porno I, A Woman, which
became incredibly popular throughout America.
He then decided to become a filmmaker of such
films himself, becoming e a forerunner of the
'porn chic' era, a time when porn
was discussed as a serious art form and was shown
at mainstream movie houses throughout the states.
Metzger made several porn films, including The
Lickerish Quartet, Camille 2000
and Score, before retiring. As
a small point of interest, Metzger was the man
that writer/ director P. T. Anderson based his
character of Jack Horner, played by Burt Reynolds,
in Boogie Nights on.
Score (aka The Score)
tells the story of Elvira (Claire Wilber) and
her husband Jack (Gerald Grant) who are sexual
predators with a taste for…well, everything.
While staying in Europe, they enjoy their swinging
lifestyle, which is supplemented by Jack's
income as a fashion photographer. After many orgies
they decide to aim their sights on naïve
young married couple Betsy (Lynn Lowry) and her
uptight husband Eddie (Calvin Culver aka porn
star Casey Donovan). They make a bet with each
to get with this couple and proceed to hunt their
prey. Through sexual experimentation, secrets
are revealed that shock the young couple into
a realization that maybe their marriage isn't
quite what it should be.
Score is a film that is trying
to tell us about sexual politics, sexual awakenings
and the thrill of the hunt, and may have been
thrilling and sexy in 1973 but unfortunately now
comes across as incredibly kitsch. Elvira and
Jack are performed like they are moustache twirling
villains from the 1920s, and Betsy and Eddie,
who are supposed to be naïve, come across
as plain out dumb. The acting is well below any
standard previously set, and almost every word…
is…pronounced…individually. The sex
scenes are cut like an MTV video AFTER the sound
has been put in, so the soundtracks skips all
over the place , which along with the plain out
bad sound recording and ordinary image, makes
this an effort to watch. I will give this film
credit for one thing though, some of the dialogue
is funny, almost subversively so, and you occasionally
miss out on how clever the jokes are, due to the
bad performances by the actors.
This film, along with The Lickerish Quartet
and Camille 2000 can be purchased
seperately or as part of Umbrella Entertainment's
Sexadelic Collection. |
