Score (Radley Metzger, 1972)
"I'd better set the timer, or we'll forget all about the veal & peppers"
Directed by arty pornographer Radley Metzger, his highly enjoyable 1972 sleaze-fest was actually based on an off-broadway play.
Elvira (Clare Wilbur) and Jack (Gerald Grant) are a happily married couple living in a swanky European home. The pair enjoy bisexual swinging parties in order to keep their marriage interesting. As a result, the two of them keep score of how many extra-marital conquests they have had.
So when an attractive young couple, Betsy (played with wide-eyed innocence by the legendary Lynn Lowry, above) and Eddie (Calvin Culver) suddenly turn up, Elvira & Jack want to seduce them before the other one does. Sly sexual wickedness ensues, but wait! There is a twist! Mike Nixon, who just happens to be a horny telephone repairman, turns up at the door (an excellent Carl Parker, who's role in the original play was Sylvester Stallone). Cue crazy bisexual chaos!
Rather than being a below average soft-core sexploitation flick, Score really works well because of the satiric nature of the script. Yes, it's played for laughs, but not in the sense of bawdy farce, score, erm, score's because of its wit, irony, and wonderfully tongue-in-cheek performances. The tongues also slip into other things as well. Blimey. Metzger's direction is a slick, highly stylized piece that looks and sounds great... the sex scenes are almost psychedelic, especially with the grooovy music.
Score was set in a luxurious location (probably Bakar in Croatia, although some post-production might have happened in Zagreb). There was a Hardcore version briefly available,which included a few minutes of gay sex & lesbotic fumbling. Although Metzger is said to prefer this softer version, the removal of the hardcore scenes is blindingly obvious. The climactic scenes are hacked out so sloppily, it's actually distracting. Although, it does sort of suit this type of sleazy film-making.
Master of sophisticated sexploitation, New York born Metzger sometimes went under the pseudonym 'Henry Paris' for his entry into hardcore pornography (The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1975), The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) & Barbara Broadcast (1977) being the most famous examples of his Hardcore work). Score is considered by many as his masterpiece.
As for the cast, Lynn Lowry, a fabulous B-movie actress, is perhaps the most familiar face in Score. The star of Shivers, Sugar Cookies, I Drink Your Blood (her first role, where she played a mute!) and Cat People, she's starred in many, many B-movies. Claire Wilbur (Elvira Jackson, the swinging wife) certainly belongs in a Russ Meyer movie, she is dominating! Now the dark side: Both actors Gerald Grant (Jack, the swinging husband) & 'Calvin Culver' (actually gay porn actor Casey Donovan) both died of complications relating to AIDS. Ahhh, the bad old days.
