Customer Reviews

Score

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yowza! "Score" is a product of it's times, the early 1970's, and it explores the sexual freedom spreading through society during that period with great insight. But be forewarned, the uncensored version took me by surprise. Radley Metzger adapted a New York City stage play about multiple seductions and transposed it to a Mediterranean setting. The acting, the camera work, and the setting combine to make a great looking product, without a doubt the best 'sexploitation movie' I have ever seen, and I've seen a bunch.

"Score" is a fast paced comedy about the interactions between two couples, and things eventually get pretty down and dirty without ever being X rated. Even better, the Blu-Ray looks magnificent, and there is a long interview with actress Lynn Lowry, behind the scenes footage featuring Radley Metzger in action on the set, and best yet an audio commentary by the reclusive director, all items alone worth the price. But the icing on the cake is that the movie is finally uncut for the first time in over 35 years.

I have seen the VHS of 'Score" and it was obviously the censored version. The interplay of dialogue and characters was there, but 15 minutes of man-on-man love making was missing. While not explicit, it is pretty graphic and I was shocked. If you are a homophobic male or think such images might upset you, STAY AWAY! However, if you truly want to see the 1970's swing in all directions, this is the best possible movie available in terms of acting, script, and direction.

Radley Metzger is generally considered the one true auteur of the sexploitation movies, and he consistently produced superior work even after drifting into porn. "Score" is perhaps his best work, literate, funny, and incredibly daring. Even 38 years after it was shot it still caught me off guard! If this sounds interesting, you can find no better document of the Sexual Revolution than 'Score".

Score is a bisexual delight. Based on a simple premise--a happily married swinging couple makes a bet that they can seduce a newly-wed couple--Score blurs the lines between established sexual norms and takes you to a moment in time where love and sex cross conventional boundaries. Based on a late 1960's play, Score is a microcosm that shows a world where the freedom to love or make love to whomever you want is the norm. With the onset of AIDS in the 1980's, however, the world in which Score depicts was forced to change. Viewing Score is the equivalent of going back in time to a much different place than the world is today where the prejudices that divide gay and straight were clearly dissipating.

Score should appeal not only to Radley Metzger and gay cinema fans, but to a wider audience who are looking for the interplay between saucily-written dialogue, clever cinematography, and on-screen chemistry between: men and women, women and women, and men and men. Score is a sexual banquet sure to satisfy almost every appetite.

The DVD transfer is fine albeit imperfect, the sound could be improved, and the special features are worth viewing, but the real reason to get this DVD is to enjoy the uncut version of Score for the first time since it originally played in a few cinemas in the 1970s.

It shouldn't be bought, not because is bad but because is heavily censored - some 30 min missing - and because those people they beleive they have the right to treat the customer like an ignorant and immature child should take a message. It is offending to our intelingence and dignity to be supervised by an invisible censor who desides before us , for us what is good to see and what is not. Myself i don't accept to be treated like that and i encourage everybody to avoid buying censored products as offencive to our intelingence and that of the creator artist. Is a phaenomenon that should be eliminated and it will be if our behaviour as customers is sensitive. Apart from that is of a little importance if the film is good or not. Yes it is ! so what?

***This is a review of the uncut, uncensored blu-ray.
I've been a fan of this film for a while. In the previous video releases, there have always been awkward cuts where the music is horribly out of sync. This new blu-ray release seems to indicate that it is now "uncut and uncensored." I can't vouch for its completeness, but the music cues now seem in check, and there are several "new" scenes that were not present in previous video versions. The new hardcore gay and lesbian scenes are graphic but are not anything that I have not seen in other "mainstream" releases (although mostly independents). The best thing, though, is that the film now "flows" better. The blu-ray does not feature a good print; it's scratched and full of dirt and debris. Colors are good; one of the male characters wears a red handkerchief which pops on screen. The audio is a disappointing Dolby Digital 2.0 mono; early news reported a DTS-HD MA 2.0, but that is not present here. Audio is below average, and sometimes seem out of sync, but that is probably inherent to the original print and not necessarily a flaw of the blu-ray. There are several bonus features that showcase original footage from the filming but the best feature is an interview with Lynn Lowry; she is 60+ years old but looks amazingly like she did when the film was made. The included trailer is great but it's too long and should not be reviewed before watching the main feature.

SCORE

(USA/Yugoslavia - 1972)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Theatrical soundtrack: Mono

Having explored familiar heterosexual obsessions in well-regarded softcore dramas like CAMILLE 2000 (1969) and THE LICKERISH QUARTET (1969), director Radley Metzger upped the sexual ante with SCORE, 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!

Unfortunately, the most widely-circulated print - which bears a 1976 copyright - is the softcore version. 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.

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 [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!

Score is the best Radley Metzger film - way ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the current DVD and VHS versions have over 30 deleted scenes in the last reel. The music jumps and scenes are sometimes badly edited. This editing was unnecessary - if it was OK in 1972, then why not now?

Ok, so it looks like we all have seen the Original version at the metzger retrospective, what a beautiful print that was. This dvd has awful sound and picture, and is horribly cut. Hopefully a company with, dare I say it? BALLS, will release this film UNCUT. Cause I have never seen anything like it, and probably never will again, unless they release a REAL dvd of this movie!

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.

Score is a movie for select audiences. It is about a special couple were each are bi-sexual. They have a race to see who can have sex with the same sex before the stroke of midnight. Set in the early 70's you can see a lot of vintage décor styles and ways of life. Sex and drugs go hand and hand and the actors themselves make it look like it is good. I personally do not believe in having drugs at all for ANY activity. However, this movie takes you into a world where all that is an everyday affair.
The beginning of the movie the husband goes off to work and the wife breaks the phone and has to call a repair man. Well she is taken back with him that they have sex on the floor and think nothing of it. The couple loves to have sex parties and mix drugs and alcohol to spice it up even more. They are into orgies of all sorts.
One thing that is a major disappointment is it is chopped up a great deal. A good deal of the movie shows sex with the same sex. The parts showing the men are very chopped up that you can tell. The music will be going and then it will stop letting you know it was cut for whatever reason. I would think if it were not cut it would be rated X. I feel it was intended to be soft core porn.
I think they need to release the full edition, a director's cut of you will. So if they are going to put it on DVD, then why not???? There are lots more graphical films out there that have a higher rating of X. Hopefully they will listen to the public that desire this movie to be seen in the full entirety.

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.)