Score (1974 film)

Score is a 1974 erotic romance film directed by Radley Metzger.[1][2] One of the first films to explore bisexual relationships,[3][4] it was part of the brief porn chic fad of the Golden Age of Porn in the early 1970s that also included Behind the Green Door, The Devil in Miss Jones and Deep Throat. The film was based on an off-Broadway stage play that ran for 23 performances at the Martinique Theatre from October 28 through November 15, 1971 and featured Sylvester Stallone in a brief role (as telephone repairman Mike).[5][3] The theatrical version of Score was written by Jerry Douglas, who later became a mainstream screenwriter. It was set in a shabby Queens tenement, while the film was set in an elegant, mythical land and sported a relatively high budget for an independent film of that era.

Score
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRadley Metzger
Screenplay byJerry Douglas
Produced byRadley Metzger
Starring
CinematographyFrano Vodopivec
Edited byDoris Toumarkine
Music byRobert Cornford
Production
companies
Distributed byAudubon Films
Release date
1974
Running time
91 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • Yugoslavia
LanguageEnglish

It has been released in both soft-core and hard-core versions.[3] One DVD release, a soft-core version, shows a renewed copyright date of 1976 (all prints featuring the 1976 copyright are the director's approved, edited version), but the film itself was actually released in the United States in December 1973. Hardcore prints, including full-frontal male nudity and fellatio, run 91 minutes, while the ubiquitous soft-core prints were released in an 84-minute format. First Run Pictures marketed the original hardcore version on videocassette, though it was a limited release available by special mail order only. The restored, uncut and uncensored (hardcore) version was released by Cult Epics on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010.

Plot

In the mythical European city of Leisure, married couple Jack and Elvira have an ongoing bet regarding who can seduce whom. This comes up in the wake of a swinging night with a couple of tourists picked up via a newspaper ad. Elvira, a self-professed "sexual snob" has bet she can seduce newlywed Betsy, married to handsome marine biologist Eddie. If she fails by midnight, then Jack gets to seduce Eddie.

While Jack and Eddie go to work separately, Betsy comes round to visit her new friend Elvira. She's very intrigued by Elvira's open admission of her swinging lifestyle, including spouse-swapping and drugs. When Mike, the telephone repair man, arrives (Elvira had sabotaged the phone earlier just in hopes of a handsome man showing up), Betsy is fascinated and shocked as Elvira seduces him right before her eyes. She also admits that she's not really happy, especially after catching Eddie masturbating in the bathroom. But she says Elvira's actions are not for her, because at heart she is still a Catholic schoolgirl. Elvira tells a story about Jack, just before they were married, and how he said he would "climb aboard a porcupine" if he had a mind to.

The two couples get together that night, and get slightly high on pot. Pulling out a trunk of costumes, they decide to play dress up. Jack dons a sailor's uniform while Betsy wears a very revealing modeling outfit. To Betsy's shock/tititalation (and Jack's huge amusement), Elvira's costume is based on a nun's wimple, but with nothing underneath. They tease Eddie into putting on a cowboy outfit.

As the night progresses, the two wives and two husbands pair off to wander and chat. During the course of their conversations, each of the naive couple admit to dissatisfaction, including a questioning whether they ever should have gotten married. Eddie, it turns out, was Betsy's brother's best friend. There is a hint that he and Eddie were maybe closer than friends, although Eddie doesn't seem to know that Betsy might realize that. Betsy, meanwhile, lets her hair down and is even a little worried something might "happen" between her and Elvira. She also gets giddy at saying the word "fuck" for the first time. Downstairs, Jack, remarks to Eddie that just before he and Elvira were married, she commented, "Jack, I'd hop in the sack with a porcupine if it struck my fancy."

Elvira and Betsy end up in the upstairs bedroom, with Jack and Eddie in the downstairs den. A quick phone call between the swinging couple has them agree that midnight is the deadline for them both. As the late night progresses, both introduce their perspective seductees to amyl nitrite (each says the same line as they do: "Bingo!") and when asking for the time, interpret the respective watches as either "slow" or "fast" depending upon their own desires.

Both Eddie and Betsy are simultaneously seduced, receiving and giving oral sex. Betsy is even penetrated with a strap-on (while wearing a collar and leash). Eddie, penetrated by Jack, has a brief hallucination that the person making love to him is Betsy.[6]

In the morning, Jack and Elvira consider the score pretty much even. Betsy and Eddie are confused, each thinking perhaps the other is the "normal" one. Betsy even makes a remark about them both being "porcupines." When Mike suddenly arrives for a visit, just as Jack and Elvira are getting ready to have a ménage à trois with Betsy, Jack invites him, too, boasting that they "play all kinds of games around here". A chance remark brings out the fact Mike and Eddie both enjoy bowling. Somewhat to Jack and Elvira's surprise, Mike leaves to play with Eddie and Betsy, who suggests they all get together soon to play "Bingo".

Cast
  • Calvin Culver (aka Casey Donovan) (Eddie, the closeted husband)
  • Carl Parker (Mike Nixon, the horny telephone repairman)
  • Claire Wilbur (Elvira Jackson, the swinging wife)
  • Gerald Grant (Jack Jackson, the swinging husband)
  • Lynn Lowry (Betsy, the naive wife)

The woman who plays Jack's assistant was not credited, and there is no information known about her.

Notes

The film Score was released during the Golden Age of Porn (inaugurated by the 1969 release of Andy Warhol's Blue Movie) in the United States, at a time of "porno chic",[7][8][3] in which adult erotic films were just beginning to be widely released, publicly discussed by celebrities (like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope)[9] and taken seriously by film critics (like Roger Ebert).[10][11]

The Yardbirds-style theme song "Where is the Girl" was performed by the house band at the hotel where Metzger and the crew were staying.[12]

When I was coming of age, eroticism was always in films, but eroticism was punished. The promiscuous girl never got the leading man, the woman who sold her charms, always had a bad fate. The “good girl” always achieved ends the bad girl never did. As a reaction to that, I tried to do the opposite. You could have a free attitude and behave in a free way and not be punished. A parallel to that is that it could also be light. It didn’t have to be tragedy. You could look at [sex] in a fun way. That was a personal thing, to work against the clichés in cinema when I was growing up.

— Radley Metzger, January 8, 2014, "Interview: Radley Metzger, film director of Score (1974)"[4]

According to one film reviewer, Radley Metzger's films, including those made during the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), are noted for their "lavish design, witty screenplays, and a penchant for the unusual camera angle".[13] Another reviewer noted that his films were "highly artistic — and often cerebral ... and often featured gorgeous cinematography".[14] Film and audio works by Metzger have been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.[15][16][17][18]

See also

References
  1. Bentley, Toni (June 2014). "The Legend of Henry Paris". Playboy. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  2. Bentley, Toni (June 2014). "The Legend of Henry Paris" (PDF). ToniBentley.com. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  3. Staff (April 4, 2017). "Radley Metzger's 'Score' (1974): Behind the Scenes". The Rialto Report. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  4. Kramer, Gary M. (January 8, 2014). "Interview: Radley Metzger, dir. of Score". Cinedelphia. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  5. Gallagher, Steve (Summer 1997), "The Libertine", Filmmaker Magazine, retrieved May 24, 2015
  6. Hawes, William (2008). Caligula and the fight for artistic freedom: the making, marketing and impact of the Bob Guccione film. McFarland. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-7864-3986-7.
  7. Blumenthal, Ralph (January 21, 1973). "Porno chic; 'Hard-core' grows fashionable-and very profitable". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  8. Porno Chic (Jahsonic.com)
  9. Corliss, Richard (March 29, 2005). "That Old Feeling: When Porno Was Chic". Time. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  10. Ebert, Roger (June 13, 1973). "The Devil In Miss Jones - Film Review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  11. Ebert, Roger (November 24, 1976). "Alice in Wonderland:An X-Rated Musical Fantasy". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  12. Mark Olsen, Porn for the Young Moderns, LA Weekly, November 18, 2010
  13. Gallagher, Steve (August 7, 2014). ""This is Softcore": The History of Radley Metzger". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  14. Simpson, Claire (October 2, 2013). "Adults Only: 5 Films By Radley Metzger". WhatCulture.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  15. Rist, Ray C. (January 4, 1974). Book - The Pornography Controversy: Changing Moral Standards in American Life. p. 124. ISBN 9781412838467. Retrieved February 29, 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  16. Lehman, Peter (2006). Book - Pornography: Film and Culture. p. 9. ISBN 9780813538716. Retrieved February 29, 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  17. Staff (2016). "Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - DadaBase Search Results - Radley Metzger". Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  18. Staff (March 4, 2017). "Obituary Of The Righteous - The Porn Of The Fabulous 60s And 70s Loses One Of Its Pioneers And Masters: Radley Metzger - Photographer Of War, The MOMA Presents A Retrospective: His Erotic Films Made History - Video: 'Score', On The Relationships Of Couples Of The 70s, In An Uncensored Version". DagoSpia.com. Retrieved November 12, 2019.

Further reading
  • Cook, David A. (2002). History of the American cinema. Vol. 9. University of California Press. pp. 274–275. ISBN 0-520-23265-8.
  • Darren, Alison (2000). Lesbian film guide. Sexual Politics. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 182–183. ISBN 0-304-33376-X.
  • Heffernan, Kevin, "A social poetics of pornography", Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Volume 15, Issue 3, December 1994, pp. 77–83. doi:10.1080/10509209409361441.
  • Lehman, Peter, Pornography: film and culture, Rutgers depth of field series, Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3871-8.
  • Murray, Raymond (1994). Images in the dark: an encyclopedia of gay and lesbian film and video. TLA Publications. p. 324. ISBN 1-880707-01-2.
  • Williams, Linda, Hard core: power, pleasure, and the "frenzy of the visible", University of California Press, 1999, ISBN 0-520-21943-0.
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