Adapted from a stage show by Jerry Douglas, Radley Metzger's Score feels very much like a companion piece to his masterpiece, The Image. Both are transitional works between his 1960s softcore and 1970s hardcore productions, mixing the aesthetics and softcore sensibilities with pioneering snippets of explicit sex, offering an interesting insight into what erotic cinema might have developed into had the censors and various laws allowed it – artistic, narrative films that featured some graphic sex but were not overwhelmed by it. It took the world the best part of three decades to catch up to that idea, but Metzger does it effortlessly in these films.

While The Image is a dark tale of power and control, Score feels like its lighter flipside – though in many ways, the themes are similar. Both films explore the 'corruption' of an innocent, who eventually proves to be more than a match for the 'corrupters'. In this film, it's Elvira (Claire Wilbur) and Jack (Gerald Grant), married swingers living in the fictional coastal town of Leisure (the film was shot in Yugoslavia), who like to play games of seduction and add up their successes in a contest where you get double points for scoring with someone of the same sex. They invite naïve young couple Betsy (Lynn Lowry) and Eddie (Cal Culver, aka gay porn icon Casey Donovan) over to party, both intent on winning the game by seducing the younger pair.

Score is playful, light and cheerfully decadent, with a fairly minimalist structure – the game is all, the seduction of the young couple the whole story. That might not sound like much, but in Metzger's hands, it becomes a dazzling, hedonistic, beautiful and fast-paced romp, filled with daring camera set-ups and an increasingly frenzied sexual passion that reaches a surprising intensity as the film cuts between the two couples – Elvira and Betsy, Jack and Eddie – as passions rise, inhibitions fall away and the game is played. But of course, once you let the genie out of the bottle, there's no going back, and both Betsy and Jack are far from mere victims in this game...

With an intense score that builds the drama, fast cutting, sharp dialogue and sharper performances, Score is pretty magnificent. Lowry stands out amongst an excellent cast – her remarkable, unique beauty matched by her convincing switch from sexually naïve innocent to skilled lover convincingly portrayed. Carl Parker, later to take the lead in The Image, pops up as a randy telephone repairman (in a role played on stage by Sly Stallone!) to open and close proceedings.

Score is daring stuff, even now – in 1973, it must've seemed revolutionary with its heady mix of sex, drugs and decadence. This is, after all, an erotic film aimed at general audiences with explicit male-on-male sex scenes. Though not as explicit here as in other versions. The publicity for this release claims it's the uncut director's cut, but that's slightly disingenuous – the original version, that features on-screen fellatio between the two men, was cut by the BBFC, and so Arrow have instead released the shorter – and admittedly director-preferred – edit that rather too obviously chops the more graphic footage out. It's a pity, and while I hate to bang on about this sort of thing again, it shows the hypocrisy of the censors. The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome – emphasis on the 'erotic', despite BBFC efforts to justify not judging it as a 'sex work' – is passed 18 uncut with extensive gay hardcore scenes; Metzger's more narrative, serious work is cut. They can get away with this because they know that no one can afford to do anything about it, and it's a disgrace.

That said, the missing footage doesn't damage the film overly (though the soundtrack jumps are noticeable and irritating) and shouldn't put you off checking this out. As a slice of early Seventies sexual libertarianism, a potent work of erotic cinema and a great movie period, Score comes highly recommended.

The Blu-ray, as with the others in this series, is excellent, with a lively and informative commentary track, behind-the-scenes footage (God bless Metzger for ensuring that someone was filming this stuff on his movies) and a great interview with Lowry – still looking great!

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (UK)