Adult Film Locations – Part 17: Ghosts of Radley Metzger’s ‘Score’ (1973)

April Hall has always loved Radley Metzger’s Score (1973) – a film made just over 50 years ago.

What’s not to love? It’s a gorgeously shot tale of sexual experimentation featuring Casey Donovan and Gerald Grant as bi-curious husbands, a devious and scheming Claire Wilbur manipulating a naive ingenue Lynn Lowry, and the lurking, rugged presence of alpha male Carl Parker.

What’s more, the film features many of Radley’s film-making trademarks. I often promised Radley I would not use the words “sophisticated,” “elegant,” or “classy” in any description of his work – terms he had tired of over the years and which deemed hackneyed and lazy – but… you know.

Particularly notable was the luxurious setting for the movie: “the peaceful city of Leisure resting snugly on the western shore of the Idle Sea” situated in “a future time in the lush little land of Plenty in the enviable state of Affluence bordering on Decadence to the north and the state of Euphoria to the south, nestled deep in the Erogenous Zone.”

Phew: as a location, it was a far cry from the borough of Queens, New York, which had served as the setting of the original stage play version of ‘Score’ (that starred a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone).

But where exactly was the actual location of this mythical land where Radley took his U.S.-based cast in the spring of 1973 to make the film?

This summer, April set sail for Croatia to see where ‘Score’ was shot half a century ago… and to see which of the locations had survived.

This is what she found – with previously unseen production stills from the original shoot.

Note: To see ‘before’ and ‘after’ views of the locations, please use the slide on the pictures below. Turn your phone to landscape for the best view.

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Sometimes it seemed as if Radley Metzger made his film career decisions in the same way as other people organize their summer vacations.

That is, he did one each year, and would select the location by getting out a map of Europe to decide which destination would be the most suitable. He would research each location before he set off, knowing that he’d probably have to change his plans when he arrived and improvise based on evolving circumstances: “Film-making is what happens when you’ve made other plans,” he once told me. But the main difference between Radley and a summer vacation was that at least he ended up with an engaging movie at the end of each trip.

In this way, in the late 1960s / early 1970s, Radley traveled to places such as Rome (where he shot Camille 2000 (1968)), Paris (Therese and Isabelle (1969)), and the Abruzzi mountains (The Lickerish Quartet (1970)).

And so, in June 1972, he selected the small, picturesque sea village of Bakar (population 7,983 in 1972) in former Yugoslavia, now part of Croatia, for the location of ‘Score’, the filmed adaptation of a stage play by Jerry Douglas.

Radley told me: “I wanted to recreate the south of France, but the production costs there were too high – even more expensive than shooting in Paris – so we had to look around for a suitable alternative. I’d shot Little Mother (1973) the previous year in the Yugoslav capital, Zagreb, and had got along so well with the production manager and the crew, that I decided to re-use them for ‘Score’ and return to Yugoslavia to shoot on the Dalmatian coast.”

If you’re familiar with Croatian holiday destinations, you’ll have encountered the impressive beauty, warm weather, and friendly people in the country. The only difference with Bakar is that it is not a tourist destination and, judging by its inhabitants, it is determined to stay that way. Not that the townsfolk are unfriendly, rather there are few concessions to visitors in terms of the number of hotels (none), people who speak English (or Italian or French for that matter – none), or restaurants (just three small cafés).

When I arrived, I was struck how Bakar was virtually unchanged architecturally since the days of ‘Score’, and in fact has shrunk by 10% as the young have left the town looking for better employment opportunities.

For much of the last 50 years, the village has been dominated by the impressive Hotel Jadran, an imposing sand-colored building facing the town center across the bay from where Bakar is nestled. In fact it is the Hotel Jadran’s outdoor restaurant where Claire Wilbur’s character is seen lounging at the beginning of the film. Unfortunately the hotel/restaurant has since been closed for several years, ostensibly for renovations – but locals are skeptical, and perhaps grateful, that it may not re-open.

Radley remembered: “The first challenge we encountered was to recreate the feel of the French Riviera which was difficult in Yugoslavia at the time. It was a strange period in Yugoslavia – it was still a communist country and Tito was still in power, so it was a very gray place. That didn’t work for the tone of the film, so we had to bring items of color with us from the U.S. to brighten the scenes up.”

Given the lack of accommodation in Bakar in the early 1970s, Radley booked a hotel twenty miles south of Bakar – in a severe and imposing spa called Uvala Scott, a distant remnant of the Communist era. To say that Uvala Scott has not changed in the fifty intervening years since Radley’s visit would be an understatement: the dilapidated, dirty building still takes paying guests, largely bikers and travelers from the former communist bloc and, judging by Radley’s collection of personal photos taken during his time there, today it is exactly what you would expect of a building that shows no sign of having been updated.

Radley, the cast, and small crew commuted daily to Bakar, and spent the first days shooting exteriors around the seafront area of the town. The schedule was dictated by a lack of availability of the residential house where the opening scenes were to be shot. The production crew encountered a number of issues with the interior shoot, and ended up shooting in three different houses in the town. The principal residence where they were due to shoot was commandeered by an army general. When the they were kicked out of this location, Radley had an issue: some of the film’s most important scenes still hadn’t been shot.

Frustrated by the lack of availability of suitable alternative locations, and running out of time, Radley asked staff at the Uvala Scott hotel if they knew where they could film the remaining scenes. The only suggestion he was offered was a small disco/bar called the White Horse, situated near the hotel. When Radley and his trusted production manager, Branko Lustig, visited the tiny nightclub, they agreed they could find a way to shoot most of the necessary scenes there, and so relocated the production out of Bakar. Remarkably, the White Horse club is still standing – and still bears the same name. I found it boarded up, neglected, and in disrepair, but still undeniably recognizable from its appearance in ‘Score’. It has a Facebook page that indicates it’s still open for club music nights.

The sex scene between the two women was the last scene left to shoot, and Radley used his hotel bedroom at the Uvala Scott for this.

In the last hours of my visit to Bakar, one question remained – and this time, it wasn’t about a location but rather an extra who had appeared in the film. Outside of the five principal players, there was one other actor who had a small role playing the part of a waiter at the end of the movie, eyed up lasciviously by Claire Wilbur’s character. According to Radley, the actor was a local, perhaps even a real life waiter in Bakar, who Radley had hired on the spot. I figured that if the young man had been 25 when the movie was shot, he’d now be in his late 70s. I wondered if he was still living in the town.

I showed a screenshot of his picture to a couple of old men who were drinking in the summer sunshine outside one of the bars. One of them started speaking excitedly when he saw the picture. As he jabbed a finger at the picture, I found someone who translated his words. According to the man, this waiter still lived “just around the corner”, two minutes away on the next street. Unfortunately despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find the waiter. Perhaps next time. Or maybe, it’s good to have some mysteries linger.

The waiter in ‘Score’

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Bakar as seen in ‘Score’

‘Score’ opening sequence – then and now

Bakar harbor, 2024

Radley, in the Bakar harbor

Claire Wilbur and Lynn Lowry

Casey Donovan

Claire Wilbur

Claire Wilbur and Gerald Grant on a Bakar pier…

…and April Hall on the same pier in 2024

Hotel Jadran, 2024

Claire Wilbur, in the outdoor bar of the Hotel Jadran

Claire Wilbur, outside the Hotel Jadran…

…and April Hall, outside the Hotel Jadran in 2024

Radley Metzger with Lynn Lowry

Radley on the main street of Bakar…

… and the main street in 2024

Radley on the main street of Bakar…

… and the main street in 2024

Gerald Grant and Claire Wilbur, with the Hotel Jadran across the water…

… and the Hotel Jadran in 2024

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Uvala Scott hotel – and the White Horse

Uvala Scott hotel – in a picture taken by Radley from the White Horse club

Casey Donovan, with the Uvala Scott hotel on the right

Uvala Scott hotel – from the beach of the White Horse club. The slide features in a deleted scene from ‘Score’ – and is shown for a split second in the final cut of the movie

The White Horse club during the ‘Score’ shoot…

… and The White Horse club in 2024

Carl Parker and Lynn Lowry on the White Horse outdoor staircase…

…and the White Horse outdoor staircase in 2024

Radley and Gerald Grant at the White Horse…

… and the same location in 2024

Lynn Lowry on the White Horse balcony in 1972…

… and the White Horse balcony in 2024

Radley and Gerald Grant at the White Horse…

… and the same location in 2024

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Return to Bakar

Casey Donovan on a day off from filming – in nearby Rijeka

Claire Wilbur and Casey Donovan on a day off from filming – in nearby Rijeka

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‘Score’ cast in 1972, and your travel guide in 2024

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