The Radley Metzger Collection – Volume Three (Carmen,
Baby (1966)/The Lickerish Quartet
(1970)/The Princess & The Call Girl (1983)/First
Run DVD Set) + Lickerish Quartet –
Extended Edition DVD (Cult Epics)
Picture:
C-/C+/C/B- Sound: C-/C/C/C+
Extras: C/C/C/B- Films:
C+ (Call: C)
PLEASE NOTE: Quartet has been issued on Blu-ray and DVD in a longer, better
version and we update this review by comparing the two versions at the end of
this older coverage…
A legacy
of cheesy filmmaking from Radley Metzger almost concludes in The Radley Metzger Collection – Volume
Three, which marks almost the complete release of all of the infamous
director’s cheesy sex films. This set is trying to be a well-rounded,
completist collection, even if it is not the best of them. At least it
ties up (bad choice of words?) all the loose ends.
Carmen, Baby is remarkably a sexed-up version
of Bizet’s Carmen, though it is as
far from that classic as you can imagine. The film goes crazy with the
conventions of the story, taking more liberties with it than any of the
characters take with each other, and that says something.
The Lickerish Quartet is another film that offers
lightly taboo sex, especially when it is more that two, a Metzger favorite,
though do not expect as much as you would get in the likes of Score from Volume Two and now on Blu-ray from Cult Epics at the link
below. This one has the twist of some of
the character being involved in XXX monochromatic sex shorts, but when parents
and their grown son watch the film together, it is time to call Dr. Freud when
they meet her at a carnival and invite her to their castle home!
Oohhhhhhhhhh Kay.
The Princess & The Call Girl is Metzger’s lame attempt to
translate his now-tired formula into the 1980s, but makes it look more like the
late-1970s. The two title women switch places, but complications ensure,
much of which the script cannot figure out, even on a cheese level.
Soft-core sex had overtaken Metzger and he tried to do a “legitimate” film with
his The Cat & The Canary
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) in 1982, but it did not fare well. Too
bad he could not update his formula, but it was just too late, so the film
feels more like Can’t Stop The Music
when all is said and done. Jon Polito even shows up!
The letterboxed
2.35 X 1 Ultrascope image on Carmen,
Baby is a huge disappointment, with bleeding color throughout and sad
detail troubles throughout. It is the poorest color presentation we have
seen of any of his films to date. Cinematographer Hans Jura did a much
better job shooting this than this print gives him credit for and it is a shame
that the analog master is so old. This was processed in EastmanColor and
the print looks like it was not in bad shape itself. What a shame.
Ironically, this is one of the best-known Ultrascope films by default, a
process only used from 1965 to 1967. That too is another reason to be
disappointed by this transfer.
The 1.66
X 1 image on The Lickerish Quartet
is usually in color, but it has some black and white footage. Hans Jura
once again shot in the EastmanColor process. This makes for an
interesting framing situation throughout, which makes watch the film more
bearable. The print is not in great shape, but color stocks had changed
and Gerard Loubeau’s cinematography is noticeably different in approach from
Jura. The type of color was not identified, through the trailer says
EastmanColor, so that is likely the print source with no record of another
format like Technicolor, MetroColor, etc.
UPDATE: The anamorphically enhanced 1.85
X 1 image on the new Cult Epics version of The
Lickerish Quartet is superior in every way to the First Run version with a
much cleaner new print, a new HD transfer and color range far superior to any
title in the now out of print set. We
did not get the Blu-ray by posting time, but expect that would look
better. It also has only a Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono that is an improvement from the First Run DVD as well, but there is
some harsh distortion when the music kicks in, which always seems a bit louder
than it should. Besides a trailer like
the older DVD, this new Cult Epics edition has many more extras, including
trailers for Camille 2000 and Score, a Behind The Scenes featurette (11 minutes), feature length audio
commentary by Radley Metzger & historian Michael Bowen, Giving Voice To The Quartet featurette
(13 minutes) and Cool Version Love Scenes section that shows alternate footage
of the sex scenes for markets that this uncut version was too much for the
censors to handle and runs 32 minutes.
That is a remarkable amount of extras and all should be commended for
the amazing overall upgrades.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on all three films in the original box set show their age,
especially on Carmen, Baby, which
has an amazing amount of background noise. Music is sparse on all the
films, and corniest in the sex scenes. All the discs have the same
Metzger filmo/biography text and their original trailers, though The Princess & The Call Girl
substitutes having no trailer for six other Metzger film trailers for it, all
of which have been released solo by First Run. Nathaniel Thompson
authored all the notes. They also have stills sections. Though not
as good as Volume Two, which has
been the best of the three sets, The
Radley Metzger Collection – Volume Three has some interesting moments and
is a set to look into if you have seen the previous sets.
For more
on Score, see the Blu-ray at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10463/Radley+Metzger%E2%80%99s+Score
-
Nicholas Sheffo
