Radley Metzger

Radley Metzger (born January 21, 1929) is an American filmmaker and distributor. He is also credited under the pseudonym Henry Paris, a name he adopted in the 1970s when he began to direct hardcore pornography.

Metzger was born in New York City. In his early career, he worked primarily as a film editor^[1] employed in cutting trailers for European art films. His directorial debut, Dark Odyssey (1958) did poorly at the box office, however was well received by some critics.^[1] He cites John Farrow, Michael Powell and Orson Welles as influencing his work.^[1] His films have had scores written by composers including Piero Piccioni, Georges Auric, Georges Delerue and Stelvio Cipriani.^[1]

Along with Ava Leighton, he founded Audubon Films in the early 1960s, a film distribution company that specialized in importing European features to exploit in the gradually expanding sexploitation film market. Metzger's skills as an editor were employed in re-cutting and augmenting many of the features Audubon handled, including I Spit on Your Grave and I, a Woman.^[1] Metzger's second significant directorial effort, The Dirty Girls was released in 1965. The company's first run-away success was Mac Ahlberg's I, a Woman (U. S. 1966).

As an auteur, Metzger is considered to be among the more stylish directors of the sexploitation and porno chic eras. He often shot films in Europe,^[1] and collaborated a number of times with cinematographer Hans Jura. Several of his films were adopted from novels or other literary sources, including La Dame aux Camellias, Carmen, Pygmalion, Therese and Isabelle and Naked Came the Stranger, Misty and The Cat and the Canary.^[1]

As "Henry Paris,"^[1] Metzger is also respected for a handful of explicit pornographic features typified by high production values, especially The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1975) and The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1975). The five films he made as Henry Paris were all made as both softcore and hardcore versions.^[1] Score and The Punishment of Anne were released in both soft and semi-hardcore versions in an attempt to reach a mainstream audience.^[1]

Metzger retired from filmmaking in 1984.

Selected filmography

• The Dirty Girls (1965)
• The Alley Cats (1966)
• Carmen, Baby (1967)
• Thérèse and Isabelle (1968)
• Camille 2000 (1969)
• The Lickerish Quartet (1970)
• Score (1972)
• Naked Came the Stranger (1975)
• The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1975)
• The Image (1975)
• The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1975)
• Barbara Broadcast (1977)
• The Cat and the Canary (1977)

Awards

In 1976 The Opening of Misty Beethoven won the first Award of the Adult Film Association of America (AVN Award) in the categories Best Director (as Henry Paris), Best Film and Best Actor (Jamie Gillis). In 2002 the production won Best Classic Release on DVD.

Notes

Further reading

• Legs McNeil, Jennifer Osborne: The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry. Regan Books, 1. Aufl., 2006. ISBN 0-060096-60-8

External links

• Radley Metzger at the Internet Movie Database
• Radley Metzger's films on DVD
• Dreams of desire - The Films of Radley Metzger by Nathaniel Thompson. Mondo-digital film magazine. Last retrieved June 6, 2007.
• Detailed Info on Work and Life (German)
• Gary Morris, Thoughts on Radley Metzger, May 1998 issue of Bright Lights film journal, Retrieved June 6, 2007