Victor’s Big Score

The charm in Victor’s Big Score comes from director-writer Brian Anthony’s unapologetic, low-budget, playful nonsense. From having trees fall on model cars to an almost total lack of soundtrack music; it’s there but sparingly used. One quirky, wonderful prop used to great effect is an amphibious car, a model literally called an Amphicar 770, built by the Quandt Group. Scenes in the Amphicar are played just as a dialog between characters… in a car floating on a lake. It’s bizarre and wonderful.

The film has a strange tone. If you stumbled across it cold, it might take some time to understand it’s supposed to be a comedy. It’s clear if you watch long enough that Anthony was inspired by classic physical comedians like Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, etc. The relationship between Victor and Betty is reminiscent of Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in The Jerk, where a luckier-than-he-deserves dimwit somehow catches the eye of a beautiful, innocent/sexy woman.

“…unapologetic, low-budget, playful nonsense.”

Another quirk of the film is that it was never released. Made in 1992 but immediately tangled up in legal issues, it has languished all this time. Anthony got the rights back recently, and now Victor’s Big Score is being released in a variety of media, including a silent film 8MM print that can be played on vintage home projectors. It is certainly a fascinating curiosity, having been made in the early ’90s as a low-budget indie and only now seeing the light of day.

There’s discomfort in a few of the jokes. Some of it didn’t age well. Thelma’s age and unattractiveness make her the butt of jokes. It’s cruel humor that doesn’t feel right 30 years later, even if Victor pays for his sins later. She’s kind to Victor when he hasn’t earned it, and he is repulsed by her, favoring the younger, prettier Betty for no reason other than her appearance. However, correcting for the fact that Victor’s Big Score is three decades old, made on a minimal budget, and meant to be a black comedy, it is possible to see past those elements and get to the fun of watching Victor fall apart in slow motion.