Sex

1920
5.7| 1h27m| NR| en
Details

A Broadway actress uses her sex appeal to ruin a marriage only to dump her lover for a richer prospect.

Director

Producted By

J. Parker Read Jr. Productions

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Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Console best movie i've ever seen.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
JohnHowardReid Louise Glaum, who made such a memorable appearance in Hell's Hinges, is the star of Unknown Video's 9/10 DVD of Sex (1920). Despite the come-on title, however, Sex is the dreariest of dreary movies. True, it has some fascinating night club scenes, but over-rated director Fred Niblo can do little with the clichéd plot. What's worse, Niblo not only allows Peggy Pearce to steal most of Glaum's scenes, but Irving Cummings to dominate her as well. So, despite the fact that she has the star role, Miss Glaum does not emerge from the movie at all well. No wonder she retired from the screen in 1921 (although she did make a half-hearted attempt at a comeback in a Hope Hampton vehicle, Fifty-Fifty, in 1925).
movingpicturegal Interesting morality tale about a vamp named Adrienne Renault (Louise Glaum) who works the "midnight frolic" at a New York nightclub where she performs this season's sensation "the Spider Dance", which begins by her floating down from the ceiling clinging to a giant spider web. When not dressed up in spider attire, this gal is busy running around and attending wild parties at four in the morning with a married "admirer" named Philip, who leaves his poor wife home alone and lonely, and at the same time Adrienne has taken under her wing, Daisy, an innocent, small-town girl who also dances at the club. Adrienne shows "the kid" the ropes, telling her to "grab what she can get" and not worry whether a man is already married. Soon Philip's wife has hired a detective who gives up the dope on hubby's affair and next thing you know, they are divorced. So - Adrienne's got him all for herself - but not for long 'cause she soon has her vampish eyes on yet another rich man! And what goes around comes around - as soon our vamp learns her lesson about stealing husbands and gets her comeuppance the hard way.This film is quite good, if a slight bit preachy. The wild nightclubs and scenes of frolicsome party-goers are fun to watch and Louise Glaum does a fine job switching from leopard-print kimono wearing, cigarette puffing, ostrich feather fan waving home-wrecker to good girl trying to run her own home. The film has well-done artwork on each title card giving an interesting reflection of the action currently on screen. The print of this on the DVD I saw looked decent, just a bit faded but fairly good as a whole. It featured an appropriate organ score. Worth seeing.
TimesSquareAngel This film was released on VHS by Grapevine Video Inc. in the 1990's but seems to be no longer in stock. The print is a little fuzzy but does not suffer from nitrate decomposition.Despite the enticingly frank title this is actually a morality tale of a woman who is done to as she has done unto others. The costumes and sets are deliriously bizarre and outré and the direction solid. Miss Glaum, a Theda Bara competitor, is a solid and attractive actress who seems a touch wholesome compared to more recent screen hussies. Whereas Theda Bara seems to have played women who were beyond redemption, Glaum does succumb to the lure of marital contentment only to discover that her former protegé has snagged her rich, indolent playboy husband. Ms. Glaum in her full vamp mode wears a lot of loose, off the shoulder gowns, smokes up a storm and knocks down alcoholic beverages with gusto. Except for some smooching and a few legs on the lap, not much of the titular activity is seen on the screen though heavily implied.
rsoonsa Shortly after its premiere, in New Jersey, this film was shown in Pennsylvania, where the State Board of Censors changed the title for screenings around that state to SEX CRUSHED TO EARTH, which is comprehensible for the time, but the work is after being a morality play, with the lead character, Adrienne Renault(Louise Glaum) realizing what the wages of her superficial existence are to be. Adrienne, star of the Frivolity Theatre in New York, enjoys stealing husbands with her major acquisition being Phillip Overman (William Conklin) whose wife she scorns when Mrs. Overman begs for his return; a chorine, Daisy (Peggy Pearce) is impressed by Adrienne's victorious self-absorption, and when the latter disposes of Overman in favor of a millionaire, Dick Wallace (Irving Cummings), the two performers find themselves in competition for him, which buckles the flooring of Adrienne's harsh philosophy. Although baldly a melodrama, SEX has many good moments and effective scenes, is well directed by Fred Niblo, and is a proper showcase for Glaum, who at the time of filming outdistances Theda Bara in the sweepstakes for America's favorite vamp; the titles offer witty art design, editing is smoothly done and Cummings, as a wealthy man about town, gives an outstanding, nuanced performance as the axle of the story.

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