Absolutely Fantastic

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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).

Louise Glaum was one of the few actresses who posed a threat (however small) to vamp Theda Bara but she had more strings to her bow than that. She popped up a few times in William S. Hart westerns, usually playing the town bad girl with names like Poppy or "the Firefly" etc, before that she had played "the girl" in the bulk of the "Universal Ike" shorts released by Universal. A 1912 edition of Photoplay predicted a brilliant future for her and prior to her association with J. Parker Read she produced her own films for Paralta. Paralta Plays sprang up in March 1917 and wound down in May 1918 and, aside from Louise Glaum, it's big stars were Henry B. Walthall and Bessie Barriscale as well as two up and coming youngsters - Leatrice Joy and John Gilbert. Even though critics were favourably disposed to Paralta Films, by the end of 1918 the company had vanished, being taken over by Paramount.Always wanted to see Louise in that spidery creation and finally got the chance when as Adrienne Renault, star attraction at the Frivolity Club - "New York's gayest Midnight Frolic", she makes her sensational entrance from a glittering web doing the Spider Dance - "the sensation of the season". Away from the footlights she is hard boiled and takes Daisy Henderson (Peggy Pearce) under her wing - a young innocent who still blushes at the "mash notes" she receives from married men. Daisy is invited to a wild party (girls dancing on table tops etc) at Adrienne's and next day overhears a heated argument between Adrienne, Phillip (her current flame) and Phillip's wife who has come to confront the pair over their secret affair. There is a divorce and while Adrienne thinks it's a hoot, Phil's heart isn't in the mad whirl anymore and it isn't long before she falls for millionaire businessman Dick Wallace (future director Irving Cummings) who desperately wants to marry her.It may have had a salacious title but "Sex" is just the age old story with a slight twist. Marriage turns Adrienne into a love struck stay at home wife but Dick is still living like a carefree bachelor and, what's more, is having a fling with Daisy. Once sweet and innocent, Daisy is now a gold star gold digger having had lessons from Adrienne, the Master, who once told Daisy that the wife was the last person to consider when you were out for fun!!! The ending shows Adrienne, on a sea cruise trying to forget and then being confronted with the sight of Phillip and his wife away on their second honeymoon!!Peggy Pearce might not even be a memory now but back in the 19 teens she was often featured in movie magazine articles such as a 1917 Motion Picture Magazine one about freakish pets. Peggy would have the public believe that she couldn't bear to be separated from her pet billy goat and Louise Glaum was in the same article, drooling over her pet monkey Pete.

Louise Glaum (as Adrienne Renault) is a nightclub "Vamp" who enjoys carefree sex with the married men who come to see her dance at New York's gayest midnight frolic club - "The Frivolity". As the film opens, Ms. Glaum is having a satisfying affair with William Conklin (as Philip Overman); he is stepping out on lonely wife Myrtle Stedman (as Mrs. Overman) to see Glaum perform her sensational "Spider Dance". Glaum has taken new "Frivolity" club beauty Peggy Pearce (as Daisy Henderson) under her wing - taking her to parties and sharing her "you only live once" philosophy. Glaum wants Ms. Pearce to avoid "fly-by-nights", and hook up with a wealthy married man. Well - wouldn't you know it, but, very soon, the frivolous Glaum gets that "nest-building" urge! She finds Irving Cummings (as Dick Wallace), and settles down. Men being men, Glaum soon finds herself sitting home alone, while Mr. Cummings steps out to "The Frivolity" and finds a mistress - who can she be? The luridly titled "Sex" is really an old-fashioned morality story; specifically, it preaches, "The standards of morality eternally demand that the naked soul of Sex be stripped of its falsehoods - which can only be atoned for through bitter tears." Satan even makes a cameo appearance; laughing at Glaum as she parties with Cummings, the devil knows what is in store for the couple! Note, however, that the film offers hope for redemption, as evidenced in its extended coverage of Mr. and Mrs. Overman's storyline.Glaum is great as the "Partying Mistress" turned "Dutiful Wife" - she is very convincing, in a wide ranging role. Watch for the scene where Glaum discovers the identity of her husband's mistress; it's an expertly performed silent scene. The supporting cast is also effective - Pearce (aka Viola Barry) and Cummings (later, a successful director) playing well opposite Glaum. And, Fred Niblo directed "Sex" with a sure touch. Despite its strengths, however, the styles and situations on-screen make the film seem more like a silent relic than a silent classic. ****** Sex (3/29/20) Fred Niblo ~ Louise Glaum, Irving Cummings, Viola Barry

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.