A broadway actress uses her sex appeal to ruin a marriage only to dump her lover for a richer prospect.A broadway actress uses her sex appeal to ruin a marriage only to dump her lover for a richer prospect.A broadway actress uses her sex appeal to ruin a marriage only to dump her lover for a richer prospect.
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Did you know
- TriviaIn a print ad for this film, it was being billed as "SEX CRUSHED TO EARTH" (Pittsburgh ((Penna.)) Press, 29 August 1920)
- Quotes
Adrienne Renault: You only live once, kid. Grab everything you can get and never feel sorry for anyone but yourself.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Alice Guy - L'inconnue du 7e art (2021)
Featured review
It's All About The Title
Never had a provocative movie title produced such hysteria as well as a huge payoff at the box office as March 1920's "Sex." Yet what the billboard promised and what Thomas Ince's Studio delivered was a common tame melodrama. Sure, sex was the motivating force behind the actions of the film's characters, but the manipulations of the single women behind the scenes of married men carrying on illicit affairs with a morality-play message was the underlying theme of "Sex."
The film by any other name would have been a blip in cinematic history. But its title created such controversy that the buzz behind the marketing before the real details of the movie's plot emerged created long lines at movie theaters. "Sex" was released before a national moral code was introduced by the film industry. The country's strictest state censor board, Pennsylvania, reviewed the movie and didn't see anything wrong with it besides its title. It insisted for the studio change its name to 'Sex Crushed To Earth' before the movie could be shown in that state, which it did.
The film's producer, J. Parker Read, ever the marketeer, defended the motion picture. He wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Sex has an important part in life either for evil or good, and it is the producers' privilege to show the error of the former and the virtue of the latter. Anybody who would wish to ban sex pictures from the screen, would be simply eliminating a highly important, if not the most important phase of life from the pictures." The trouble with Parker's statement was it was all hype. The plot showcases a married millionaire on the town falling for a stage dancer played by Louise Glaum. The wife finds out about his affair and asks Glaum to stop. She refuses, but by the time the wife files for divorce, the dancer is off onto her next affair with yet another millionaire, whom she marries. Things get sticky when Glaum's friend Daisy, naive about married men before Louise sets her straight on the advantages of such affairs, successfully hones in on Glaum's new husband. Naturally, the irony of Glaum's situation when Daisy refuses to stop with the affair when asked boomerangs on the previous vamp Louise.
The actress Glaum had an interesting life as her movie career ended after acting in a handful of films post-"Sex." She returned to the stage, and with the marriage to a movie theater owner, eventually opened or bought several stage venues in the L. A. area--all which were successful operations.
The film's producer, J. Parker Read, ever the marketeer, defended the motion picture. He wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Sex has an important part in life either for evil or good, and it is the producers' privilege to show the error of the former and the virtue of the latter. Anybody who would wish to ban sex pictures from the screen, would be simply eliminating a highly important, if not the most important phase of life from the pictures." The trouble with Parker's statement was it was all hype. The plot showcases a married millionaire on the town falling for a stage dancer played by Louise Glaum. The wife finds out about his affair and asks Glaum to stop. She refuses, but by the time the wife files for divorce, the dancer is off onto her next affair with yet another millionaire, whom she marries. Things get sticky when Glaum's friend Daisy, naive about married men before Louise sets her straight on the advantages of such affairs, successfully hones in on Glaum's new husband. Naturally, the irony of Glaum's situation when Daisy refuses to stop with the affair when asked boomerangs on the previous vamp Louise.
The actress Glaum had an interesting life as her movie career ended after acting in a handful of films post-"Sex." She returned to the stage, and with the marriage to a movie theater owner, eventually opened or bought several stage venues in the L. A. area--all which were successful operations.
helpful•00
- springfieldrental
- Sep 24, 2021
Details
- Runtime1 hour 27 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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