Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

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).

kidboots 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.

MartinHafer Louise Glaum is pretty much forgotten today. Despite a less than glamorous name, she plays the lead--a nightclub performer who LOVES to seduce married men. She seems heartless and selfish. Eventually, however, this vamp marries a very rich man and is surprised to see how much she enjoys domestic life. However, her beloved husband, Dick, begins cheating on her--with one of the dancers that Glaum instructed on how to be an über-vamp! Talk about irony.All in all, this is a very good silent film with a nice moral lesson. So, despite the very salacious title, the film is actually a nice endorsement of fidelity...though like so many of the Pre-Code films, it takes a long time getting there and glories adultery in the process! Apart from the interesting story, I also really loved the costumes. Seeing Glaum wearing a spidery outfit as she performs was a hoot! My only reservation is the very end--it looks as if perhaps part of the film is missing and they just tacked a very moralistic intertitle card there to try to hide this.

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.