Sex Madness

by

This is an ancient movie that claims to spread the word about the dangers of getting syphilis bluggg.. pardon me, ladies and gents, I think I just vomited a little... but also takes the time to be an exploitation flick by showing two lesbians coming on to each other at a strip show,etc. How considerate of it. Here's a couple of things I noticed about it. In one scene where two women are talking, a window slams shut for no apparent reason, distracting the audience but obviously not the cast or crew, but they just kept on a filmin'. In a later scene where an older man is talking to his adult son who claims to have syphilis, the older man is looking directly at the camera... as if reading his lines directly off que cards. Hmm... how very strange! "He took meeee!"

Early sex education film out of Hollywood about the ravages of social diseases that's afflicting America's youth Syphilis & Gonorrher. It's well respected philanthropist Paul Lorenz who's out to educated the youth of America about the dangers of both sex out of marriage as well as unprotected sex. He may have succeeded in getting the word out but his son Tom didn't hear it. Tom with a number of his friends went out to paint the town read at a sleazy strip joint and ended up catching Syphilis with one of the dancers Shelia Wayne. Tom was lucky in getting the treatment he needed on time to prevent him from going both blind as well as mad from his experience. As for poor country girl in the big city Millicent Hamilton and her fiancée Wenndle Hope that was another matter. Poor and alone in the big city Millicent was forced to work as a dancer at the same strip joint that Tom and his friends visited and ended up catching VD from one of the costumers who paid for both her food and lodging. Now back home in small town USA Millicent hooks up with her fiancée Wendell Hope and gets married only to find out nine months later that her and Wendell's baby boy is suffering from the same illness that she has. It was Millicent going to get treated by this local quack doctor Hampton who assured her, after taking her for every dime she had, that she was Syphilis free! Now with her new born child dead and her husband on his death bed Millicent feels that she has nothing to live for and plans to end it all for her and Wendell with a cocktail of rat poison and and bottle of Dranio. It's then when a miracle happens in Millicent getting a call from the past that give her the will and confidence to go one despite the mess that she finds herself in. The film shows just what social diseases are without overdoing it like the movie "Reefer Maddnes" that was released the same year-1938-did with the subject of smoking pot. It is a bit uneven in it's editing and no where as entertaining as "Reefer Madness" in how unintentionally funny it was but in the end does get its massage across to the audience which is what really counts.

Sex Madness (1938) BOMB (out of 4) A sweet, young woman decides she wants to be a star so she tells her fiancé that their love needs to be put on hold while she goes to New York City to make it big. She doesn't make it big but she does have sex with someone and sure enough she catches syphilis. SEX MADNESS comes from director Dwain Esper, the man best remembered for MANIAC as well as other exploitation films. It's hard to believe but at one time films like this one, REEFER MADNESS and THE COCAINE FIENDS were controversial pieces of filmmaking that passed themselves off as education pictures while mainly just wanted to draw attention to a naughty subject and make money off of a public willing to pay it. Most of these films are incredibly awful without a single thing to really recommend in them. THere are countless awful things about this picture including some really awful performances, a really stupid story and of course everything technical is bad. THe editing, the direction, the cinematography and even the bad stock footage that is used at times. Oh yeah, don't forget the horrid dialogue that happens. As with other VD films, this one here features "real footage" as shock value. I'm not going to lie, as awful as this movie is, it's still fairly entertaining simply because of how awful it is. All the false information given, the way everything is hyped up for drama and the ridiculous message are all Bad Movie Cinema 101. On that level, SEX MADNESS is worth watching.

1st watched 2/13/2007 - 1 out of 10(Dir-Dwain Esper): Absolutely horrible excuse for a movie. I mean, if it did it's job of educating the public against syphilis it might have been somewhat worthwhile, but even this attempt was executed very badly. This is another one of those late 30's attempts to educate the young folk on the horrors of loose living and boy does this one stink!! The acting is inept, and the plot is exactly what we'd expect from this type of movie. A local good girl moves to the big city and has supposedly one bad night of rolling in the hay and turns up with the dreaded social disease. She is told not to marry until her disease is behind her, so her longtime sweetheart waits in the wings while she treats her disease and hides it from him. A quack then supposedly cures her, she marries and then things get worse as she has a baby that gets sick and her husband gets it to. Why oh why did the health department have to get involved in making movies back in those day?? I'll have to check into this..but anyway the movie gives very little information about the disease -- just that if you party-hearty, get laid, you'll get it and your life will be Hell!! As far as I'm concerned this fire-and-brimstone type of teaching is not enough and in my opinion isn't even education. Well, I think I've said enough, avoid this clunker at any cost.

At first it was good, but then it got boring. I really loved the burlesque show. It was so great. I wish there were still shows like this now. Men getting turned on by girls in big feathered hats and sequin leotards jumping around with big grins on their faces seem a little less threatening than those who want genitals of women they've never met before shoved in their faces. Sorry to be so graphic, but the movie makes you realize how drastically sex shows have changed. That is really the main part of the movie that caught my attention. The film does have valid points about how you shouldn't have a kid if you have syphilis. And you shouldn't have sex if you have it either. However, the whole idea of someone with this disease being forbid by their doctor to get married seemed a little strange to me. Plus the main woman was in cloud nine the whole as if the whole world was either completely wonderful or completely horrible. I also thought the point about the "quacks" was interesting because it's harder today to figure out if a doctor is a quack since we have such a high rate of suing for malpractice. A doctor today might push some unnecessary pills on you so that s/he will get some money from the drug company, but they would never go so far as to guarantee you are cured of syphilis and can now freely have sex with people when you actually weren't cured at all. That's just bogus. I'm glad that doesn't happen anymore. Watch this movie to see how drastically times have changed but also to educate yourself about this disease. It's the only thing that hasn't changed.

This is another one of those scare tactic movies from the 30's that's more hokey than fact. I laughed throughout the whole movie watching the antics of "normal" people in the 30's. It's supposed to teach you about the dangers of syphillis, but is more entertaining than informative. This movie ranks up there with "Reefer Madness" and "Cocaine Fiends"......entertaining and nothing more. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a night of belly laughs.