Sex Madness (1938) starring Vivian McGill, Rose Tapley, Al Rigali, Mark Daniels, Linda Lee Hill, Ruth Edell, Charles Olcott, Ed Redding, Pat Lawrence directed by Dwain Esper Movie Review

Sex Madness (1938)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Sex Madness (1938)

Warning: Watching May Damage Your Health

Don't be fooled by the title as whilst "Sex Madness" is about sex it is not a movie full of sex scenes and nudity. Nope "Sex Madness" is basically a 1930s public health warning all about "social diseases" such as syphilis and gonorrhoea and how irresponsible youthful behaviour and seedy burlesque shows is the cause of it spreading. You may laugh and to be honest watching "Sex Madness" now it is at times hard not to laugh as the puritanical views come across as being porpaganderish and exploitational, but you have to remember this is a product of a bygone era and compared to other movies from the era is almost liberal. Even taking into account the age and the way society has evolved it has to be said that "Sex Madness" is not good, heavy editing and over dramatic acting blight it.

So as already mentioned "Sex Madness" is basically a public health warning movie and so technically doesn't have a main storyline, instead showing us various mini stories which relate to "social diseases". But "Sex Madness" is very much a movie of two halves with the first half being all about the irresponsible behaviour of people whose interest in sex is causing the spread of disease. As such we have the condemnation of burlesque shows where supposedly deviant types go and I am not just talking about single men but also couples and lesbians. And what is one of the most horrendous scenes we see a man who had been to a burlesque show then go after a little girl. To put it simply the first half of "Sex Madness" as we meet the various people in the little stories is pure propaganda, plain a simple.

It's actually the second half of "Sex Madness" which is sort of bearable as we follow Millicent who has syphilis and is being treated by a doctor in the hope he can cure her before she marries her fiancee back home. We learn all about how she was duped into having sex and forced to become a showgirl whilst also learning that at the time there were many fake doctors raking in money for phoney treatments. It's by no means a great storyline but it does show how syphilis can affect people, failing health, eyesight issues and also inherited issues in babies.

The trouble is that whilst it has these moments which do a semi reasonable job of highlighting how syphilis can destroy people the way it is presented is far too often seriously poor. And it's poor because not only is "Sex Madness" full of absolutely dire over acting but the editing job looks like it's been done with an axe. As such there is no style to "Sex Madness" and it is why you find it hard not to laugh especially when you have an actor delivering some patronising line of dialogue in a grave voice whilst over gesticulating with their arms.

What this all boils down to is that "Sex Madness" whilst once a serious health warning movie is now actually a little amusing. It's amusing because of the over acting, the patronising dialogue and the hack job of an editing job. But it is also an eye opener for those who want to see how the subject of sex and "social diseases" was dealt with back in the 30s.


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