Sex
Theda Bara was the first of the great vamps, but by the late 1910s she was being eclipsed by a new breed of screen temptresses. The best-remembered of these was Louise Glaum, whose first claim to fame was as the perennial bad-girl dance-hall queen in William S. Hart's westerns. From there, she took leading roles in a string of torrid melodramas: lurid films bearing titles like "A Law Unto Herself" and "Sweetheart of the Doomed." She topped herself with "Sex" in 1920, just as the age of the vamp was coming to a close. Here she plays a cabaret star who lures married men to amorous disaster. Her spiderweb costume is a treat in itself: the symbolism may not be subtle but it certainly is apt! Organ score by Bob Vaughn.Supplemental material: An eye-opening photo gallery of unclad and under-clad film stars from throughout the silent era and into the early 1930s. Included are rare and risque photos of Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks, Mae West, Bessie Love and many more.