Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Justin Dekker May 1, 2025

Director Joel M. Reed's two earliest films arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Distribpix and Something Weird. This release includes 'Career Bed' and 'Sex by Advertisement', sexploitation films intended for 42nd Street audiences and which arrived at the cusp of the hardcore boom. Sourced from the original camera negatives and optical audio tracks, both films look and sound terrific, and while the supplemental material isn't as expansive as some may hope, the included commentaries and perfect-bound book, all by author John Szpunar, are enlightening and entertaining. The Blu-ray case has a slipcover, and both it and the book are housed in a sturdy slipbox featuring images from both films.

As a director, Reed is probably best known for his 1976 magnum opus (in my opinion, at least) Bloodsucking Freaks. In that film, doing his level best to push the boundaries of good taste as far as his small budget would allow, Reed introduced audiences to the mysterious Sardu (Seamus O'Brien), a showman whose stage act involves torture and murder, but his audiences perhaps don't have a true grasp of what they're really seeing. That high-level summary of the plot may sound a bit familiar to gorehounds, and it does share some DNA with Herschell Gordon Lewis' The Wizard of Gore which landed a handful of years earlier. The two films make an excellent double feature. But before that exercise in inspired bad taste would introduce audiences to the human dartboard, Reed would start his filmmaking career with two very different films: the quickly and cheaply made Career Bed and Sex by Advertisement.

For an appreciation of the two films included in this release, please follow the links below:

Career Bed

Sex by Advertisement

Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For a look at the 1080p presentations of the two films included in this release, please follow the links below:

Career Bed

Sex by Advertisement

Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For information on the included audio tracks of the two films included in this release, please follow the links below:

Career Bed

Sex by Advertisement

Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

For a discussion of the on-disc and printed supplemental material for the two films included in this release, please follow the links below:

Career Bed

Sex by Advertisement

Career Bed / Sex by Advertisement Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's unfortunate that the original theatrical release of these two sexploitation films would be overshadowed by the growing adult film scene. While Sex by Advertisement may seem more like an oddity rather than an actual film, Career Bed is an intriguing spin on the tale of a young woman (and her mother) who will do anything to achieve movie stardom. While not a finely polished film and showing its low-budget roots at every turn, it's a compelling film with a number of artistic touches to be found. The performance from future adult film star Jennifer Welles provides the film with a relatable emotional core. Georgina Spelvin and Honey Hunter add a fair amount of character and intensity to the softcore goings on, and the latter, while not demonstrating as much range or nuance as a more seasoned actor may have, nonetheless crafts a stage mom viewers will love to hate. For fans of the genre or director Joel M. Reed, Career Bed/ Sex by Advertisement comes recommended.