AllMovie

This amusing and occasionally shocking compilation collects a series of short educational films made for school use between the 1940s and 1970s. The entertainment value of these films will depend on a viewer's sensibilities, but fans of historical kitsch will find plenty to amuse themselves here. In general, the shorts on Educational Archives, Vol. 1: Sex and Drugs that deal with sexual topics are less entertaining than those about drugs. The sex-oriented shorts are less interesting because they don't always offer the camp value of the drug-oriented shorts; for instance, "Human Growth" is a standard-issue primer on human development and "It's Wonderful Being a Girl" amounts to little more than a lengthy commercial for a company's feminine hygiene products. That said, a few of these shorts in this vein manage to grab the viewers attention. "Know for Sure" is a memorably melodramatic short about syphilis and "ABC's of Sex Education for Trainables" is a squirm-inducing attempt to broach the subject of teaching sex education to the mentally disabled. The drug-oriented shorts are much more entertaining as a whole because they often an interesting mixture of paranoia and disinformation. Standouts in this respect include "LSD: Insight or Insanity," a Sal Mineo-narrated exploration of the origins and hazards of LSD that boasts plenty of trippy psychedelic visuals and music, and "Marijuana," a campy docudrama about the dangers of the title drug hosted by a subdued Sonny Bono (in a gold lamé suit, no less). All in all, Educational Archives, Vol. 1: Sex and Drugs offers plenty of campy laughs as well as interesting time capsule of social attitudes.