- A Fool There Was (movie 1915) review: Starring the vamp to end all vamps, Theda Bara, this creaky early silent also happens to be a cinematic landmark thanks to its – veiledly sympathetic – portrayal of a sexually liberated, ankle-displaying female.
A Fool There Was (movie 1915) review: Vamp Theda Bara shows the power of a bare ankle while exposing the failings of a male-dominated world
A Fool There Was.
A 1915 release, actor-director Frank Powell’s creaky old relic introduced one of the earliest – and surely most momentous – screen image of a Vamp: Theda Bara, the dangerous femme fatale who could lead any respectable man astray just by dropping her handkerchief and revealing a glimpse of her ankle.
Theda the Destroyer
In her first few scenes, Bara – as “The Vampire” – has already lured at least three different men into her web of destruction and has her eyes set on another victim.
Thus, she arranges to meet a rich married man (Edward José) onboard a luxury liner to Europe. Back home, he has a wife (May Allison) and a precocious daughter (Runa Hodges) who likes to use the servants as her play toys.
Once you think about it, perhaps the girl’s behavior symbolizes how The Vampire treats her victims by using them and then discarding them when she is through.
Mystifying seductress
Now, what mystifies me the most in A Fool There Was is that this plain, dowdy, chubby creature – The Vampire herself – could have any kind of power over anybody. I mean, as seen in the film, Theda Bara is no Greta Garbo.
One particularly amusing seduction scene has The Vampire wearing a slip so big that the straps keep falling off her shoulders. Bara – the actress herself – looks truly annoyed at having to keep pulling them back up.
Ah, and those lips, those eyes…
Dated vamping
I’ve seen older movies than A Fool There Was, but this melodrama somehow seems more dated.
The pre-World War I costumes and setting (even though WWI was already raging) never seem to suggest anything the least bit sexual, despite the fact that is what the whole story is about.
In other words, A Fool There Was feels totally out of its own element. But that’s not to say it isn’t fun to watch.
The hammy performances, for instance, are captivating in their attempt to show how one woman can wreck the lives of so many men. One guy even shoots himself in the head while The Vampire laughs.
Victorian debauchery
It’s too bad there are only two or three surviving Theda Bara movies.
Born Theodosia Burr Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was a big, big star in the early days of cinema, and it would be fascinating to see how her other vehicles (Cleopatra, Madame Du Barry, The Tiger Woman, Salome, etc.) compared to this one.
But for pure Victorian debauchery – when skirts were long and one come-hither look could turn a married man into an alcoholic wreck, demolish his whole family, and drive him to self-destruction – A Fool There Was probably is the best.
Don’t miss the last scene when La Bara crumbles dead flowers all over the body of her victim, and then goes on to ruin the next man.
A Fool There Was (movie 1915) cast & crew
Director: Frank Powell.
Screenplay: Roy L. McCardell.
From Porter Emerson Browne’s 1909 play, itself inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 poem “The Vampire.”Cast: Theda Bara, Edward José, May Allison, Frank Powell, Mabel Fremyear, Victor Benoit, Clifford Bruce, Runa Hodges.
Cinematography: George Schneiderman (uncredited).
Producer: William Fox (company president).
Production Company: William Fox Vaudeville Co.
Distributor: Box Office Attractions Co.
Running Time: 67 min.
Country: United States.
“A Fool There Was (Movie 1915): Theda the Destroyer” review text © Danny Fortune; excerpt, image captions, bullet point introduction, and notes © Alt Film Guide.
“A Fool There Was (Movie 1915): Theda the Destroyer” notes
The first movie vamp?
Theda Bara was the greatest vamp of the silent era, but she wasn’t the first one.
In 1913, Alice Hollister starred as a heartless siren in The Vampire for director Robert G. Vignola.
Later in 1915, Olga Petrova, playing a wronged woman out for revenge, starred in her own The Vampire, directed by Alice Guy Blaché.
A Fool There Was was remade – with far less commotion – in 1922, with Estelle Taylor as the vamp, Lewis Stone as her victim, and Irene Rich as the wife. Emmett J. Flynn directed.
See also: Theda Bara documentary The Woman with the Hungry Eyes.
A Fool There Was movie credits via the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog website.
Theda Bara A Fool There Was movie image: Box Office Attractions Co.
“A Fool There Was (Movie 1915): Theda the Destroyer” last updated in April 2023.
1 comment
This is a pretty primitive film, but i have to admit i love it. I was surprised when i first saw it to find that she was not only just slinking around vamping the guys (though a lot less of this than i expected), but that she was so bitchy as well. She’s not only mean to her victims, she’s mean to servants and mean to kids. And she has atrocious fashion sense. And i loved the vamp dance party. She was a lot more fun than i had expected. And her victims are such losers it’s hard to generate any sympathy for them. Especially Edward Jose groveling at her feet when his family shows up. Maybe–dare i say it–that this film might be more enjoyable for women, kind of a guilty pleasure film. You go, Theda!
It’s such a shame that there isn’t much more surviving of her career than this. She looks great in Unchastened Woman, but it’s only a so-so film.