A Fool There Was Film Review

AKA - The Vampire

Of interest primarily for the appearance of Theda Bara. Only six of her films still exist, the rest lost in a fire at Fox in 1937. One of the lost films is Cleopatra, her most famous film. In the latter half of the second decade she was a huge silent star for her vamp roles. Considered sexual and sensual in a series of films that were shocking for their time and which would have been banned once the Code was implemented in the 1930s. The studio created an aura of exoticism and mystery around her beginning with her name. In some versions of publicity she was an Egyptian princess while in fact her real name was Theodosia Burr Goodman, born in Cincinnati. A much too Jewish name for the movies. She was well paid and after marrying Charles Brabin (the director of the Mask of Fu Manchu) in 1921 she basically retired and lived happily till she died in 1955. Not the tragic life one might expect.

The film is a bit of a dull morality play. She plays a vamp who men become addicted to and when she gets all their money, she leaves them broken and broke and is on to her next victim. That being a faithful husband and loving father of a young daughter. On board a liner sailing to England, she sidles up to him like a scorpion and soon seduces him. But oddly the seduction is not shown. The film simply says "Two months" later and he has been ensnared. And remains that as he turns to drink and ages like a bad meal or has had the blood sucked out of him. But is unable to leave her. The film was controversial because he never goes back to his wife and child. Clearly, he was getting some great sex. Theda's sex appeal is a mystery to me. Taste changes. She is on the edge of stoutness and not attractive at all to me. With her make-up to darken her eyes and whiten her face, she is scary looking like the other kind of vampire. The film was remade in 1924 with Lewis Stone - the father in the Andy Hardy series - as the husband. That would be strange to see.