5/5 Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing Theda Bara...The Vamp!
  by Melissa M. (Milwaukee, WI)
I am giving the movie 4 stars, but the DVD 5. The total is 4.5, but I am rounding it up.

Is it wrong to like a person without knowing their work? I became a fan of Theda Bara's image without seeing any of her work. Then again, I knew that most of her work was destroyed in a fire. But "A Fool There Was" was the only movie of her's that I could find. I really wanted to see Theda on the screen.

The movie is pretty good. I love silent movies. They are a favorite genre of mine. I love how it doesn't have a happy ending. I hate happy endings. They can be so unrealistic. And I like the plot as well. Though it is very short, clocking in at a little over an hour. The costumes of the Edwardian Age that Theda wears are great.

The DVD also has great feature. Be sure to check those out.

I am also a fan of the poem and picture that accompany this movie. I have the picture as a poster on my wall.

The DVD seems kind of expensive, but I'm sure it is worth it. I do not own the DVD, only rented it. I plan to buy it, and will fill in the blank spaces I left.

But if first impressions matter, this DVD is worth it. The movie is entertaining, and the features are really great.

5/5 A Fool There Was DVD review
  by Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service)
A Fool There Was features great acting by the entire cast and the plot moves along very nicely. The cinematography works quite well in the shots where we see the cars going around the streets of Manhattan; and the choreography also works very well in scenes where several actors had to be within the camera frame at once. Despite the fact that this film was produced almost a century ago, many parts of this story could still happen today. The film was restored in 1982 but it still could use some work in certain spots; but then again after a fire destroyed most of Theda Bara's films I suppose we're fortunate that this film still exists at all.

When the action starts we quickly meet prosperous New York City Wall Street lawyer John Schuyler (Edward José). He has his own yacht and his family adores him. His wife, Kate (Mabel Frenyear) and daughter (Runa Hodges) turn in great acting performances as the perfect loving wife and child who yearn for him and love him unconditionally.

Things are going well for John--so well, in fact, that the American government employs him as a special envoy to Great Britain on the eve of World War One. John and his family are thrilled for him; but after his sister-in-law gets injured in a car accident John's wife and daughter cannot sail with him to England. John feels badly about it; but duty calls. He departs New York's harbor and is quickly caught by the "vamp" (short for vampire) who is played by Theda Bara.

It doesn't take long, either, before the vamp "helps" John to forget about his vows to his wife; and he certainly doesn't worry much about his daughter, either. We see the vamp and John relaxing at a fancy resort in Italy; but things start to go sour when John is spotted by an acquaintance from New York. She won't even stay at the same hotel with John because she is disgusted by his behavior!

Of course, as time wears on, John becomes more and more absorbed and consumed by the vamp. We see him keeping her as his "mistress" in his Manhattan townhouse which is safely out of the way of his family's home in Larchmont, New York. He spends money--a lot of money--on the vamp and this slowly but surely drives John into tough times at work John begins to drink way too much as well.

John's wife Kate wants him back--but will he take her back? Kate even tries bringing their daughter to John in his townhouse to remind him of a good reason why they should at least try to work things out. Kate doesn't want a divorce; she wants John--but will she eventually decide divorce is better? And what about the vamp--will she relinquish John at the last minute when she's drained him for all he's got, or will she not care at all and throw him into the wind? Watch and find out!

A Fool There Was shines bright with great performances by all, especially Theda Bara who is perfectly cast as the vamp. The DVD comes with a few extras including the complete text of Rudyard Kipling's "The Vampire" and a "1915 review." I highly recommend this film for fans of Theda Bara and silent movies; people interested in silent film drama would also do well to add this to their collections.


4/5 "Some of him lived but the most of him died..."
  by Mark Pruett
Theda Bara was not the first femme fatale in the movies, but as "The Vampire" in A FOOL THERE WAS she was the first to portray a seductress modeled explicitly on the bloodsucking vampires of story and legend. (Coincidentally, Louis Feuillade's LES VAMPIRES came out the same year. Though Musidora, in a skintight black leotard, imbued the fiendish Irma Vep with a provocative sensuality, the title of the French serial referred not to seductive women but to a Parisian gang of criminal masterminds.) The vamp would devolve into parody before the end of the silent era, but in 1915, with audiences transfixed by Theda Bara, she could do no wrong by doing men wrong.

Certain facts must be accepted without question, of course, for audiences to remain transfixed. These facts are no more or less believable than the standard issue assumptions about garlic and crosses and bats that govern movies about "real" vampires. One such fact is that all women can spot a vamp a mile off, but few men can. The primary victim, John Schuyler (Edward Jose), is not obtuse; he's simply male--in other words, made to order.

He's also wealthy, which helps. But it isn't only money that the vamp is after, or she wouldn't work so diligently at destroying the source of the golden eggs. Nor is it solely sex: she renders her victims impotent, after all. It is power she desires, the power to seduce, to enthrall, to possess, to empty, and to discard. She is the ultimate consumer.

Dated as its trappings are, A FOOL THERE WAS is startlingly modern in its avoidance of sentimentality. It teaches no lessons. The vamp does not develop into a vamp; she's what she is when the story begins. John Schuyler likewise does not choose to have an affair with her; he can't resist her charms. Once under her spell, the victim has no will of his own. Families and friends appeal to his humanity (the abandoned wife and daughter are trotted out) but in their presence the vamp draws Schuyler to her breast with the greatest of ease. Unlike Victorian melodramas in which decent men are snared by drink (Timothy Shay Arthur's "Ten Nights in a Bar Room," for instance), one cannot defeat the vamp by reformist means. Only a stake through the heart would do it, and that's another movie.

If you've watched NOSFERATU, DRACULA, or VAMPYR, you'll certainly recognize the telltale signs of Schuyler's grim decline: a hollow-eyed decrepitude brought on (presumably) by the vamp's insatiable desire for sex. His moral decay is accompanied by the same physical decay that we associate with involuntary blood donations and pinholes in the neck. Audiences expected it. And loved it.

Not many extras on the disc, but there is a nice slideshow of photos of Theda Bara, both with and without her trademark mascara. Philip Carli provides a lively piano score with little vamping. Recommended.

5/5 THEDA BARA IS A REVELATION
  by Marcco99 (Los Angeles CA USA)

for any fan of classic hollywood , this is a must for your dvd collection.

theda bara was the first-ever sex symbol of the cinema. with almost all of her films now lost, we mostly have photos of her. those iconic photos of her-- the bulging eyes rimmed all-around in black mascara, her hands pulling on her long black hair, the wild expressions on her face, the cleopatra circular breast plates!! one gets the impression of a plump 'lily munster'. from our modern viewpoint it's hard to take her seriously in these images.

when most film historians talk of her, they relate the incredible hype that surrounded bara and her films from 1915 to 1919, mostly dreamt up by her studio,fox pictures. a female vampire that sucks men dry. her name an anagram for 'arab death'. her belief in past lives. a famous story bara relates herself concerns her giving an apple to a young child who then recognizes her, screams 'it's the vampire!!', and runs away in horror.

she has been written about humorously, a bygone, repressed era's quaint way of dealing with sex.

so to now finally see bara on the screen in her first film is quite a revelation. in her first appearance in the film, she takes a long stem rose, breaks it off the stem, and drops the petals on the floor smiling at its destruction. bara has a shocking and commanding presence.

she is also quite pretty and natural in front of the camera. bara resembles elizabeth montgomery with black hair (for anyone who remembers montgomery's look in that "twilight zone" episode she did with charles bronson). there are a few scenes that take place in bara's bedroom, and she's quite lovely with her long, glossy black hair cascading down her back, and a nightgown that constantly slips off her shoulder as she moves about.

bara is a suprisingly powerful actress as well, as good as any modern actress of today. this is the biggest surprise of the film. no overacting or hair-pulling in this one. she gives a perfectly controlled, mezmerizing, detailed performance, with a couple of displays of fury that will make you jump!!

the film itself looks good for almost being 100 years old. my only complaint being there are no closeups of bara in the film. the closest we get to one is a head and shoulder shot of her. i believe dw griffith invented the closeup shot in his film "birth of a nation", which was released about the same time as this film.

all in all this is a very good film, and if this is the kernel on which the mighty bara myth grew, now i understand why.
the hype and hysteria that surrounded bara in 1915 must have been similar to the buzz and hysteria madonna caused in the eighties and nineties. and like madonna, i now see that theda bara had the talent to back up all the hype.

4/5 Alluring Vampire
  by Samantha Kelley (USA)
A Fool There Was is based on a poem called "The Vampire," a piece about and evil woman who corrupts innocent men to do her bidding. The vampire is Theda Bara; her name is an anagram for Arab Death. Although her real name is Theodosa and her image has been fabricated by studio publicity, the public is in awe of her, the first sex symbol whose pushy nature is absolutely unheard of at the time. She is thrilling and unique and a major star.

Unfortunately today, practically nothing exists of Bara's career. Only this early film and perhaps a few others exist for viewing. This is an adequate representation; it certainly emphasises her image. The Vampire is a gold digger who enjoys ruining the men she feeds on but keeping them loyal to her all the while. The particular man in this film is a family man with a gorgeous daughter and a devoted wife, but somehow, this Vampire is cunning enough to lure him away.

The story is not particularly interesting, but what is is watching Theda Bara. She has a quiet attraction with the audience, something very subtle but very inviting. From seeing pictures of her, one might expect that her acting would be overly exaggerated and strange, but it is not in the least. If anything, she is rather casual; it is the others in the film that overact.

I did not expect to like Theda Bara after seeing this film, but is left me sadly wishing that there were more films to see. Let her career stand as an example; we need to preserve the films we have left.