Watch On Bruised Onion Studio YouTube Channel
A Fool There Was (1915)
American Silent Drama.
A married diplomat falls hopelessly under the spell of a predatory woman.
A Fool There Was is one of the few surviving films featuring Theda Bara. It popularised the word vamp (short for vampire), which describes a femme fatale who causes the moral degradation of those she seduces, first fascinating and then exhausting her victims.
The film is based on the 1909 Broadway production A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne, who in turn based his play on Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Vampire.
Theda Bara’s first starring role.
In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”
| Directed by | Frank Powell |
|---|---|
| Written by | Roy L. McCardell (scenario) Frank Powell (adaptation) |
| Based on | A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne |
| Produced by | William Fox |
| Starring | Theda Bara Edward José |
| Cinematography | George Schneiderman |
| Distributed by | Box Office Attraction Company, Fox Film Corporation (1918 re-release) |
|
Release dates
|
|
|
Running time
|
66 minutes (1915 release) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
