Fool There Was

Theda Bara - The Screen´s Original Vamp

Widely regarded as the screen´s first true sex symbol - a leading actress whose charm was built not upon quaint innocence but carnal desire - Theda Bara revolutionized the adolescent art of cinematic sensuality. One of the very few Bara films that exist today, A Fool There Was catapulted the actress to stardom in 1915 and introduced the term "vamp" (both as a noun and a verb) to the American pop culture vocabulary.

Bara plays the "Vampire," a cunning woman who uses her irresistible charms to seduce and abandon a series of influential men. When one lover commits suicide on the deck of a luxury liner, she merely turns her gaze to another passenger, John Schuyler (Edward Jose), and leads him down a path to moral degradation and public scorn. Schuyler´s wife (Mabel Frenyear) never gives up hope for her husband´s redemption but has severely underestimated the hypnotic power the Vampire has upon her victims.

One of the most remarkable aspects of A Fool There Was is its uncompromising ending. Rather than offering a syrupy resolution of eleventh-hour moral enlightenment, the film allows its characters to follow their downward trajectories toward less edifying fates.

Upplagd i sortimentet: 28 Mars, 2008