A Fool There Was
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A Fool There Was
Plot
As overwrought and overacted as it appears today, this melodrama took America by storm in 1915. Its history actually goes a bit deeper than the poem The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling's poem, in fact, had been inspired by a scandalous 1897 painting by Philip Burne-Jones, which showed a woman in a white nightgown grinning triumphantly over a man's lifeless form. A play, entitled A Fool There Was, was made from the poem in 1909 by Porter Emerson Browne and it promptly became a smash (although it was vilified by critics). Producer William Fox bought its screen rights, but he didn't film it until 1914. By the time he cast Theda Bara in the role, she had already transformed herself from Ohio-born Theodosia Goodman into unsuccessful stage actress Theodosia de Coppett. Clearly another name change was in order, and Bara -- short from Baranger, her maternal grandfather's last name -- was chosen (Theda was one of her nicknames). Over the next several years, Bara would make literally dozens and dozens of films for Fox; only a few are known to still exist and this is one of them. Wealthy diplomat John Schuyler, "the Fool" (Edward Jose), loves his wife (Mabel Frenyer) and daughter (Runa Hodges), but his life goes awry when he leaves without them on an important foreign mission. On the ship he meets the Vampire (Bara). By the time Schuyler reaches Italy, he has forgotten about everything but this wicked vamp. His wife, his work, and even his child are replaced in his heart by this evil woman. He lives for her every whim, oblivious to the rest of the world. She keeps him under control through the use of drink and drugs and his fortune slips away. Finally his health does too, and he dies at the vampire's feet. She scatters rose petals on his inert form and gloats. Even though this melodramatic style of vamp was out of fashion by the 1920s (a subtler, more stylish version had developed), this film was remade in 1922 with Estelle Taylor in the lead. Predictably, the picture bombed. ~ Janiss Garza, RoviCast
May Allison - The Wife's Sister; Theda Bara - The Vampire; Victor Benoit - The Man; Clifford Bruce - A Friend; Mabel Frenyer - The Fool's Wife; Baby Runa Hodges - The Child; Edward José - The Fool; Gloria Swanson - The Sultan's Wife; Bobby Vernon - The Sultan's Wife; Frank Powell - The DoctorCredit
Clarence G. Badger - Director, Frank Powell - Director, Lucien Andriot - Cinematographer, William Fox - Producer, Frank Powell - Screenwriter, Roy L. McCardell - Screenwriter| A Fool There Was (1914 Film), A Flower In The Raining Night (1983 Film) | |
| A Fool There Was (1922 Film), A Fool and His Money (1989 Film) |
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A Fool There Was
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A Fool There Was (1915 film)
| A Fool There Was | |
|---|---|
 Theda Bara in A Fool There Was |
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| Directed by | Frank Powell |
| Produced by | William Fox |
| Written by | Rudyard Kipling (poem The Vampire) Porter Emerson Browne (play) Roy L. McCardell (scenario) Frank Powell (adaptation) |
| Starring | Theda Bara Edward Jose |
| Cinematography | George Schneiderman |
| Distributed by | Box Office Attractions Company |
| Release date(s) | January 1915 |
| Running time | 67 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
A Fool There Was is a 1915 silent film drama.
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Contents
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Plot and controversy
Bara plays a vamp who uses her charms to seduce and corrupt a moral Wall Street lawyer, John Schuyler (Edward Jose). A Fool There Was was long considered controversial for such risqué intertitle cards as "Kiss me, my fool!" [1]
Broadway Origins
The film was based on a 1909 Broadway play titled A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne, which in turn was based on Rudyard Kipling's poem The Vampire. On the stage Bara's part was played by actress Katharine Kaelred and was simply referred to as "The Woman". The star of the play was actually a male, Victorian matinee idol Robert C. Hilliard, whose name featured prominently in some advertisements for the movie though he had no connection with the film.
Production and legacy
The producers were keen to pay tribute to their literary source, having a real actor read the full poem to the audience before each initial showing, and presenting passages of the poem throughout the film in intertitles. Bara's official credit is even "The Vampire", and for this reason the film is sometimes cited as the first "vampire" movie.[2]
A Fool There Was was also a watershed in early film publicity. At a press conference in January, the studio gave an elaborate fictional biography of Theda Bara, making her an exotic Arabian actress, and presented her in a flamboyant fur outfit. Then they made an intentional leak to the press that the whole thing was a hoax. This may have been one of Hollywood's first publicity stunts.
The film marked the first on-screen appearance of the popular World War I-era film actress May Allison.
This is one of the few Theda Bara films in existence. The others are: The Unchastened Woman (1925), The Stain (1914), East Lynne (1916), and two short comedies she made for Hal Roach in the mid-1920s. It showcases Bara's status as the original screen "vamp" (so named for her now-lost portrayal of a female vampire).
Cast
- Runa Hodges - The Child
- Mabel Frenyear - Kate Schuyler (Fool's wife)
- Edward José - The Husband (Fool), John Schuyler
- May Allison - The Wife's Sister
- Clifford Bruce - The Friend, Tom
- Theda Bara - The Vampire
- Victor Benoit - One of Her Victims, Reginal Parmalee
- Frank Powell - The Doctor (as Frank Fowell)
- Minna Gale - The Doctor's Fiancee
Parodies and Satires
Tex Avery directed a 1938 Merrie Melodies cartoon called A Feud There Was, although the title did not necessarily reference Theda Bara's movie. In an episode of Your Show of Shows (1950–1954) Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca did a spoof of the movie.
S. J. Perelman, in his ongoing series of essays called "Cloudland Revisited," described his original infatuations with books and movies of his youth [ca. 1915-1926], and in "Cloudland Revisited: The Wickedest Woman in Larchmont," re-views, and sardonically reviews, the movie forty years after first seeing it.
References
- J. Gordon Melton ed. (1999). "Theda Bara". The Vampire Book (2nd. ed. ed.). New York: Visible Ink Press.
- J. Gordon Melton ed. (1999). "Vamp". The Vampire Book (2nd. ed. ed.). New York: Visible Ink Press.
External links
- A Fool There Was at the Internet Movie Database
- A Fool There Was is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- A Fool There Was at the TCM Movie Database
- A Fool There Was at AllRovi
- A Fool There Was (complete film) at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video)
- lantern slide plate for the film *note stage actor Robert Hilliard's(star of the play) name used in the publicity
- Digitized copies of A Fool There Was novel by Porter Emerson Browne at Internet Archive
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