A Fool There Was (1915 film)

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A Fool There Was (1915 film)

A Fool There Was is an American silent drama produced by William Fox, directed by Frank Powell, and starring Theda Bara. Released in 1915, it became famous for its provocative intertitles and for popularizing the idea of the “vamp”—a glamorous woman who seduces men and leads them to ruin.

Plot in simple terms
John Schuyler, a wealthy Wall Street lawyer and diplomat, is devoted to his wife and daughter. He goes to England on a diplomatic mission and meets a glamorous woman known as “The Vampire.” She uses her charms to control him, and he falls under her spell, leaving his family, losing his job and status, and sinking into drink and degradation. Attempts by his wife to bring him back fail, and he spirals deeper into ruin.

Origins and portrayal
The film is based on the 1909 Broadway play A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne, which itself drew on Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Vampire. In the movie, The Vampire is not a literal creature; the term is a metaphor for the dangerous seductress. Bara is billed as The Vampire in the film, and this role helped establish her famous “vamp” persona.

Cast and production notes
- Theda Bara as The Vampire
- Edward José as John Schuyler
- May Allison makes her screen debut in this film
Scenes that appear to be set in England and Italy were shot in the United States (St. Augustine, Florida; New York Harbor) and at Fox Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In keeping with early Hollywood publicity, the studio once ran a stunt claiming Bara had an exotic Arabian background, then revealed it as a hoax.

Censorship and reception
The film sparked controversy for its flirtatious intertitles, such as “Kiss me, my fool!” It was not approved by Britain’s censors, so it did not get a public showing there, though Bara’s later films were allowed.

Legacy
- The film does not show the husband’s redemption or the vampire’s punishment, which was unusual for its time.
- It is one of the few Theda Bara films that still exists, with copies kept by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the British Film Institute.
- A Fool There Was helped popularize the word vamp.
- It was re-released in 1918 as a shorter five-reel version.
- In 2015, the film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Note
Tex Avery later released a cartoon in 1938 titled A Feud There Was, which is unrelated to the film’s story.