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Promo Code:
Price includes a special 20% discount off the regular price of $24.98.
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A Fool There Was
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Director:
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Frank Powell |
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Starring:
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Edward José, Mabel Frenyear, Theda Bara |
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Country:
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U.S. |
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Genre:
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Silent |
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Type:
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Tinted B&W
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Year:
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1915
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Language:
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English intertitles
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Length:
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67 mins.
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Aspect Ratio:
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1.33:1
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| Synopsis |
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 as 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 José), 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.
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| Extras on DVD |
- Complete text of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Vampire"
- Scrapbook of photographs and text
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