A Fool There Was (1915) is an American silent film drama, produced by William Fox, and starring Theda Bara. The film was long considered controversial for such risqué intertitle cards as “Kiss me, my fool!”
The film is one of the few movies featuring Theda Bara still in existence today. It popularised the term “vamp” (short for vampire), referring to a femme fatale who causes the moral degradation of those she seduces, first fascinating and then exhausting her victims.
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”.
Plot:
John Schuyler (Edward José), a rich Wall Street lawyer and diplomat, is a husband and a devoted family man. He is sent to England on a diplomatic mission without his wife and daughter. On the ship he meets the “Vampire woman” (Theda Bara) who uses her charms to seduce men, only to leave after ruining their lives.
Completely under the influence of this woman, Schuyler loses his job and abandons his family. All attempts by his family to get him back on the right path fail and the “fool” plunges ever deeper into degradation.
