Discuss A Fool There Was

This was my first Theda Bara film, I really liked the tinted scenes. The plot was OK, but sad. Besides this one, only one other film of Ms. Bara's is known to be in exsistence. The others are lost. I might be wrong, but in one scene the illicit couple appear to be smoking dope. Considering it is Pre Code, it is possible.

5 replies (on page 1 of 1)

Jump to last post

I'm pretty sure I saw this once, many moons ago. Glad to see you're delving into early Silents now, Butterfly!

Just now I was looking at this movie's TMDb overview page. It shows that the film's tagline is "Kiss me, my Fool!" Gotta love it!

I have been a fan of silents for about a decade now. YouTube has quite a few. I prefer the ones with music. In Chicago, a few theatres showcase them on certain days. One popular one is named The Music Box on the Northside. I live in an area called Uptown near the former Essanay Studios where Swanson and Chaplin use to work. It is now a college. They use to give tours, but not anymore.

I generally borrow library DVDs. I like to learn about lesser known silent performers as well.

Very cool! Throughout the years, I've amassed a substantial collection of excellent DVD releases (Criterion, KINO, Flicker Alley, Image, Warner Archive, etc.) of restored (nearly all with new, wonderful, dedicated custom-composed instrumental or orchestral scores added, and many of the DVDs including great extras [such as documentaries or/and making-of featurettes, plus Before/After restoration comparisons] and several including interesting voice-over audio track available with a film historian sharing facts and observations thruout the film) terrific Silent films of thruout the entire span of years of Silent cinema. (Whew - that was quite the run-on sentence!) During the last few years I've been gradually adding to my collection of related boxed sets. Very recently (just a few weeks ago) I purchased the excellent Flicker Alley 4-discs DVDs set (released in 2010 [copyright Lobster Films]) titled "Chaplin At Keystone" Silent films (34), all from 1914. Still have most of disc #4 to watch, and may resume it tomorrow.

I've loved Silents since as far back as I can remember. My late mom (also my late dad) was born during the 1910s (I'm a youngest child, born at the end of the Baby Boomers generation; my parents were in their forties when they had me), and she grew up regularly going to see Silents and then early thru mid '30s movies, featuring her fave stars, in neighborhood movie theatres in the city she grew up in. Her love of Silents and of 1930s thru '40s films very much rubbed off on me early on (during my childhood and teens years), and has steadily grown thruout the years.

Btw, this morning (after leaving my earlier comment on this thread) I found a quite good print of A Fool There Was on You Tube. I plan to watch it sometime soon, and look forward to it. Whenever it is that I do, I'll definitely post again here.

PS: These 2 threads - here and here - that I created this morning, may interest you.

@genplant29 said:

Very cool! Throughout the years, I've amassed a substantial collection of excellent DVD releases (Criterion, KINO, Flicker Alley, Image, Warner Archive, etc.) of restored (nearly all with new, wonderful, dedicated custom-composed instrumental or orchestral scores added, and many of the DVDs including great extras [such as documentaries or/and making-of featurettes, plus Before/After restoration comparisons] and several including interesting voice-over audio track available

The excellent remasters & bonus features have really ignited my love for silent films. To anyone who remembers them as crusty old eyesores, I highly recommend grabbing a recent release by the studios as genplant29 mentioned above (especially Criterion which often include mini documentaries). They might cost you a pretty penny ($40 new, $15-20 used) but it’s almost like getting 4hrs worth of film school!

About A Fool There Was, I’ve never heard of it, but the plot description is really interesting because it mentions the metaphor of “The Vampire” even though she isn’t one literally.

I’m a huge fan of vampire flicks, not for the thrills & blood but for that exact metaphor: people/things that drain our energy and ultimately our life, even on a psychological level which is what this movie seems to be about. So this one is officially on my list. Thanks for the tip!

I read somewhere Theda was born blonde,but dyed her hair black, I never knew that. My grandma grew up in the era of silents.

Can't find a movie or TV show? Login to create it.

Global

s focus the search bar
p open profile menu
esc close an open window
? open keyboard shortcut window

On media pages

b go back (or to parent when applicable)
e go to edit page

On TV season pages

(right arrow) go to next season
(left arrow) go to previous season

On TV episode pages

(right arrow) go to next episode
(left arrow) go to previous episode

On all image pages

a open add image window

On all edit pages

t open translation selector
ctrl+ s submit form

On discussion pages

n create new discussion
w toggle watching status
p toggle public/private
c toggle close/open
a open activity
r reply to discussion
l go to last reply
ctrl+ enter submit your message
(right arrow) next page
(left arrow) previous page

Settings

Want to rate or add this item to a list?

Login