A Fool There Was

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A Fool There Was ★★½ 1914

The rocket that blasted Theda Bara to stardom and launched the vamp film genre. One of the few extant Bara films, it tells the now familiar story of a good man whom crumbles from the heights of moral rectitude thanks to the inescapable influence of an unredeemable vamp. Bette Davis described Bara as “divinely, hysterically, insanely malevolent.” Much heavy emoting; subtitled (notoriously) “Kiss Me, My Fool!” Based on Rudyard Kipling's “The Vampire.” 70m/B VHS, DVD . Mabel Frenyear, Victor Benoit, Theda Bara, Edward Jose, Runa Hodges, Clifford Bruce; D: Frank Powell; W: Roy L. McCardell; C: George Schneiderman.