This film is an archaic morality tale--and probably seemed pretty dated even when it debuted in 1915. While stories like this were pretty common in the day, the film is structurally pretty old-fashioned--with less a narrative style and more like a string of vignettes. Too often, scenes were described first by inter-title cards and then the scene was acted out for the camera--a technique common about 1900 but pretty much passé by 1915. In addition, a very moralistic poem by Kipling was included as narration though it came off as preachy and unnecessary. Overall, the whole thing just seemed very, very obvious and way too melodramatic to be of interest today.
"A Fool There Was" is the story about a respected businessman who has a loving wife and daughter. You know this is true because too many times, the camera cut away to an idealized scene of the young daughter doing not particularly anything--it's just there to reinforce, yet again, how precious she was. Despite this and a very important diplomatic appointment, the man is an utter slave to the wiles of the evil vamp, played by Theda Bara. In fact, her 'vampire' routine was a bit ridiculous as you see a string of men who she has personally destroyed with her dangerous and amoral sexual appeal. One is now a homeless man, one kills himself and the focus of this tale becomes a raging alcoholic--all leading credence to the silly stereotype of 'the other woman'--to which a man cannot resist. Despite the film saying he was a good man with a good family, he was actually a total jerk and got what was coming to him! In fact, that's about the only thing I liked about the film--at the end there was no miraculous conversion and return to his family--something that happened too often in other films of this type. Overall, the film is obvious and a horribly dated...and you wonder WHAT Miss Bara had that was so gosh-darn appealing to audiences of the day. Like milk, this film has not aged well.
"A Fool There Was" is the story about a respected businessman who has a loving wife and daughter. You know this is true because too many times, the camera cut away to an idealized scene of the young daughter doing not particularly anything--it's just there to reinforce, yet again, how precious she was. Despite this and a very important diplomatic appointment, the man is an utter slave to the wiles of the evil vamp, played by Theda Bara. In fact, her 'vampire' routine was a bit ridiculous as you see a string of men who she has personally destroyed with her dangerous and amoral sexual appeal. One is now a homeless man, one kills himself and the focus of this tale becomes a raging alcoholic--all leading credence to the silly stereotype of 'the other woman'--to which a man cannot resist. Despite the film saying he was a good man with a good family, he was actually a total jerk and got what was coming to him! In fact, that's about the only thing I liked about the film--at the end there was no miraculous conversion and return to his family--something that happened too often in other films of this type. Overall, the film is obvious and a horribly dated...and you wonder WHAT Miss Bara had that was so gosh-darn appealing to audiences of the day. Like milk, this film has not aged well.