User Reviews

This particular episode of Laurent Préyale's fertile and always instructive documentary series, "Couples & Duos", reunites two European Jewish emigrants to the USA, Theda Bara and William Fox, who, by joining forces in their home country, once met with tremendous success. Added as a bonus to the 2001 Jokanan DVD of « A Fool There Was » (Frank Powell, 1915), the documentary fruitfully complements and enriches the movie that propelled Theda into the light and Mr. Fox (an apt name for someone having had such flair!) into (provisional) wealth . But, although quite interesting, this item seemed to me slightly inferior to others of the series. For two reasons, first its lack of filmed documentation on Miss Bara (an inevitable evil knowing that only three films she acted in survived) and second (which is less forgivable) a commentary abounding in approximations. Concerning this last point, the narration really shows too much imprecision in the dates as well as permanent confusion about William Fox's company (you are never sure if they are referring to Fox Films, 20th Century or 20th Century-Fox). Nevertheless the whole thing remains globally relevant. There is even a really good point in terms of construction, the vantage point changing from Bara to Fox to an outside observer, with three different voices performing the narration. Things are constantly put back into perspective this way and the narrative remains dynamic throughout. As for our couple of heroes, you will learn less about the making of the first vamp of the cinema (the fact is well-known) than about the real Theodosia Goodman (Theda's real name). She was indeed the opposite of Salome, Cleopatra or the « vampire » ruthlessly destroying foolishly seduced men. Theodora was in fact a serious-minded, balanced woman and faithful wife of the director Charles Brabin. Not entirely surprising, but amusing. As for William Fox, we learn even more about him, career as well as personality, since this great producer, a little too much of a maverick in a too standardized Hollywood, has remained one of the great forgotten among the moguls of the capital of cinema such as Mayer, Zanuck, Zukor or Jack Warner. The discoverer of Theda Bara and producer of Ford's « The Iron Horse » or Murnau's "Sunrise" well deserved a little bit of rehabilitation. All things considered, this episode is recommended, despite its shortcomings, to anyone interested in film history in general and particularly after viewing "A Fool There Was".