A Fool There Was

Towards the end of this 1915 silent melodrama--starring Theda Bara, the silver screen's first sex cat (she was too voluptuously fleshy to be called "kitten")--an abandoned wife drags her little girl along to beg hubby/daddy, who is now a drunken love slave enthralled to the "other woman" (Bara), to put the wild oats back in the gunny sack and bring it on home. It's a touching, disquieting scene--mama's bawling, papa's bawling, baby's bawling--that comes to an abrupt end when Bara enters the room and throws a lip-lock on pops (in front of his kid, no less), reducing the poor sod to the proverbial quivering lump of woeful humanity. Pretty? No-o-o-o-o. Entertaining? Well…. Inspired by Rudyard Kipling's cautionary moral poem "The Vampire" (text included on the DVD), A Fool There Was--nicely presented here with backing piano score and color tinting--plays a bit like a muted version of Reefer Madness, casting a woman rather than weed in the role of Agent of Destruction (the male responses to Bara's suggested supernatural powers are that viscerally crazed). Even at a short 67 minutes, however, the narrative (such as it is) is rather slow and one-dimensional: yes, it's a portrait of the successful older man whose foolish dalliance with a younger babe leads to physical, psychological, and spiritual degradation, but Last Tango in Paris it ain't. Still, there's Bara (an undeniable presence) and that haunting scene with mom, dad, daughter, and Little Miss Homewrecker. Optional. (R. Pitman)