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Last October I watched 31 vampire movies and wrote about it on my Facebook. This year I'm going to do it again, with no repeats and write about it here.
To keep me honest, here is the list from last year and some of what I have planned for this year: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hfrB1uRp1lKHt7r7etxiKG6jTTXOUWHzcPJPAutOTNE/edit?usp=sharing
To keep me honest, here is the list from last year and some of what I have planned for this year: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hfrB1uRp1lKHt7r7etxiKG6jTTXOUWHzcPJPAutOTNE/edit?usp=sharing
#Fangtober2020 Night 1
Let's start with something soft and uncontroversial. Oh no, wait, that's not right.
Instead I watched A Fool There Was (1915), a film built around the backbone of Kipling's most misogynistic poem, because clearly I just hate myself that much.
Let's start with something soft and uncontroversial. Oh no, wait, that's not right.
Instead I watched A Fool There Was (1915), a film built around the backbone of Kipling's most misogynistic poem, because clearly I just hate myself that much.
Lots of content notes on this one; being way pre-Hayes code and all, so be warned. As well as the misogyny, this movie contains financial and social abuse, addiction and a non-graphic depiction of suicide
First controversy: is this even a vampire movie?
Theda Bara's character is called The Vampire (in fact it's all the name she gets) and described as "a woman of the vampire species" but she is clearly not a bloodsucking revenant so how literally are we supposed to take that?
Theda Bara's character is called The Vampire (in fact it's all the name she gets) and described as "a woman of the vampire species" but she is clearly not a bloodsucking revenant so how literally are we supposed to take that?
I'm inclined to let this one in on the basis that she is:
a) charismatically sexual to the point of being irresistible to any man she sets her sights on. They can literally never leave her no matter how bad things get for them as a result.
a) charismatically sexual to the point of being irresistible to any man she sets her sights on. They can literally never leave her no matter how bad things get for them as a result.
b) her victims, sorry, lovers visibly and rapidly age while it is remarked on that she continues to flourish.
So while she doesn't partake of the blood that is the life she certainly drains the life in other ways.
As always with these things, your millage may vary.
So while she doesn't partake of the blood that is the life she certainly drains the life in other ways.
As always with these things, your millage may vary.
A Fool There Was is 67 minutes long and surprisingly light on actual plot.
The Vampire, slighted by the wife of a wealthy man, decides to punish her by seducing him. Her jilted lover follows her and shoots himself rather than live without her.
The Vampire, slighted by the wife of a wealthy man, decides to punish her by seducing him. Her jilted lover follows her and shoots himself rather than live without her.
The seduction is almost immediately successful, the man is ruined as word of his infidelity costs him his status and position, he turns to drink and occasional outbursts. Despite the efforts of his still loving wife and child he just can't leave this abusive situation. He dies?
That a movie released at the height of the struggle for suffrage cast in independent woman as predatory, abusive and unnatural while the faithful homebound wife is near angelic seems a little more than merely co-incidence. So why has this film persisted for over a century.
I only really have one answer to that question and the answer is Theda Bara. Glamourous and intimidating, Bara brings something truly otherworldly to the role that makes the ease of her seductions more believable than it has any right to be.
Do I recommend you watch this movie? Eh...maybe?
If you have an interest in early cinema, this is definitely worth a look. Likewise, if you have an interest in the fashion and style of the mid-1910s. Otherwise it will entirely rest on how much you want to see Bara in action.
If you have an interest in early cinema, this is definitely worth a look. Likewise, if you have an interest in the fashion and style of the mid-1910s. Otherwise it will entirely rest on how much you want to see Bara in action.
