Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
A Fool There Was (1915)
Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem "The Vampire" was written to accompany the following monochrome painting, of the same title, by his cousin Edward Burne-Jones.
Theda Bara stars as a character known only as "the vampire" in this silent film adapted from a play inspired by the poem, which is often quoted in the title cards, and often looks just like the woman in the painting above. She's not a literal bloodsucker, however. She's simply a purely evil woman who deliberately seduces men to their doom, after draining them of their wealth and position. That pretty much sums up the plot of this melodrama, as she selects her next victim, a fellow of riches and social status, married and with a young daughter. He loses everything, up to and including his life, in his mad passion for her. Notable for popularizing the term "vamp," for making Bara into one of the screen's earliest sex symbols (stills from her lost film Cleopatra show her in remarkably revealing costumes), and for Bara's undisguised disdain for her victim, whom she openly bullies. Otherwise, it's not that great a movie.
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair
(Even as you and I!)
Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head and hand,
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand.
A fool there was and his goods he spent
(Even as you and I!)
Honor and faith and a sure intent
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
(Even as you and I!)
Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned,
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know she never knew why)
And did not understand.
The fool we stripped to his foolish hide
(Even as you and I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside --
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died --
(Even as you and I!)
And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white hot brand.
It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing at last she could never know why)
And never could understand.
Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem "The Vampire" was written to accompany the following monochrome painting, of the same title, by his cousin Edward Burne-Jones.
Theda Bara stars as a character known only as "the vampire" in this silent film adapted from a play inspired by the poem, which is often quoted in the title cards, and often looks just like the woman in the painting above. She's not a literal bloodsucker, however. She's simply a purely evil woman who deliberately seduces men to their doom, after draining them of their wealth and position. That pretty much sums up the plot of this melodrama, as she selects her next victim, a fellow of riches and social status, married and with a young daughter. He loses everything, up to and including his life, in his mad passion for her. Notable for popularizing the term "vamp," for making Bara into one of the screen's earliest sex symbols (stills from her lost film Cleopatra show her in remarkably revealing costumes), and for Bara's undisguised disdain for her victim, whom she openly bullies. Otherwise, it's not that great a movie.