Theda Bara

[Nathan Ensoll]

Just watched "A Fool Was There" one of Theda's only surviving films. I believe there's another one from near the very end of her career.

http://www.archive.org/details/A_Fool_There_Was

Wow what a viscous portrayal of the "Vamp" character - I thought Jean Harlow was wicked in "Red Headed Woman" - she's got nothing on this...

Such a shame all but 2 of her pictures are lost. I would have love too have seen "Cleopatra"

[Michael O'Regan]

I too recently watched A FOOL THERE WAS. Yes, the character was a little more evil than most women. Enjoyed the movie.
To be honest, I didn't realise that so little of her work survives. That's a huge shame.

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

In addition to A Fool There Was, Bara's feature films The Stain (1914), East Lynne (1916), and The Unchastened Woman (1925) survive. Her role in the first of these is very brief, however. I've heard that a complete version of her two-reel comedy Madame Mystery (1925) exists, but I haven't seen it.

[Nathan Ensoll]

Can anyone confirm if any footage of Cleopatra survives? I have read rumors that fragments exists?

[FrankFay]

Can anyone confirm if any footage of Cleopatra survives? I have read rumors that fragments exists?

A few seconds:

[FrankFay]

Here's "Madame Mystery"

[Nathan Ensoll]

Thanks Frank - do you know if there are enough "stills" existing to attempt a reconstruction, a la "London After Midnight"?

[silentfilm]

Hugh Monroe Neely put together a great documentary on Theda a few years ago, called Theda Bara: The Woman With the Hungry Eyes. He was hoping to release this in a box set of Theda's surviving films, including the full two-reel version of Madame Mystery. Unfortunately, I don't think that he's been able to find a distributor yet.

Incidentally, Theda also has a surviving cameo appearance in the Hal Roach pre-Laurel-and-Hardy 45 Minutes From Hollywood (1927).

[barafan]

Speaking of Woman, at the point in the documentary where Hugh talks about Cleopatra, he shows a fellow named Philip Dye working on a reconstruction of the movie using the scenario and surviving stills (of which there are an enormous number - it must have been the most heavily photographed movie of Bara's career!). I do not know Mr. Dye, so I do not know if his project was ever finished or if it is still going on.

And I'm sure you know this, Bruce, but for anyone who doesn't, the clip of Bara in 45 Minutes From Broadway is also from Madame Mystery, a quick cameo used by Roach to fill out Bara's two-film contract with him, since - from available evidence - Bara's husband did not want her to do any more movies and especially not Roach's.

[silentfilm]

And I'm sure you know this, Bruce, but for anyone who doesn't, the clip of Bara in 45 Minutes From Broadway is also from Madame Mystery, a quick cameo used by Roach to fill out Bara's two-film contract with him, since - from available evidence - Bara's husband did not want her to do any more movies and especially not Roach's.

I knew the shot of Bara was filmed during Madame Mystery, but I didn't know if the same shot appeared in both films, as I've never seen MM, and I've only seen 45 Minutes From Hollywood twice, and that is plenty of times for me. If it wasn't the initial Roach film containing both Stan and Ollie, it would be deservedly forgotten today.

[bobfells]

For the Theda Bara Completist, she was a guest on the June 8, 1936 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater. This show is of interest not only because of Miss Bara, but because the story was THE THIN MAN with Powell and Loy reenacting their film roles, and the host was W.S. VanDyke, the film's director (sounding very raspy). Bara's voice reminded me of Helen Vinson and she speaks about making CLEOPATRA and then a possible comeback film, which of course never materialized.

Here the clip on Youtube: