Theda Bara plays The Vampire in this early film about a man who gets whisked away from his loving family by a seductress.
This isn't a brilliant film, I have to admit. A lot of it doesn't quite work so well.
I'll start with Bara, who is the main reason to watch. As soon as she appears on-screen, you get an idea of why she was such a star.
A fabulous presence throughout, she sells her role so well with the little things. Like how, when a man pulls a gun on her, she smiles at him, her body showing no fear whatsoever. Instead, she taunts him, and we don't need titles to tell us this.
It's a terrible shame so much of her work was lost. And that Hollywood was so awful to her, for her talents could surely have made her a star - had the studios been willing to help her instead of dropping her immediately.
As for the rest of the film, it is messy, at best. None of the other actors are very good. They seem on the level of very amateur dramatics, and you can hardly tell what they're doing, were it not for the inter-titles.
The direction and staging is almost non-existent, with overcrowded, messy shots that don't convey any emotion. It gives the whole film the feel of a home movie someone shot, interesting only for the period which it is in.
I realise a lot of this can be put down to how early the film is. The crew were still coming to grips to with the technology, and they would learn fast.
There are a few really well composed shots, but they are not in service of anything. They're there to look pretty.
Bara manages to take control of the screen when she's on it. Holding attention and actually acting with her entire being, much like Lon Chaney used to do. No one else in the cast does this.
The wife is ineffectual. The brother is just a man. The sister an idiot that falls out of a car for some reason I still don't quite understand.
All this leads to a somewhat listless film. Any scene in which Bara is absent may as well be skipped, for it is either of the wife being sad or the child playing with the butler. Visual storytelling is wholly absent.
All in all, see it for Bara alone, but don't be surprised if the rest of the picture doesn't live up to expectations
I also find it entertaining how The Fool is ostracised from society for having a mistress, when I am sure that he would be perfectly fine. A rich man taking a mistress would hardly have led to his servants quitting or a decline in his social standing. His wife and mistress would surely have suffered, but the man would have been fine.
This isn't a brilliant film, I have to admit. A lot of it doesn't quite work so well.
I'll start with Bara, who is the main reason to watch. As soon as she appears on-screen, you get an idea of why she was such a star.
A fabulous presence throughout, she sells her role so well with the little things. Like how, when a man pulls a gun on her, she smiles at him, her body showing no fear whatsoever. Instead, she taunts him, and we don't need titles to tell us this.
It's a terrible shame so much of her work was lost. And that Hollywood was so awful to her, for her talents could surely have made her a star - had the studios been willing to help her instead of dropping her immediately.
As for the rest of the film, it is messy, at best. None of the other actors are very good. They seem on the level of very amateur dramatics, and you can hardly tell what they're doing, were it not for the inter-titles.
The direction and staging is almost non-existent, with overcrowded, messy shots that don't convey any emotion. It gives the whole film the feel of a home movie someone shot, interesting only for the period which it is in.
I realise a lot of this can be put down to how early the film is. The crew were still coming to grips to with the technology, and they would learn fast.
There are a few really well composed shots, but they are not in service of anything. They're there to look pretty.
Bara manages to take control of the screen when she's on it. Holding attention and actually acting with her entire being, much like Lon Chaney used to do. No one else in the cast does this.
The wife is ineffectual. The brother is just a man. The sister an idiot that falls out of a car for some reason I still don't quite understand.
All this leads to a somewhat listless film. Any scene in which Bara is absent may as well be skipped, for it is either of the wife being sad or the child playing with the butler. Visual storytelling is wholly absent.
All in all, see it for Bara alone, but don't be surprised if the rest of the picture doesn't live up to expectations
I also find it entertaining how The Fool is ostracised from society for having a mistress, when I am sure that he would be perfectly fine. A rich man taking a mistress would hardly have led to his servants quitting or a decline in his social standing. His wife and mistress would surely have suffered, but the man would have been fine.