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Theda Bara

commom publicity photo of silent star Theda Bara [1885-1955] in costume for "Cleopatra" [1917]             short profile

movies of Theda Bara

other works of Theda Bara

works about Theda Bara

links

            glamour portrait of silent star Theda Bara [1885-1955]


"The reason [that] good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there is a little bit
of vampire instinct in every woman." — Theda Bara


     B I O
     t e x t
     h e r e
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
her career lasted only 12 years, she made 40 films for Fox, and only four features & two shorts survive

Theda Bara entry at Wikipedia
Theda Bara credits [1914-26] at Internet Movie Database


Movies of Theda Bara

There are many statements in print that no films of Theda Bara exist; the sad truth is that most were
destroyed in a 1937 film vault fire at Fox Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Only six starring roles survive,
including "A Fool There Was" [1915] (not her best work), as well as some Laurel & Hardy shorts.
Her reputation today largely rests on the many still photographs taken during her career.
Theda Bara credits [1914-26] at Internet Movie Database

·          ·

"The Stain" [1914]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stain_(film)

"A Fool There Was" silent feature film [Fox Film Corp. Jan 1915]
A Fool There Was silent vampire movie starring Theda Bara  Theda Bara portrays a sexy 'vamp' who seduces and corrupts and fleeces a married, moralistic Wall Street banker. Co-written & directed by Frank Powell; based on the 1909 Broadway stageplay by Porter Emerson Browne, which was based on the Rudyard Kipling poem "The Vampire"; co-written by Roy L. McCardell; starring Theda Bara, Edward José, Mabel Frenyear, May Allison, Clifford Bruce, Victor Benoit, Frank Powell & Minna Gale
Alpha Home Ent. b&w DVD [12/2010] for $7.68 also contains "The Sultan's Wife" [1917 silent]
Kino Video b&w DVD [4/2002] for $26.99
Kino Video b&w VHS [4/2002] for $14.95
full credits at IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia

"Carmen" [1915] directed by Raoul Walsh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_(1915_Raoul_Walsh_film)

"The Two Orphans" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Orphans_(1915_film)

"Sin" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_(1915_film)

"The Clemenceau Case" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clemenceau_Case

"The Devil's Daughter" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Daughter_(1915_film)

"Destruction" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_(film)

"The Galley Slave" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galley_Slave

"The Kreutzer Sonata" [1915]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kreutzer_Sonata_(1915_film)

"The Serpent" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(1916_film)

"The Eternal Sapho" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Sapho

"Gold and The Woman" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_and_the_Woman

"The Vixen" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vixen

"The Darling of Paris" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darling_of_Paris

"East Lynne" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Lynne_(1916_film)

"Her Double Life" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Double_Life

"Under Two Flags" [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Two_Flags_(1916_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Two_Flags

"Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet [1916]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_(1916_film)

"Cleopatra" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1917_film)

"Camille" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_(1917_film)

"Madame Du Barry" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Du_Barry_(1917_film)

"The Tiger Woman" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tiger_Woman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tiger_Woman_(1917_film)

"Heart and Soul" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_and_Soul_(film)

"Her Greatest Love" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Greatest_Love

"The Rose of Blood" [1917]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rose_of_Blood

"The Forbidden Path" [1918]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forbidden_Path

"When A Woman Sins" [1918]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_a_Woman_Sins

"Under The Yoke" [1918]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Yoke_(film)

"The She Devil" [1918]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_She_Devil

"Salome" [1918]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salom%C3%A9_(1918_film)

"The Soul of Buddha" [1918] script
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_Buddha

"The Lure of Ambition" [1919]

controversial "Kathleen Mavourneen" [1919]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010325/

"The Unchastened Woman" [1925] for Chadwick Pictures Corporation

"Madame Mystery" [1926] made for Hal Roach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Mystery

"Forty-Five Minutes From Hollywood" silent two-reeler
[Hal Roach/Pathé Dec 1926 silent]
French main title card for "Forty-Five Minutes From Hollywood" [1926]  Stan & Ollie's first film for Hal Roach, but not yet as the Laurel & Hardy team. A family of innocents visiting Hollywood see a bank robbery and think that it is a movie being filmed; the young man steps in, the crooks grab him, and he later wakes up in a hotel room dressed in a woman's clothes. Directed by Fred Guiol; written by Hal Roach; starring Glenn Tryon, Charlotte Mineau, Rube Clifford, Molly O'Day, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel & Tiny Sandford, with cameos by Johnny Downs, Allen 'Farina' Hoskins, Theda Bara & others
full credits from IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia
available on DVD only on "The Laurel •OR• Hardy Collection" DVD set
Passport Video b&w DVD set [2/2006] 5 disks - out of prodn/used


Other Works by Theda Bara

Broadway credits, 1908 & 1920


Works About Theda Bara

The Love Goddesses 1965 docufilm  "The Love Goddesses: A History of Sex In The Cinema" [Paramount March 1965]
Co-produced, co-written & directed by Saul J. Turell; co-produced & co-written by Graeme Ferguson; narrated by Carl King; featuring Theda Bara, Brigitte Bardot, Ingrid Bergman, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Hedy Lamarr, Dorothy Lamour, Gina Lollobrigida, Carole Lombard, Sophia Loren, Myrna Loy, Jeanette MacDonald, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Nita Naldi, Pola Negri, Simone Signoret, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple, Gene Tierney, Lana Turner & Mae West
Image Ent. widescreen color/b&w DVD [7/99] out of prodn/used
Embassy/Nelson color/b&w VHS [undated] out of prodn/used
full credits at IMDb

The Fox Girls book by James Robert Parish  "The Fox Girls: Starring 15 Beautiful Vixens and One Adorable Cub" [1971]
by James Robert Parish, with 850 b&w photographs

featuring Theda Bara, Anne Baxter, Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Alice Faye, Janet Gaynor, Betty Grable, June Haver, skater Sonja Henie, Carmen Miranda, Marilyn Monroe, Sheree North, Shirley Temple {the 'cub'}, Gene Tierney, Raquel Welch & Loretta Young
Arlington House hardcover [1972] out of print/used
Arlington House hardcover [1971] out of print/many used
Hollywood Sex Symbols video  "Hollywood Sex Symbols" [1988 video release]
Some Amazon reviewers of the VHS edition suggest poor quality reproduction of press material, but the probable rarity of the clips may be of interest to some fans. Stars covered include Theda Bara, Brigette Bardot, Charles Chaplin, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Tyrone Power, Elvis Presley, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Taylor, Rudolph Valentino & Mae West
Front Row Ent. color/b&w DVD [12/2007] for $19.98
Front Row Ent. color/b&w VHS [undated] out of print/used
full credits at IMDb
Vamp Rise and Fall of Theda Bara biography by Eve Golden  
"Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara" [1997]
by Eve Golden

Vestal Press 9x5¾ pb [11/97] for $13.57
Vestal Press 9x6 hardcover [11/97] out of print/used

"Theda Bara: A Biography of The Silent Screen Vamp, with A Filmography" [McFarland 1996]
by Ronald Genini ISBN 0-7864-0202-4

a few other unidentified clips featured in a French documentary,
Theda Bara et William Fox (2001).

In October 2005 TimeLine Films of Culver City premiered a film biography,
"Theda Bara: The Woman With the Hungry Eyes"

A film by British video artist Georgina Starr titled "Theda" based around
Bara's lost films premiered in London in November 2006

"The Director's Cut: A Theda Bara Mystery" [2011] by Christopher DiGrazia
http://www.amazon.com/Directors-Cut-Theda-Bara-Mystery/dp/0982770944/
"Hollywood and Vain" [work in progress] by Christopher DiGrazia


L i n k s
Theda Bara entry at Wikipedia
Theda Bara credits [1914-26] at Internet Movie Database
browse Theda Bara on DVD at Amazon
Theda Bara posters category at AllPosters.com

1936 Theda Bara interview from Lux Radio Theatre{only known recording of her voice} on YouTube



Online sales in association with  browse Theda Bara on DVD at Amazon   and   Theda Bara posters categpry at AllPosters.com

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