User reviews

Whilst this attempted comeback did not reignite Theda Bara's career - she had been off the screen since 1919 following the termination of her contract with Fox - it does survive as our best glimpse of this most elusive of silent stars. The plot is not much to write about; some nonsense about a philandering husband and his wife's scam to win him back. But it has to be said that Theda is arresting. Very beautiful, far more so than in the often ludicrous stills taken at Fox, she plays with an easy grace and a surprising knack for light comedy. She is a most sympathetic actress, and if the film itself is forgettable, it at least makes us hungry to see more of her films. Will "Cleopatra" and "Salome" never turn up? The print I have is badly faded, but suggests that quite a bit of money was spent on the production. This is hardly a milestone of the silent cinema, and contemporary reports suggest that it was a comedown for Theda, but it kills an afternoon. (One minor point of interest; Theda Bara had a most captivating laugh. Why was she so seldom photographed smiling?)

In the 1910s, Theda Bara was hugely popular and was film's first sex symbol. She was termed a 'vamp' (short for 'vampire') not because she was of the undead but because her character often took pleasure in destroying men with her feminine and gothy sexual charms. Sadly, most of her films have disappeared over the years. Fortunately, until recently it was thought that only one remained intact ("A Fool There Was")...but a few have been discovered and are now on YouTube...including her final full-length film, "The Unchastened Woman".

When the film begins, Caroline (Bara) learns from her doctor that she's pregnant. She's excited but this is shortlived when when she discovers her husband with another woman! Instead of telling him about his child, she takes off for Europe and remakes herself into a society lady who is adored by many. Later, she returns to America to pay her ex-husband back for his infidelity.

Unlike Bara's early films where she was a gothy vamp who delighted in using her sexual wiles to destroy men, here she is a nice, normal housewife until she catches her hubby being unfaithful. Then, she remakes herself into this sort of character....an interesting twist on her persona as a man eater!

So is this any good? Well, as far as Bara goes, it's excellent. Her earlier acting was notable for being more old fashioned and exaggerated. Here, however, like the mid-1920s, acting had become more natural...as was her performance. Despite hearing that she wasn't a very good actress, here she more than holds her own despite being 40. Overall, a very good movie...one which is more realistic and entertaining than I'd expected.

This is the first film I have seen starring the notorious Theda Bara, the screen's first vamp. Sadly it is one of only two of her films to survive (what did Fox do with all their silents?). And she's very good. Very attractive (at 40) and tastefully dressed, she plays with humour and strength a wronged woman who becomes a vamp to revenge her husband's infidelity.

But it's not as fun as it sounds - in fact it's all rather grim. And it is the worst possible type of silent film - a chatty one. Long conversations are held in drawing rooms - the actors mouthing the words and then titles revealing what was said. Very boring. After all this was based on a famous play. The only points of visual interest are an enormous peacock dress in a nightclub scene, a magnificent fantasy Venice by moonlight, and Bara herself.

I love silent movies. Some of the best films I've ever seen have been silent movies. Not all silent movies are equal.

I can't say it's a good start to a film to needlessly relate a direly antiquated value that equates marriage, and happiness in marriage, with children. Sure, "different time," yada yada, but some ideas were outdated upon conception. Put aside that indelicacy, though, and other shortcomings remain, including a notable brusqueness of plot development amidst scenes that feel pointedly staged, and therefore contrived. I suppose that's not wholly unexpected with 'The unchastened woman' having been developed from the theater, where the runtime is divided into very distinct scenes, but count this among those silent films that seem more stilted and unnatural in the progression of the story than fluid and organic. This is especially true where minor grandiosities are inserted (a dancer; musicians); in light of the great leaps forward that the plot takes (skipping directly from "travel" to "toast!" and just as ham-fistedly to "return"); and, significantly, at the end.

True, 'The unchastened woman' isn't the only silent film to bear these marks, though I think here they are a visible burden more than in some other titles. If you can abide the difficulties, there is certainly value here. There are good ideas in the adapted screenplay; though dampened by the aforementioned faults, I think the scene writing is strong on paper, and intertitles bear some cleverness - in the related dialogue and otherwise. There's minor underhanded complexity to the characters, and I mostly like the broad concept of the story. Moreover, costume design is generally pretty sharp, and I can see the worth in the actors' performances. In particular, I get a sense of capable nuance and strength of personality from stars Theda Bara and Wyndham Standing in portraying battling couple Caroline and Hubert Knollys, and I appreciate the like contribution of Eileen Percy as Emily Madden. However, it also needs to be said that between the strained pace of narrative advancement and of the film at large, I feel like even the leads don't have substantial opportunity to demonstrate their skills, just as the screenplay itself isn't given the chance to reach its full potential.

To cap it all off, in the last ten minutes we're treated to a final turn in the plot that, in 2021, seems outrageous to the point of being nonsensical. For 80% of its length the film would seem to upraise Caroline throughout for her witty defiance - coarse methods, perhaps, but not unreasonable or unsympathetic, let alone reprehensible. Yet in the last stretch we're subjected to a different notion entirely, and I can only assume it was forced into the production to reflect the more conservative side of contemporary values in appeasement of censors. Then factor in an ending that couldn't be more ham-handed if everyone on set held slices of porcine flesh in their palms, and the needle that had ever so slightly tipped toward favor has now come to rest in a precipitous neutral position.

There are elements of 'The unchastened woman' that I like, but that which is most deserving is trapped within a hard shell that inhibits freedom of movement. Ultimately I think this is precious as a piece of cinema history - and very emphatically, as one of the few surviving pictures of Bara. Unless you're completely wild for movies, however, and for the silent era in particular, there's just no reason to go out of your way to find this, and it's recommendable mostly as a de facto monument for a specific career, and for a time long past.