''A Woman There Was'' is a 1919 American silent

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

J. Gordon Edwards James Gordon Edwards (June 24, 1867 – December 31, 1925) was a Canadian-born film director, producer, and writer who began his career as a stage (theatre), stage actor and stage director. Biography James Gordon Edwards was born in Montreal ...

and starring

Theda Bara Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...

. The film is based on the short story "Creation's Tears", by

George James Hopkins George James Hopkins (March 23, 1896 – February 11, 1985) was an American set designer, playwright and production designer. Hopkins was a native of Pasadena, California; his mother Una Nixson Hopkins was a magazine writer and an art directo ...

(under the name "Neje Hopkins"). Bara portrays Zara, the daughter of a South Seas island tribal chief, who falls in love with a missionary and is killed after helping him escape.

Plot

As described in a film magazine, Zara (Bara), daughter of tribal chief Majah (Ardizoni), is beloved by Pulke (Elliott), a pearl diver. When New England missionary Winthrop Stark (Davidson) arrives, Zara has no time for Pulke but offers her love to Stark, who refuses her as he expects to wed a girl back home. Pulke, jealous of the missionary, attempts to kill him with a spear but Zara shield him at risk to her life. When a typhoon hits the natives, to appease the gods, decide to offer Stark as a sacrifice, but again Zara saves him by offering herself in his place. She plunges into the ocean but is saved by the missionary before she drowns. As a result of his exertions, Stark lingers near death. Zara steals the sacred

black pearl The ''Black Pearl'' (formerly known as the ''Wicked Wench'') is a fictional ship in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series. In the screenplay, the ''Black Pearl'' is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by ...

from the tomb of her father, who died during the storm, and with it Stark recovers. The natives stab Zara for taking the pearl, and once more she saves Stark, though dying herself, by returning the black pearl as payment for his safety.

Cast

- Princess Zara * William B. Davidson - Rev. Winthrop Stark * Robert Elliott - Pulke *

Claude Payton Claude Duval Payton (March 30, 1882 in Centerville, Iowa – March 1, 1955 in Los Angeles, California) was an American actor in many silent films and other films. On stage, Claude Payton toured with the Spooner Stock Company, which was head ...

- High Priest * John Ardizoni - Majah

Production

''A Woman There Was'' was filmed in Miami Beach,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, which at that time was often used as a substitute locale in South Seas films.

Reception

Compared to her earlier films, ''A Woman There Was'' was a commercial flop. Prior Fox films had

typecast In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...

Bara as a

vamp The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars Dynamic Vision for Perc ...

, and the public would not accept Bara in a non-vamp role in films such as ''A Woman There Was''.

Preservation status

The studio prints of Bara's films were destroyed along with the rest of Fox's silent films in the

1937 Fox vault fire The 1937 Fox vault fire was a major fire that broke out in a 20th Century-Fox film-storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, United States, on July 9, 1937. Flammable nitrate film had previously contributed to several fires in film-industr ...

. With no copies of the film in any private collections or archives, ''A Woman There Was'' is now considered to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

References

External links

*
''A Woman There Was''
at silentera.com
Theda Bara during shooting of film ''A Woman There Was'' in Miami Beach, Florida
at floridamemory.com (photograph)

at silenthollywood.com (several film stills) {{DEFAULTSORT:Woman There Was, A 1919 films 1919 romantic drama films Fox Film films Lost American romantic drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by J. Gordon Edwards Films shot in Miami 1910s American films Silent American romantic drama films 1919 lost films