With "A Fool There Was" (1915), the figure of the female vamp with deadly seductive powers appeared on the silver screen for the first time. Marketed by Hollywood as an Eastern exotic, Theda Bara and at the same time the vamp figure achieved a major breakthrough. The female vamp is not least a male projection of the emancipating woman of the early 20th century, a femme fatale with hypnotic and sexual power who makes a fool of every man and sucks the life out of him like a vampire. Even if the image of the vampire is merely a metaphor, the men who are condemned in droves to ruin and eventual death are not.