If you thought everything was prim and proper in 1917, consider this film. For the silent Cleopatra, actress Theda Bara wore remarkably scandalous outfits for this now-lost silent film.
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A Then-Shocking Silent Film
When Fox Film Corporation released Cleopatra in 1917, it was never meant to be a prim and proper history lesson. The film was built around Theda Bara, Hollywood’s original “vamp,” and marketed as a shocking plunge into exotic depravity. Although the film itself is now lost, surviving production stills tell a very clear story: Bara’s Cleopatra was dressed to scandalize pre-World War I audiences.
Costumes Designed to Shock
The stills reveal an astonishing amount of skin for 1917. Bara appears in a series of barely-there outfits that look more like provocative stage lingerie than ancient Egyptian royal attire. In some outfits (like the one shown above), she is nearly naked.
One famous image shows her wearing a jeweled metal bra that functions as ornament rather than coverage, leaving her midriff completely bare (unheard of at the time). Sheer, transparent skirts drape over very exposed legs, while hip chains and dangling beads draw attention to her body. In several stills, her navel is clearly visible, which is a detail that was practically indecent for the era.
Other costumes feature plunging necklines, gauzy fabrics, and slits that revealed her thighs. Even by the looser standards of pre-Code Hollywood, these outfits were startling. In the mid-1910s, they were genuinely indecent. The wardrobe people were clearly more interested in creating controversy than concerning themselves with pesky historical accuracy. It was designed to sell Bara as an exotic, dangerous seductress, and it succeeded. Audiences came to see the scandal as much as the story.
The Legacy of Theda Bara’s Cleopatra
Because the film was destroyed in a vault fire, surviving stills are the only real record of its visual excess. They remain fascinating today because they show early Hollywood pushing against social boundaries long before the flapper era made revealing fashion more acceptable. Bara’s Cleopatra may be lost, but its reputation as a spectacle with surprisingly skimpy costumes endures.
