The Red Widow

The Red Widow is a lost 1916 American silent romantic comedy film directed by James Durkin, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.[1] The film was based on a 1911 Broadway musical play The Red Widow by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf and starring comedian Raymond Hitchcock. John Barrymore stars in this film in the Hitchcock part of Cicero Butts. Hitchcock's wife, Flora Zabelle, is the leading lady in this film.[2][3][4][5]

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This particular comedy film was shot twice. The negative for the first version of The Red Widow burned up in a nitrate fire before the distribution prints could be made. This was probably the same Famous Players fire of September 11, 1915, that destroyed the first version of Mary Pickford's Esmeralda (1915). Barrymore and the cast reshot the film for no salary.[6]