The Red Widow

The Red Widow is a lost 1916 silent comedy film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures. 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. Hitchcocks wife, Flora Zabelle, is the leading lady in this film.

This particular comedy was shot twice. The negative for the first version burned up in a nitrate fire before prints were made. This was probably the same Famous Players fire of September 11, 1915 that destroyed the first version of Mary Pickfords Esmerelda (1915). Barrymore and cast reshot the film for no salary.