The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

-THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 11 BLUEBIRD Builds Realistic Old-Fashioned Printing Plant HAT has become of the inksmeared, hand type, paperstrewn, ramshackle o 1 d country newspaper office of former days? The director vainly sought the answer to this question during the staging of "Mr. Opp," a screen adaptation of Alice Hegan Rice's well-known book in which Arthur Hoyt is starred on the Bluebird program. The story called for an old-fashioned printing office of the dilapidated sort, and the director and a corps of assistants endeavored to locate one of that kind in the small towns around Los Angeles. Several promising "leads" were investigated, but evidently all of the old-time printing plants have been modernized, for it was impossible to find one that had the, proper antique appearance. Even an advertisement offering to purchase one outright, going or dead, brought no result. At last, after delaying work on the production several days, the search was given up and they decided to build a newspaper office of their own. An old-fashioned flat-bed press was located in a storeroom in Los Angeles, a dusty, squeaky affair, which was taken down and brought to the Bluebird studios on motor trucks. Type cases, composing stones and a job press followed, the entire Tnachinery and equipment weighing more than four tons; an expert pressman set up the plant on one of the stages. In character, the office of the "Opp Eagle," as depicted on the screen, is not unlike thousands of small-town print shops which flourished fifteen or twenty years ago. And to look at it you would swear that it had been used the years gone by to circulate the weekly gossip of a town like Miss Rice conceived in "Mr. Opp." "Mr. Opp" was one of the famous novels of that famous authoress wlio gave to the novel "The Romance of Billy-Goat Hill," which was also made into a clever photoplay by Lynn Reynolds who produced "Mr. Opp." The picture follows the novel faithfully except in one particular, and that was Scene from "Mr. Opp," Bluebird Photoplay, by Alice Hegan Rice. not the fault of the producer. The ending is now "movieized." DONNA DREW featured in "THE LAIR OF THE WOLF" [NEW star has recently burst upon the film horizon and created considerable comment for her remarkable talent as a screen actress. As a general thing, new-comers in filmdom do not make an instantaneous hit, but there are some few who are fortunate enough to take the public by storm at their first appearance. Whether this is mere fatality, or "The Lair of the Wolf" attributable to the adaptability of the performer is a moot question. Be the philosophy Scene from "The Lair of the Wolf." of the matter what it may. Donna Drew has certainly made a striking beginning. The little dark-haired girl, still in her teens, recently played the character of Naidee in the Butterfly film, "The Flame of Youth." Elmer Clifton was the director who produced Miss Drew's first Universal picture. Mr. Clifton liked her work so much, and praised her so highly, that Swickard demanded her for his next picture, "The Lair of the Wolf," and v/hile she is the star of this picture, she has a real unique and singular role. Weaving in and out of the plot in a mysterious manner, which the beholder always expects will lead to unusual complications. Donna appears finally as the star witness in the mys^tery trial which saves young Bennett from the gallows. Little Miss Drew, who by mutual consent changed her name from Donna Moon to Donna Drew, has a petite figure of very graceful carriage, large blue eyes and beautiful features. Her type is of the peculiar quality dear to the heart of all cameramen, which photographs exquisitely. It is a singular fact that many performers, who have remarkably good stage presence, utterly fail as screen performers, due to the fact that they do not photograph well. There is a certain charm of personality about Miss Drew that is markedly distinctive and attractive. Her acting is of the natural {Continued on page 23)