The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

•THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 9 What You Need to Know About "The Lair of the Wolf" TEARS EASY FOR GRETCHEN. TEARS are easy for Gretchen Lederer, one of the featured players of the Butterfly Picture, "The Lair of the Wolf." And in this picture she has to cry a great deal. She plays the part of a widow with an only son, who marries in haste an old admirer, to repent at leisure, for he turns out to be a brute. The many directors at Universal City were greatly interested in the performance and make-up of the ac' tress in this production. Her grief was so realistic, and the tears streamed down her face so abundantly, that it was hard to believe that in real life she is a most contented and happy person. She is not "temperamental" in the stage acceptance of the meaning of the word, but she has a wonderful faculty of concentration, and throws herself whole-heartedly into the role she is playing. Recently she has been doing quite cheerful things, but the change has not affected her work. She is enabled to change easily and lightly from one type to another by reason of her thorough stage training. She was educated in the Conservatory of the city of Collogne on the Rhine where she was born. Miss Lederer set her affections upon a grand opera career. She toured the United States until she had the great misfortune to lose her voice. She was so young that the constant singing was too much for her. She would have turned her attention to the speaking stage, but the language was a barrier. However, there are no such obstacles in the movies, and at last she was persuaded to try them. Only recently Miss Lederer received her final papers as a citizen, and there is no more loyal American at present. She took out her first papers as soon as possible, and when her second ones were finally granted, she carried them about with her, showing them proudly to every one she met. ' STRONG ACTING CAST IN "THE LAIR OF THE WOLF.' «YHE LAIR OF THE WOLF" has a cast which includes many of the best-known actors on the screen to-day, most of them very familiar to Butterfly audiences. Notice this list: Donna Drew, the newest star in the Bluebird firmament, who has also played in "The Flame of Youth"; Gretchen Lederer, prominent in several Butterfly pictures; Joseph Girard, one of the stars of "The Double Standard"; Val Paul, a well-known leading man, and an excellent villain as well; Charles Hill Mailes, one of the most accomplished character actors in the world; Chester Bennett, Peggy Custer, Hazel Page and Evelyn Brent. Charles Hill Mailes, as frequently happens in the case of a character actor, has a rather small but very important role in the drama. By the expedient of cutting out the action in which he appears most prominently until his confession at the trial, intense suspense is interjected in "The Lair of the Wolf," and so great is Mr. Mailes' acting ability, that no one in the audience will suspect that his was the hand which dealt the fatal blow. His make-up as a gardner in this picture is a work of art, as are all of his characterizations. BLUE Bl AD OAV Charles Hill Mailes. Gretchen Lederer. DONNA DREW CHOOSES HER NEW NAME. ■pHERE is a new name in the list of leading ladies of the screen. It appeared in the cast of the Butterfly Picture, "The Flame of Youth," with Jack Mulhall, and it appears again in the Butterfly, "The Lair of the Wolf," along with the well-known names, Gretchen Lederer and Joseph Girard. This new screen luminary is Donna Drew, the latest addition to the Butterfly forces. When the first print of her first picture came in from Universal City she was called "Donna Moon." But "Moon" was a name which did not suit the little, dark-haired slip of a girl who was playing the role of a nymph of an island in the Pacfic Ocean. Donna herself was the first to agree that a change was advisable. A one-syllable name she decided would go best with her pretty Christian name of Donna. She looked over her whole family historj', hunting for some ancestor's cognomen which she could borrow for the screen. At last she came upon the name of Drew, and promptly decided upon it. There is no better name in the history of the American stage, and it goes most beautifully with Donna.