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The Girl Who Ran Wild
The Girl Who Ran Wild
	Trade advertisement
Directed by	Rupert Julian
Written by	Rupert Julian (scenario); George C. Hull (titles)
Based on	M’liss: An Idyll of Red Mountain; by Bret Harte
Starring	Gladys Walton; Marc Robbins; Vernon Steele
Cinematography	Allen M. Davey
Production; company	Universal Film Manufacturing Company
Distributed by	Universal Film Manufacturing Company
Release date	October 9, 1922;
Running time	5 reels
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Girl Who Ran Wild is a 1922 American comedy-drama film directed by Rupert Julian. It is a black and white silent film released by Universal which is based on the 1863 novella M’liss: An Idyll of Red Mountain by Bret Harte.^[1] It is a remake of the 1918 film M’Liss.^[2] The film was written by George C. Hull and features cast such as Gladys Walton (as M’liss), Marc Robbins (“Bummer” Smith), and Vernon Steele (The Schoolmaster). It is a western melodrama which was released on October 9, 1922.^[3]^[4] It was filmed in Seven Oaks, California.^[5]

Plot

As described in a film magazine,^[6] Melissa Bummer (Walton), whom everyone called "Old Man Bummer's Wildcat," told the world that she could take care of herself after her Dad (Robbins) died and left her alone in a shack in the hills. Shabbily clad, barefoot, her hair knotted and uncombed, M'Liss scorned the girls from the city who had Mamas and always had ribbons in their hair. But this was before the new Schoolmaster (Steele) came, and she began to realize how sadly ignorant she was. Of course, he was handsome and well groomed. M'Liss was not surprised by that, but she could believe her ears when he told her that he loved her and wanted her to go away with him. The little wildcat of the mountains began to earnestly study her textbooks, to wear becoming clothes supplied by her two guardians, and awoke to all that she had been missing before in her solitary existence in her father's shack. One thing that M'Liss did not have to learn in school was the winsome ways of a maid to win a man. This is where her eternal feminine cropped out to beat the village belle to the goal.

Cast

Gladys Walton as M'liss
Marc Robbins as 'Bummer' Smith
Vernon Steele as The Schoolmaster
Joseph J. Dowling as Calaveras John (credited as Joseph Dowling)
William Burress as Johnny Cake
Al Hart as Preacher
Nelson McDowell as Deacon McSnagley
Lloyd Whitlock as Jack Velvet
Lucille Ricksen as Clytie

References

^ Beverly, Edward Joseph (2008). Chasing the Sun: A Reader's Guide to Novels Set in the American West. Sunstone Press. Page 232. ISBN 9780865346031.
^ Witchard, Anne Veronica (2009). Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie: Limehouse Nights and the Queer Spell of Chinatown. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Page 242. ISBN 9780754658641.
^ Munden, Kenneth White (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press. Page 294. ISBN 9780520209695.
^ Paietta, Ann C. (2007). Teachers in the Movies: A Filmography of Depictions of Grade School, Preschool and Day Care Educators, 1890s to the Present. McFarland. Page 76. ISBN 9780786429387.
^ IMDb entry
^ "Service Page for The Girl Who Ran Wild". Universal Weekly. 16 (18). New York City, New York: Moving Picture Weekly Pub. Co.: 30 October 6, 1922.