By Violet LeVoit
M'liss
Brief Synopsis
A young innocent searches a rough mining town for her drunken father.
Cast & Crew
Read More
George Nicholls Jr.
Director
Anne Shirley
Melissa "M'liss" Smith
John Beal
Stephen Thorne
Guy Kibbee
Washoe Smith
Douglass Dumbrille
Lou Ellis
Moroni Olsen
Jake
Film Details
Also Known As
Bret Harte's M'Liss
Genre
Romance
Drama
Release Date
Jul
27,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novelette M'liss by Bret Harte in Golden Era (San Francisco, 1863).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono (RCA Victor System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
Melissa "M'liss" Smith, the teenaged daughter of Washoe Smith, an alcoholic has-been gold miner, expresses her outrage when the town, which is named Smith's Pocket after her father's only claim, forces them out of their home and converts the building into a school. When he learns of her plight, Stephen Thorne, the new teacher, insists that M'liss go to school and encourages her to learn in spite of her poverty. M'liss performs well in class, but her job washing dishes in the local saloon distresses Stephen deeply. Afraid of embarrassing his daughter in front of Stephen, who has requested a meeting with him, the drunken Washoe slips away and heads for the saloon, where he is fatally wounded in an argument. Now under the guardianship of gambler Lou Ellis and barber Alf Edwards, M'liss attracts the attention of Jack Farlan, a city cousin of the wife of the mayor, James Morpher, whose snobbish daughter Clytie is M'liss' hated rival. After M'liss rejects Jack's overtures, Jack tells the Morphers that he knew Stephen in Nevada when he was a newspaper editor and that Stephen was driven out for refusing to fight a duel. Gossip spreads and M'liss soon finds herself hotly defending Stephen's bravery to Clytie, which causes Mayor Morpher to threaten to send M'liss to an orphanage. Risking his own position, Stephen cajoles the Morphers into giving M'liss another chance, but then must convince M'liss not to run away by kissing her. Confused but assured by Alf and Lou that Stephen wants to marry her, M'liss consults with Rose, a saloon girl, about the realities of marriage. Her entrance into the saloon is noted by Clytie and by a drunk Jack, who tries to force himself on her. Stephen arrives in time to prevent Jack's assault, but seeing his foe drunk, declines to fight him. Afterward, Stephen shows M'liss his marksmanship medals and explains that he never fights with a lesser opponent. That night, Jack is shot outside of M'liss' cabin, and although Lou is guilty, Stephen is suspected. In spite of M'liss' protests, Mayor Morpher and Judge Weinner accuse Stephen of cowardly murder, and Stephen's future looks short and bleak until news of Jack's recovery arrives. Cleared of all charges and returned to good standing, Stephen proposes to M'liss.
Director
George Nicholls Jr.
Director
Cast
Anne Shirley
Melissa "M'liss" Smith
John Beal
Stephen Thorne
Guy Kibbee
Washoe Smith
Douglass Dumbrille
Lou Ellis
Moroni Olsen
Jake
Frank M. Thomas
Alf Edwards
Ray Mayer
Whitey
Barbara Pepper
Clytie Morpher
William Benedict
Archer Morpher
Arthur Hoyt
Mayor James Morpher
Margaret Armstrong
Mrs. Delia Morpher
James Bush
Jack Farlan
Esther Howard
Rose
Louis Mason
Judge Weinner
Arthur Loft
Clem Larkin
Fern Emmett
Mrs. Larkin
Crew
Samuel J. Briskin
Executive Producer
Alberto Colombo
Music Director
George D. Ellis
Recording
Perry Ferguson
Art Director Associate
Robert De Grasse
Photography
Kenny Holmes
Assistant Director
Elizabeth Mcgaffey
Research
William Morgan
Editing
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Robert Sisk
Associate Producer
Dorothy Yost
Screenwriter
Film Details
Also Known As
Bret Harte's M'Liss
Genre
Romance
Drama
Release Date
Jul
27,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novelette M'liss by Bret Harte in Golden Era (San Francisco, 1863).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono (RCA Victor System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
M'liss -
The fourth silver screen rendition of a Bret Harte story set in the California Gold Rush. Young Melissa "M'liss" Smith (Anne Shirley), a teenage girl flowering in the rough mountain town of Smith's Pocket, is struggling. Her soggy father (xxx) can't make enough prospects to keep their home from being turned into the town's school, and her fresh-faced looks attract the wrong kind of attention. Anne Shirley follows in the footsteps of Barbara Tennant, Gladys Walton, and Mary Pickford (all whom previously played the mountaintop ingenue) for this, her fourth and final experience working under director George Nicholls, Jr. RKO had enough faith in their production to borrow Guy Kibbee from Warner Brothers to play her alcoholic father, and Douglas Dumbrille from Columbia as the local gambler. The New York Times quibbled that Bret Harte's rowdy Wild West story had been sanitized into "a commonplace small town squabbling over its new school teacher" but conceded that Shirley's interpretation of the "friendly, ungrammatical lass" wasn't a total waste.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
M'liss -
The fourth silver screen rendition of a Bret Harte story set in the California Gold Rush. Young Melissa "M'liss" Smith (Anne Shirley), a teenage girl flowering in the rough mountain town of Smith's Pocket, is struggling. Her soggy father (xxx) can't make enough prospects to keep their home from being turned into the town's school, and her fresh-faced looks attract the wrong kind of attention. Anne Shirley follows in the footsteps of Barbara Tennant, Gladys Walton, and Mary Pickford (all whom previously played the mountaintop ingenue) for this, her fourth and final experience working under director George Nicholls, Jr. RKO had enough faith in their production to borrow Guy Kibbee from Warner Brothers to play her alcoholic father, and Douglas Dumbrille from Columbia as the local gambler. The New York Times quibbled that Bret Harte's rowdy Wild West story had been sanitized into "a commonplace small town squabbling over its new school teacher" but conceded that Shirley's interpretation of the "friendly, ungrammatical lass" wasn't a total waste.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Bret Harte's name appears above the onscreen title. Harte's novelette, which appeared first as a serial in the San Francisco publication Golden Era in 1863, was expanded from an 1860 short story of the same name. M'liss was the last of five collaborations between Anne Shirley and director George Nicholls, Jr. Contemporary reviews noted that the Wild West flavor of Harte's novelette was changed to a small-town flavor in this version. RKO borrowed Guy Kibbee from Warner Bros. and Douglass Dumbrille from Columbia for the production. The first film version of Harte's story was directed in 1915 by O. A. C. Lund for World Film Corp. and starred Barbara Tennant, and the second was directed by Marshall Neilan in 1918 for Mary Pickford's film company (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.3010 and F1.3011). According to modern sources, researcher Elizabeth McGaffey worked on both the 1936 production and the Pickford version of the story. In 1922, Rupert Julian directed Gladys Walton in a Universal version of Harte's story, titled The Girl Who Ran Wild (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films; F2.2109). In 1952, the NBC network broadcast a television version of M'Liss.
