The sparkling film debut of Billie Burke (who would go on to be immortalised for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz) playing an American heiress reluctantly transplanted to rural Scotland.
New York socialite Peggy Cameron (Billie Burke) is dismayed to learn that she must move to Scotland to live with her new guardian… “a man as stern and unyielding as the rocky hills of his native land”. The censorious village elders prove to be no match for Peggy, whose boisterous demeanour and unapologetic ideals will have you cheering in the aisles. But will she succumb to the charms of the local ‘hot’ Reverend? Once thought lost, the film has been reconstructed, although the final reel has not survived in any form. The missing scenes have been filled in with stills and text from the 1916 copyright registration to ensure that today’s audiences are not left in suspense at the film’s conclusion.
Dir. Charles Giblyn, Thomas H. Ince | US | 1916 | N/C U | b&w, tinted | 43m (incomplete) + short
With: Billie Burke, William H. Thompson, William Desmond
Performing live: Stephen Horne (piano, flute, accordion)
Online programme notes by John Ritchie
Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
