''Just a Girl'' is a British silent motion picture of 1916 directed by

Alexander Butler Alexander Butler was a British film director who made over sixty features and short films during the 1910s and 1920s including many for G. B. Samuelson's production company. Butler directed several British films in Hollywood in 1920, where Samuel ...

and starring

Owen Nares Owen Ramsay Nares (11 August 1888 – 30 July 1943) was an English stage and film actor. Besides his acting career, he was the author of ''Myself, and Some Others'' (1925). Early life Educated at Reading School, Nares was encouraged by his mo ...

Daisy Burrell Daisy Burrell (born Daisy Isobel Eaglesfield Ratton; 16 June 1892 – 10 June 1982) was a British stage actress and Edwardian musical comedy performer who also appeared as a leading lady in silent films and in pantomime. In 1951 she appeared i ...

and Paul England. A

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

, it was adapted by

Harry Engholm Harry Engholm was a British screenwriter. Selected filmography * ''East Lynne'' (1913) * ''Sixty Years a Queen'' (1913) * '' Lights of London'' (1914) * ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1914) * ''A Cinema Girl's Romance'' (1915) * ''Dr. Wake's Patient'' ...

from

Charles Garvice Charles Garvice (24 August 1850Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyPhilip Waller, ‘Garvice, Charles Andrew (1850–1920)’, first published Sept 2004 Index Number 101038692 – 1 March 1920) was a prolific British writer of over 150 rom ...

's novel of the same title published in 1895.

Plot

Esmeralda, an Australian heiress played by

, is courted by Lord Trafford (

), an English peer in need of money. However, she refuses him and marries the man she loves, Norman Druce, a humble miner.Robert Connelly, Jay Robert Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross, ''Motion Picture Guide Silent Film 1910-1936'' (1988), p. 132: "JUST A GIRL** (1916, Brit.) 7 reels Samuelson/Moss bw Owen Nares (Lord Trafford), Daisy Burrell (Esmeralda), J. Hastings Batson (The Duke), Minna Grey (The Duchess), Paul England (The Miner). In another of those British social-class soap operas, an Australian heiress rejects an impoverished lord to marry the miner she really loves. d, Alexander Butler; w, Harry Engholm (based on the novel by Charles Garvice)."

Cast

– Lord Trafford *

– Esmeralda * J. Hastings Batson – Duke *

Minna Grey Minna Grey (1877 in London, England – 1935) was an English actress of the silent era. Death Grey died in 1935, 2 days before her 59th birthday. Selected filmography * '' The Shulamite'' (1915) * ''Just a Girl'' (1916) * ''The Second Mrs. Tan ...

– Duchess * Paul England – Norman Druce (the miner)

Production

Burrell later noted that a location scene in which she had to fire a revolver while riding a pony had been filmed at

Cheddar Gorge Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years ...

. The pony proved to be a bucking bronco and had bolted, with her clinging on grimly. Due to this excitement, filming had been abandoned for the rest of the morning. The film was distributed in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

under the title ''Australiens vilda ros'' ('Australia's Wild Rose') and subtitled ''Esmeralda, lägrets stolthet'' ('Esmeralda, Pride of the Camp'). The Swedish premiere was at the Odeon,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, on 3 October 1917.Just a Girl
fact sheet at sfi.se (

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute ( sv, Svenska Filminstitutet) was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the ''Filmhuset'' building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm. The building, comp ...

database), accessed 22 January 2012

References

External links

*
''Just a Girl''
by Charles Garvice 1916 films British silent feature films 1910s English-language films Films directed by Alexander Butler Films based on British novels Films set in England British black-and-white films British romance films 1910s romance films Silent romance films 1910s British films {{1910s-UK-film-stub