''Nina, the Flower Girl'' is a

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

American 1917 silent drama film produced by D. W. Griffith through his

Fine Arts Film Company Fine Arts Film Company produced dozens of movies during the silent film era in the United States. It was one of the film production studios in Triangle Film Corporation, each run by one of the parent company's vice-presidents: D. W. Griffith, Thoma ...

and distributed by

Triangle Film Corporation Triangle Film Corporation (also known as Triangle Motion Picture Company) was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in July 1915 in Culver City, California and terminated 7 years later in 1922. History The studio was founded in July 1 ...

. The film starred

Bessie Love Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned e ...

, an up-and-coming ingenue actress. It also marked the final acting role for

Elmer Clifton Elmer Clifton (March 14, 1890 – October 15, 1949) was an American writer, director and actor from the early silent days. A collaborator of D.W. Griffith, he appeared in ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) and '' Intolerance'' (1916) before givi ...

, who was by then moving on to directing full-time.

Plot

Nina (

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

), who is blind, makes artificial flowers. Jimmie ( Clifton), a hunchback newsboy, who is also an artist, is in love with her. Nina has been deceived into thinking that Jimmie is a prince who lives in a palace. When wealthy Fred Townsend ( Hadley) and his mother offer to finance a surgery to restore Nina's vision, Jimmie misunderstands and thinks that the Townsends plan to hurt Nina. He unsuccessfully tries to protect her from them, before learning of their true intentions. Nina has the surgery and her vision is restored, but Jimmie fears that she may not love him once she realized he is not a prince. He plans to attempt suicide by falling from a high place, but instead encounters a surgeon who performs a surgery to fix his hunchback. He and Nina are reunited and are in love.

Cast

Production

To prepare for her role as the blind girl, Love spent time at the Los Angeles Institute for the Blind. During filming, a 6-piece orchestra played music for the actors, and real champagne was used on camera.

Release and reception

Upon its release, it was shown with a Keystone comedy. The film received mediocre to negative reviews. In particular, its blatant sentimentality was poorly received. Bessie Love's performance was very well-reviewed, called "an excellent bit of unaffected acting" by one reviewer.

References

External links

* * * * * 1917 drama films 1917 lost films 1917 films American black-and-white films Silent American drama films American silent feature films Films about blind people Films directed by Lloyd Ingraham Lost American films Triangle Film Corporation films Lost drama films 1910s American films {{1910s-drama-film-stub