Melissa of the Hills is a 1917 American silent film directed by James Kirkwood and starring Mary Miles Minter.

[1] As described in film magazines,[2][3][4] young Melissa Stark (Minter) lives with her father Jethro (Aitken), a circuit rider and preacher, in the Tennessee mountains.

Matters are complicated when a city couple arrive, having donated a new dress to Melissa after she replied to a newspaper offer, and mistakenly identify Jethro as a fugitive from justice, despite the real criminal having confessed.

Sam Allison, still bearing a grudge against Jethro for his perceived favouring of the Watts clan, is only too happy to arrest him.

A battle ensues, and it is only when Jethro Stark is killed by a stray bullet that both clans realise the error of their ways and reconcile.