The first filmed appearance of Anne Shirley was in the 1919 silent film, "Anne of Green Gables", in which the role was played by Mary Miles Minter. The film was directed by William Desmond Taylor. As of 2011, no prints of this silent film adaptation are known to survive. The 1919 film version moved the story from Prince Edward Island to New England, which one American critic—unaware that the novel was set in Canada—praised for "the genuine New England atmosphere called for by the story". Montgomery herself was infuriated with the film for changing Anne from a Canadian to an American, writing in her diary: