Something New (1920)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Directors:

Nell Shipman
Bert Van Tuyle

Writers:

Nell Shipman (written by) and
Bert Van Tuyle (written by)

Release Date:

October 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

A young woman visiting in Mexico is kidnapped by a gang of bandits, who drag her through the rugged wilderness to their hideout...

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Bandit | Mexico | Horse | Escape

Cast

Nell Shipman	...	A Young Woman Writer
Bert Van Tuyle	...	Bill Baxter, the Hero
L.M. Wells	...	Sid Bickley
Merrill McCormick	...	Agrilla Gorgez, the Bandit (as William McCormick)

Runtime:

57 min (restored version)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White (tinted)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - 200 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, California, USA

Something Hackneyed

Nell Shipman attempted a plot to lead up to a chase finale in 'Back to God's Country' of the previous year, and she failed miserably. This time, she does better, although it seems pointless. 'Something New' hardly has a plot lying outside of the chase. There's a brief premise, which sets up the hero (co-author and Shipman's boyfriend) to have to save the girl (played by Shipman), then it's nothing but an exciting, implausible chase from there. Of course, it plays out like an hour-long advertisement for a Maxwell Sedan, but the entire movie is congruously ridiculous. It doesn't seem that she learned much from the last-minute rescue films of D.W. Griffith or its parodies by Mack Sennett and other comedians, which she's imitating.

One point of interest is that Shipman writes and directs herself into the film as the writer of the film's story, which has as its protagonist a writer (Shipman again), although she doesn't do much else clever or humorous with it, even though she attempts to. Again, others had pioneered the writer's joke in the intertitles, like Anita Loos with 'Wild and Woolly' or Frances Marion with 'A Girl's Folly' (both 1917). At least, Shipman gives the impression that she doesn't take herself or the film seriously--and neither do I. 'Something New,' despite its claim, is hackneyed.