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| Directed by Nell Shipman and Bert Van Tuyle |
| United States, 1920 (fiction, 65 minutes, black and white) |
| Also known as "Beyond the Border" |
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| Image: Nell Shipman in Something New Image taken from a film clip in Sight & Sound, May 1, 2019 |
| Video (Internet Archive) |
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Film Description: "A lady writer, seeking 'real, red, and raw' atmosphere, arrives by stage at a Mexican border town, where Sid Bickley, her father's Blue Lotus gold mine partner, has agreed to meet her. Mining engineer Bill Baxter, driving a new Maxwell automobile, is also on hand, and both he and Sid expect someone more prim and academic than the attractive, vivacious young lady who shows up. She immediately makes friends with Bill's dog, Laddy, and he gives her the dog as a companion. Sid and the young woman then ride in Sid's buckboard to Yaqui Wells Rancho, where they switch to horses. Meanwhile, the notorious bandit Gorgez and his band of thieves raid the Blue Lotus mine, thinking nobody will be there because the miners have gone to Tijuana. Gorgez is happy to see that a pretty woman is there, however, and after leaving Sid unconscious, he and his outlaws take the gold and the woman with them. Meanwhile, Bill, who can't get the 'writing woman' out of his mind, decides to pay a call at the mine, but when he reaches the rancho to rent a horse for the arduous trek through the wasteland, no horses are available, forcing him to drive his automobile into the rough terrain. [...]" -- American Film Institute (source)
Film Description: |
| Film Credits (partial): | |
| Written by: | Nell Shipman, Bert Van Tuyle |
| Produced by: | B.F. Croghan |
| Principal Cast: | Nell Shipman, Bert Van Tuyle, L.M. Wells, William McCormack, Tom Hawley, J. Wesley Warner, Mark C. Hadley |
| Cinematography: | Joseph B. Walker |
| Film Editing: | Nell Shipman |
| Production Company: | Nell Shipman Productions |
"We grabbed the Maxwell bankroll [Something New ] because we were 'between pictures.' Back to God's Country was in release and doing fine, but my whack was a delayed take while everyone else connected with the picture was getting theirs. I had annoyed Mr. [James Oliver] Curwood and part of the management so I got it last. To make the room rent and keep eating we'd already gone out on the Mojave in the deep of a 120° summer and shot up an Essex called the 'Grey Ghost' for its having made a sort of blind flying run from East to West. The only highlight I remember on this one [Trail of the Arrow] was driving through a brush fire and finding out later that the gas tank cap was missing. [...] "
-- Nell Shipman
(source)
"Something New is charming as a comic melodrama and
interesting as an industrial project. Its interest exceeds these rubrics,
however, for Shipman here foregrounds her authorial voice."
-- Kay Armatage
(source)
"The fact that [in Something New] Nell Shipman cast herself in the role of the woman who writes the film's story points to the level of the film's production. In other words, if her previous starring role of the wife of a writer is taken into account, as well as the erasure of her contribution as a scenarist to Back to God's Country, her self-casting could likewise be thought of as an unabashed and even confrontational gesture. Considering that she was the producer-scenarist and star, the film seems to have been not only a promotional item for a brand of car, but also an act of self-promotion on the part of Nell Shipman."
-- Annette Förster
(source)
"Lou H. Rose, who sells Chalmers and Maxwells, opened most of his space for seats for spectators of a motion picture, Something New, featuring Nell Shipman and the Maxwell car. The film was shown every hour, and capacity of 200 was filled at every showing. Rose estimates that more than 10,000 persons saw the film."
-- Motor Age
(source)
"Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the film [Something New] is the way in which the
automobile emerges as a quasi-subjective companion and lover whose
relationship with the woman soon displaces the male hero to the visual and
narrative margins."
-- Jennifer Parchesky
(source)
"The film [Something New] was financed by the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company and, as
such, has been dismissed by some critics as merely an extended and
somewhat melodramatic commercial for the off-road capacities of the
Maxwell automobile. But [Nell] Shipman's collaboration with the automaker
represents less a capitulation of art to commerce than a strategic alliance
enabling her independence from the equally commercial and increasingly
patriarchal studio system."
-- Jennifer Parchesky
(source)
"The film's final intertitle states in all caps: 'THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW.' A close-up follows of [Nell] Shipman looking directly at us laughing at the camera. One cannot help but feel this is a not-so-veiled reference about her own positionality in filmmaking and the way in which Something New asserts female agency in multiple ways: in the Western narrative where Shipman helps save the day; in the metanarrative where Shipman types up the story we just watched; and implicitly in Shipman's partnership with [Bert] Van Tuyle behind the camera in creating the story in the first place."
-- Chris Robé
(source)
"The opening image [of Something New] shows a woman sitting under a tree. The decor, which includes Navajo rugs, a tent and a holstered gun, suggests that most masculine of genres, the western. The woman, positioned behind a table containing a typewriter, is staring into the distance. After a few seconds of silent contemplation, she begins typing, but breaks off almost immediately, glances miserably at the page before her, and places her elbows on the table, arranging her hands on either side of her head in a manner indicating frustration. The first intertitle appears at this point: 'A Lady in search of an Inspiration. ... Nell Shipman.'"
-- Brad Stevens
(source)
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