Something New (1920) User Reviews

Scrap your Hummer and buy a Maxwell

[robertguttman · 6/10 · 13 April 2005]

In "Something New" a spunky girl and her boyfriend escape pursuing Mexican banditos by driving across impossible terrain in an equally spunky 1920 Maxwell. The film isn't the greatest example of cinematic art, but what a car! If the Maxwell could do half of the things it does in this film, the U.S. Army would do well to scrap their Hummers and replace them with a fleet of these venerable touring cars.

Those above the age of 40 will no doubt recall that the Maxwell was the car of choice of the notoriously stingy Jack Benny. The stodgy car provided a running gag on his popular radio and television programs for decades. Perhaps old Jack was on to a good thing after all.

Well worth a look.

Did I mention the rocks?

[JohnSeal · 5/10 · 5 May 2001]

My gosh, could that spunky little Maxwell automobile really take as much abuse as it gets in this brief adventure film? Hairy Mexican banditos try to impinge upon the purity of heroine Nell Shipman, who gets rescued by a Man and his Maxwell. They then proceed to bounce over rocks for 40 minutes as they get away. The car goes up hills, down hills, over rocks, over more rocks, and then over some more rocks.

Earliest Blatant Product Placement?

[iquine · 6/10 · 25 March 2019]

(Flash Review)

Is this one big ad for a 1919 Maxwell automobile? Or a personification of car can be as nimble as a goat? The main character is the car who helps a man saving a kidnapped woman flee from the mean gun-toting men who chase them by horse. Also a good match up of literal horse power and car horsepower. This car does what a war Jeep was designed to do as it somehow and astonishingly drives over boulders, steep dirt hills, tall brush and just dreadful terrain while rescuing a damsel in distress. Amazing from a car from the 19teens. Sadly for how much I like cars, this actually became stale...too much of a good thing. Endless scenes of this car never getting stuck that it made you forget the main story. Oh well, it was ahead of is time for product placement in the movies.

Good Fun & Entertaining Automotive Stunts

[Snow Leopard · 12 December 2001]

While it's nothing to be taken seriously, if you're interested in a silent movie that is fun and different, try this one. The plot is purely routine - Nell Shipman and Bert Van Tuyle trying desperately to escape from a gang of vile bandits - but with some distinctive touches that make it "Something New".

Shipman is a good adventure heroine, but the real star of this one is the car. They get their 1920 Maxwell to pull off some stunts that would be very difficult for the toughest of vehicles. Some of the things they get it to do are amazing, and it's worth watching for the automotive stunts alone - these sequences really grab your attention and hold it. The rest is nothing special, but not bad either, and overall this movie is good fun.

To Boldly Go Where No Maxwell's Gone Before!

[dwknuj · 7/10 · 19 July 2022]

And to think, they called "2001: A Space Odyssey" the ultimate trip. The authors of that slogan never saw what this Maxwell can do over surfaces that make the lunar terrain look like newly paved highways.

There is a sweet and jingoistic undertone to the narrative. Two people, because of their American virtues, can take on two dozen Mexican bandits.

It is fitting that this film with a tough woman protagonist (who also wrote and directed it) was made in 1920, the year that American women got the vote.

One piece of advice - should you see this film on TCM they showed it with (to my ears) an entirely inappropriate modern jazz score. That's why God gave us a mute button. Enjoy the visuals and blot out the sound.

off road driving

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 18 July 2022]

Nell Shipman is a young female writer in the Mexican desert struggling to write something new. When she gets kidnapped by bandits, Bill Baxter must come to the rescue. Only he has no horse and must take his car across rugged country.

The bandits look a little silly especially the leader. They should look scarier. The old man should be dead. There is no way that the bandits would let him live. This turns into a film for car fans. It's impressive to see that old car going off road. It's good stunt work.

So unrealistic it becomes funny

[Tony1963 · 3/10 · 17 June 2005]

Nell Shipman must have been paid a hefty sum of money to promote the Maxwell automobile's off-road capabilities. The plot of the movie is pretty simple, Nell plays a writer who has a bad case of writer's block, and needs inspiration, so she goes to visit Mexico to absorb the atmosphere. There she meets the hero (Bert Van Tuyle), a cowboy who chooses to drive a car rather than ride a horse. While Nell is visiting with her father's partner at his mining camp, a gang of local bandits kidnap her and bring her to their camp deep in the wilderness. The hero needs to get to her quickly, so he decides to drive there in his car. This is where the film takes a weird twist. Bert proceeds to drive over every terrain imaginable, huge rocks, small streams, heavy brush, scraggly tree stumps, steep inclines, etc etc, for the greater part of the film we get to see this car struggling to crawl over obstacles. Now mind you, this isn't a modern-day ATV, it's a 1920 Maxwell automobile, so it looks very out-of-place as an off-road vehicle. And it clearly has limitations for some of the terrain it encounters, we get to see it stuck more than once in this film. But the filmmakers made an effort to show it beating the odds and eventually passing all the obstacles. Once the hero gets to the hidden camp and rescues the girl, he jumps in the car with her and drives off with the bandits in hot pursuit (on horseback), and at this point it became hysterically funny to me. Watching this car slowly rolling over huge rocks, getting stuck in gravel and mountain brush, going forward and back to get momentum enough to pass over fallen tree limbs, the bandits should have had ample time to catch up. But they never do, even though we are to believe this wilderness chase goes on throughout the night. And in a silly climax, the car climbs a mountainside, and helps Nell and the hero push a huge boulder down the side to crush the pursuing bandits.

After seeing this film you would think the army should invest in 1920 Maxwell automobiles because they clearly have better off-road capabilities than Hummers and Bradley tanks combined. Watch this film just for laughs, it's worth it just to see Nell cuddling up to the car grill and saying "You did your best, brave little car"

An extended Maxwell Car Commercial, where the girl kisses the car

[psteier · 6/10 · 15 May 2000]

A woman writer (Nell Shipman) is kidnapped by bandits in Mexico, but is saved by an American (Bert Van Tuyle), who drives his Maxwell through seemingly impassable terrain when he cannot get a horse.

The driving scenes are sometimes impressive and hair raising, but there is really not much plot otherwise.

Perfect for Insomniacs

[Burts34 · 2/10 · 17 April 2005]

Being a fan of silent films, I looked forward to seeing this picture for the first time. I was pretty disappointed.

As has been mentioned, the film seems to be one long, long, commercial for the Maxwell automobile.

Perhaps if the chase scene was about half the length that it is, I may have enjoyed the film more. But it got old very fast. And while I recognize that reality is stretched many times in films, without lessening a viewer's enjoyment, what was with the Mexican bandits? I mean, they are chasing a car through the mountains, a car that most of the time is moving at about one mile per hour, yet they can't catch up to it?

Something Hackneyed

[Cineanalyst · 4/10 · 20 July 2005]

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 did 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 wrote and directed 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 attempted to. Again, others had pioneered the writer's joke in the intertitles, like Anita Loos with "Wild and Woolly" and other Douglas Fairbanks's vehicles and Frances Marion with "A Girl's Folly" (both 1917) and others. At least, Shipman gives the impression that she didn't take herself or the film seriously--and neither do I. "Something New", despite its claim, is hackneyed.

Interesting

[hmpulham · 8/10 · 14 June 2005]

One does wonder if in fact, the Maxwell Moror Car Company, might have financed this film, because it is a terrific commercial for that brand. Basically, the plot concerns the typical rescue theme, but there are bits that are historically engaging. Nell Shipman is not your ordinary passive heroine -- no, when she shoots a Mexican bandit, she comments: "well that takes care of one." What is interesting to me was the long automobile trek over a western desert, and to see how well this 1920 Maxwell car could handle ditches and boulders. Today, only the likes to a Toyoda Land Cruser, Land Rover or that type of auto could do it. Of course, the cars of that vintage were made with a very high ground clearance to handle unpaved country roads; which was the norm of the times. The film is primitive, but not boring. For those who are students of, or just enjoy early silent films, check it out.

Or "Something that could have been fun but instead became very tedious"

[scsu1975 · 4/10 · 21 November 2022]

The film starts off well enough, with Nell Shipman trying to come up with an idea for a story. She imagines she is kidnapped by Mexican bandits and Bill the good guy (played by her real-life husband) comes to her rescue. The head bandit looks like James ("Scotty") Doohan with a moustache.

A few observations:

1. Come up with a better immigration policy, and this crap won't happen in the first place.

2. If you want Bill to rescue Nell, don't spent almost the entire film showing him driving a Maxwell through rugged terrain (with his dog in the back seat). By then, Nell would normally be doomed. And Bill would have major back issues. And I would be bored out of my skull.

3. How can you shoot your gun at a bandit who is nowhere in sight and pick him off with no problem? Right.

Shipman is good in her role, and the ending is kind of cutesy. But unless you are a fan of off-road driving, this is a snooze fest.

The Little Gas Buggy That Could

[jimjo1216 · 17 November 2018]

Nell Shipman promises something new, and she delivers, bringing audiences an action-packed western thriller starring a heroic little Maxwell automobile. The movie opens with a woman suffering from writer's block. But inspiration hits, as she observes the juxtaposition of a man on a horse (the old) and a man in a car (the new). From there she spins a tale of desert adventure south of the border, and casts the modern motorcar in the role of the faithful steed, mercilessly sending the car across wild and rugged terrain normally reserved for men on horseback.

The story is simple enough: bandits kidnap a young lady, and the hero who must rescue her has only his newfangled automobile to carry him across the rocky and untamed desert. (Is his ride up to the task?) The driving stunts are the novelty, and it is rather fascinating to see the old car doing things cars weren't meant to do, in places cars weren't meant to be.

Co-writers, co-directors, and co-stars Nell Shipman and Bert Van Tuyle were apparently a wife and husband action team, and both share driving duties in this film (though it is mostly Van Tuyle behind the wheel).

Watching the film, there's a sense that Shipman and Van Tuyle are testing the limits of their Maxwell. Sometimes the car will spin its wheels in the sand, sometimes it'll get stuck at an awkward angle, with a wheel or two off the ground. And the driver will struggle to navigate the obstacles and get the car moving again (without flipping over!). It seems real, like they are experimenting right on camera, unsure of how things will work out. And that works with the plot, creating some suspense.

Shipman has a nice screen presence, and, despite being the kidnappee in the story, she's nobody's damsel in distress. She shoots back, and even saves the hero once or twice.

As promised, the story offers an intriguing new spin on a familiar scenario, and the intertitles are written in a folksy idiom that lends the quick flick personality. It's a cut above more pedestrian silent fare, with a special spark to it. An enjoyable (if bumpy) ride.

Supercar! (1920 version)

[WesternOne1 · 3/10 · 9 November 2018]

This is another Nell Shipman cheapie, most all are pretty dull, but this has a standout gimmick- an endless chase of Nell's car by Mexican horsemen, who don't ever seen to make much progress, as the car, a 1919 Maxwell sedan, goes up and down, over the rocks, down the gorge, over the boulders, through the sagebrush, on and one like one of the demo films that Henry Ford made in those days showing just how unstoppable a Model T could be. Well, I'm certainly shown a thing or two about the mighty Maxwell. No wonder Jack Benny had one right into the 1960's, they were built to last!

Sure to be a hit with off-road fans

[UserD42 · 9/10 · 19 November 2001]

The plot is an old standby. A girl (Mell Shipman) is kidnapped by bandits and threatened with a Fate Worse Than Death. This standard plot serves as a framework for an astonishing extended off-road driving sequence. An ordinary 2-wheel-drive sedan is driven through progressively worse terrain including crawling over bolder strewn plains, along narrow ledges, and down crumbling sandhills. Basically, if you have seen it in a four-wheel-drive magazine, it is in this movie. No screaming heroin, Mell Shipman does about a third of the driving.

Maxwell automobile's a magnificent movie awesome actors.

[accelerator-91899 · 10/10 · 18 July 2022]

If only they built cars like that he's days, even though several cars were probably used in the movie, If I was living in that time I would of bought two of them, What a way to advertise a automobile!

There's where the old saying came from.

They don't build them they way they used to build them back in the day!

A very fine movie just the excitement one experiences watching that vehicle go through all that wilderness and the durability of the actors are second to none, absolutely magnificent movie!

Something Old, Something New!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 29 November 2016]

"Amazing! Simply amazing!" These are the words I would use in describing this unique movie which features a long series of seemingly impossible stunts performed by a vintage Maxwell. It would seem that Jack Benny was right on target in choosing a Maxwell after all. That car can zip along and go anywhere and do anything? Bounce over rugged rocks, nearly double its size? No problem! Navigate hills, streams, sand, desert, impossible rock barriers and impassable passes? Climb aboard! Outrun pursuing bad guys and their horses across deserts, streams and rock-strewn mountainsides? All in a day's work - or rather in a speedy sixty minutes or so's work!

Producer/director (with husband Bert Van Tuyle), Nell Shipman is a decidedly game and really attractive lass whom I've not encountered before, but I'm now looking forward to viewing her "Trail of the North Wind" which is available as an extra attraction on Alpha's very watchable DVD.

A Girl and Her Dog, David Jeffers for SIFFblog,com

[rdjeffers · 19 April 2010]

Monday April 19, 7pm, Admiral Theatre, Seattle

"Love my dog - love me!"

An independent young writer travels south of the border in search of inspiring atmosphere and gets more than she bargained for. Arriving in Mexico, Nell (Nell Shipman) meets her father's business partner Sid (L. M. Wells) and Bill Baxter (Bert Van Tuyle), who gives Nell his dog Laddy for company. Shortly after arriving at the Blue Lotus Mine with Sid, banditos kidnap Nell. Once word reaches Bill (she sends the dog with a note), he sets out in his open automobile across the wilderness to rescue her.

Outdoor-adventure star Shipman co-wrote and directed Something New, a Perils of Pauline style nail-biter, which centers on the navigation of a 1920 Maxwell roadster over vast expanses of boulders and brush, with nary a fire, flat or breakdown and all on a single tank of gas. At one point when they run out of bullets, the car itself is used as a weapon!