William Bowden

(b. **/**/1874? - d. **/**/****) Cameraman and occasional co-director. William Weston Bowden worked as a cameraman for African Film Productions, but doesn’t seem to have been credited all that clearly. He came to South Africa in 1916 and secondary sources indicate that he worked on Zulutown Rink (1916) and possibly Zulutown Races (1916), both directed by Dick Cruikshanks, as well as being one of the contributing cameramen on De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916) and The Symbol of Sacrifice (Dick Cruikshanks/1918). It’s reasonably certain that he shot King Solomon’s Mines (1918) and Allan Quatermain (1919), both for H. Lisle Lucoque and there is, in fact, an earlier link to Lucoque in that he filmed Beau Brocade (1916) for Thomas Bentley, which Lucoque produced in England. In addition he seems to have co-directed (and possibly shot) The Madcap of the Veld (1920) and The Vulture’s Prey (1920), both with Cruikshanks, and in all likelihood he filmed and directed the first film version of H. De Vere Stacpoole's The Blue Lagoon (1922). He also made at least one acting appearance. In The Vulture's Prey he plays a cryptologist who is strangled by a pet gorilla. A draughtsman called William Bowden worked (usually uncredited) on a number of British films between 1943 and 1949, but there is no proof that this was the same man. (FO)

Sources

le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla - Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

Stage & Cinema, 5 May 1917

Stage & Cinema, 7 July 1917

S.A. Pictorial, 29 April 1922

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