William Bowden

(b. **/**/1874? - d. **/**/****) Cameraman, scriptwriter, director. In September 1916 it was announced that William Weston Bowden, photographer to Lucoque Ltd, had accepted a contract with African Film Productions. It is known for certain that he had filmed Beau Brocade (1916) for Thomas Bentley, which Lucoque had produced in England, and it is entirely possible that he was also responsible for She (1916) and Tatterly (1916), both directed by H. Lisle Lucoque, before he came out to South Africa on board the Walmer Castle.

He is said to have been one of the contributing cameramen on Harold M. Shaw's De Voortrekkers (1916) and then shot Zulutown Rink (1917) and Zulutown Races (1917) for Dick Cruikshanks. Together with J.L. Humphrey, he filmed Cruikshanks's The Symbol of Sacrifice (1918), and when Lucoque came out to South Africa to shoot King Solomon's Mines (1918) and Allan Quatermain (1919), it was only natural that he should team up with his old cameraman. The partnership with Cruikshanks continued with The Madcap of the Veld (1920), The Vulture's Prey (1920) and The Blue Lagoon (1923), all of which he shot as well as co-directed. In addition he was credited with writing the script of The Madcap of the Veld and The Blue Lagoon, and made at least one acting appearance, playing a cryptologist who is strangled by a pet gorilla in The Vulture's Prey.

There is no information as regards his nationality, though there is a thought that at some stage he worked on the early films of Cecil B. DeMille, in which case it is likely that he was American. In June 1919 he arrived in England from Cape Town on board the Kenilworth Castle, but not long afterwards he was back in South Africa. After 1923 we lose track of him. In the 1940s there is a draughtman named William Bowden who works on a number of British films, but he would have been in his seventies by then. Also, in 1936/37 the chief engineer at George King's Embassy Pictures (Associated) in London was a William Bowden, who is actually credited as a technician on King's Self-Made Lady (1932). (FO)

Sources

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

Low, Rachel - The history of the British film 1914-1918

Stage & Cinema, 5 May 1917

Stage & Cinema, 7 July 1917

S.A. Pictorial, 29 April 1922

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