Black Waters is a 1929 British/American horror all-talking sound film produced by Herbert Wilcox and directed by Marshall Neilan. It was the first British-produced talking picture ever shown in England, but it was actually made in Hollywood since that is where the needed sound equipment was at that time. The American film company Sono Art-World Wide Pictures collaborated with British & Dominions Film Corporation to produce the sound film. They recorded the soundtrack using the RCA Photophone sound system. Wilcox sent Neilan to the U.S. to film the picture there, using a mostly American cast and crew. (Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) is often said to be the first British talking picture, but it was actually released after Black Waters.)
Wilcox went on to star American actors in many of his later British films as well, to make them more appealing to British filmgoers, a practice that Hammer Films did away with after 1957.
Black Waters was written by American John Willard, based on his play Fog. Willard was the writer of the successful play The Cat and the Canary (1922), which was filmed several times and ripped off by a number of other filmmakers, and he was trying to repeat his success with this film, only replacing the "old dark house" setting with that of an "old dark houseboat". The cast featured Hollywood actor Noble Johnson (of King Kong fame).
Black Waters is today considered a lost film.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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