The Water Devil
by Frank R. Stockton.
Her Father's Gold
"Her Father's Gold" is listed as a science fiction film in a reference book that I have.
Recently I got a pretty neat CD-ROM called "Thanhouser Film: An Encyclopedia and History by Q. David Bowers". This gave me more information about the 5-reel movie; some of it is a bit confusing though.
The CD notes on this film state"The Water Devil, the working title of the film, was also the title of an obscure and not particularly popular work of Frank R. Stockton. The Thanhouser film was adapted from a later printing of the story which appeared in Blue Book magazine." Apparently that issue of Blue Book was circa 1916 if one of the many CD's reviews and articles concerning the film is to be believed.
Now, Stockton did pen a work by that title which was published way back in Scribner's Magazine, October 1874. I have a reprint of "The Water Devil" (some 40-odd pages) in a book published in 1900. Stockton, however, died in 1902.
His story, as I read it, bears almost no relation to the film's synopsis.
SPOILERS
What I read was a story, told in an inn, of a ship held fast electro-magnetically by a "water devil" that turns out to be a broken telegraph cable.
The film synopsis talks about a group of thieves who, in trying to cheat the rightful owners of a gold treasure, are thwarted by an alligator-like water devil.
Could Stockton have revised his tale so drastically before he died and is the film really based on this reworking? Or was the film possibly based on someone else's work bearing a similar title?
Oddly, as I was reading "The Water Devil", the tone reminded me of a previous novel that I had read called "The Isle of Dead Ships" by Crittenden Marriott. Marriott turns out to be the scenarist of the film.
This is such an obscure film and with such little s.f. content that I'll probably put finding out on the backburners. But someday, maybe I'll stumble on the answer.
written: 7/15/2003