The African Queen

Today we take filming on location for granted, but in the 1940s and 1950s, few producers and directors opted for filming on the spot upon which the film was supposed to take place. Films might go to a famous locale and shoot a couple of scenes for realistic flavoring, as with a couple of scenes in ON THE TOWN or AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Many Westerns had been shot on location, but that was no great challenge given the close proximity of Hollywood to Western locales. John Huston had previously filmed THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE in Mexico, but going to the Congo and Uganda for extensive filming had rarely been attempted (sorry, all those Tarzan movies were filmed in California). It was a spectacular undertaking (which Katherine Hepburn recorded in a book she wrote about making THE AFRICAN QUEEN).

There is a war plot that provides the setting for the film, but to be honest it really isn't very important. What is crucial is the remarkable dynamics between Bogart and Hepburn, as they go from loathing one another, to liking, and then to loving. It has to be the most unlikely love story in the history of film, and yet somehow these two great actors not only manage to sell it, but make it quietly majestic. There is not much in the way of cast to speak of, apart from the two leads. Robert Morley manages a small but memorable part near the beginning of the film, but Bogart and Hepburn utterly dominate the film's onscreen time. Luckily, they have no trouble pulling it off.

As odd as this film was, there had been attempts to make it into a film for quite some time. If one is familiar with Bette Davis's career, there had been a couple of attempts to film it with her in the lead with various leading men (including James Mason). But surely Katherine Hepburn is the perfect Rose Sayer. Like in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, she can communicate self-righteousness better than anyone. Davis would only have managed egotistical haughtiness. But I'm sure everyone would agree that the casting ended up being for the best.


One Of The Very Best   May 16, 2001
AntiochAndy (Antioch, CA USA)
40 out of 41 found this review helpful

Bogart and Hepburn play two diametrically opposed personalities in this classic film set during World War I. She is a prim and proper, middle-aged English missionary. He is a gin-soaked river rat living by trading up and down the Congo River from a ramshackle old steamboat named The African Queen. They are thrown together by a German offensive that leaves them isolated and in danger of being captured and held as prisoners of war (or worse, they could be shot as spies). To escape, they must travel down the river past the Germans. What follows is part comedy, part tense drama, and part high adventure. The river and its wildlife pose as much of an obstacle as the Germans, and Bogart and Hepburn must not only learn to get along, but to trust in, and rely on, each other to survive.

This is a wonderful movie. The acting is superb (Bogie got an Oscar for "Best Actor"), the story is excellent, and the scenery is beautiful (it was shot on location). They just don't make make them any better than this, and I can't imagine any reason why anyone would NOT want this in their collection. Very highly recommended.


The African Queen : Bogart and Hepburn in Perfect Harmony   November 6, 2000
James D. Eret (San Diego)
27 out of 29 found this review helpful

The African Queen is one of my all time favorite movies period.I was very young when I first saw this movie and marvelled later when my youngest son sat glued to the tv, in wonderment at this ragged steamboat and the adventures it sailed its two passengers into, for the steamboat is a third character in this movie, very broadly based on C. S. Forester's novel, set in WWII Africa and director John Huston directs with a sure hand with I imagine injecting humor that is not in the book. The great writer James Agee conributed to the scipt (an suffered a heart attack playing tennis with Huston but lived to finish the script) and the meeting and mating of the gin-soaked steamboat captain (Bogart) and Christian missonary (Hepburn) clash at first but slowly but wonderfully touching and funny find each other and need each other for survival, love and even high spirits. Filmed in Africa with beautiful cinematography. Of interst are the book wrote by Hepburn about her adventures making the African Queen and the novel "White Hunter, Black Heart" by Peter Viertel, then husband of the actress Deborah Kerr, whose barely fictionized portrait of John Huston was filmed by Clint Eastwood. But those are only stories to sidetrack you. The movie itself is a precious, funny, adventure, well-acted and directed and a true classic that can entrall the whole family. A great film.


I was never a big fan of the "classics"   May 13, 2000
Bill Lincicome (Aviano Air Base, Italy)
26 out of 29 found this review helpful

...but I love this movie! Well-acted, spectacular scenery and a few unexpected surprises -- this movie holds up very well after nearly 50 years.

Okay, to the plot -- Charlie Olnutt (Humphrey Bogart) is the carefree, Canadian gin-swilling skipper of the "African Queen", a beat-up mail steamer that plies the rivers of East Africa at the beginning of World War I. Rose (Katherine Hepburn) is a prim British missionary, who hitches a ride with Olnutt when her missionary brother dies after an encounter with German soldiers. However, the two have very different ideas on how to proceed. Olnutt is content to wait out the war in a remote spot along the river. Rose believes the two should somehow contribute to the war effort. Eventually, the pair agree to rig the African Queen with two homemade torpedoes in order to destroy a large German steamship which is prowling Lake Victoria. But getting to the lake just as dangerous. Charlie and Rose find themselves battling deadly rapids, crocodiles, leeches, a German fort and each other on their journey.

My favorite scene is when Charlie calls Rose a "skinny old maid". Rose's chin quivers, but then she collects herself -- and makes Charlie pay.

A very memorable movie that is well worth the money.


Don't Make The Mistake Of Taking This Film For Granted   January 29, 2002
Gary F. Taylor (Biloxi, MS USA)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful

THE AFRICAN QUEEN is probably one of the most widely available films in the world, on sale in the electronics department of virtually every major retail chain, a commonplace at every rental counter, frequently seen on television. It is hard to imagine any one in the western world, especially in the United States, who has not seen the film at least once--and probably more than once. And so we take it for granted.

That is a mistake. Based on the famous C.S. Forester novel, which it follows quite closely, THE AFRICAN QUEEN is the simple story of pragmatic river-rat Charlie Allnut (Bogart) and high-minded Methodist missionary spinster Rose Sayer (Hepburn) who are thrown together by chance when German troups sweep through Africa during World War I. Once safely aboard his beat-up riverboat "The African Queen," Allnut desires nothing more than to dodge the Germans until war's end; Rose, however, determines to strike a blow against the Germans by sailing the boat downriver to attack a German battleship.

There are so many fine things about this movie that they are hard to innumerate. Filmed on location in the Congo, the cinematography is remarkably fine without being obtrusive; the script, which is at once subtle and very purposeful, has a remarkably natural tone; the two stars--who play the vast majority of the film alone together--give justly famous performances; and Huston's direction is so fine that we never feel even the slightest hint of directorial manipulation. As an adventure, it has a sense of realism that most adventure stories lack; as a character study it is remarkably detailed and finely wrought; as a love story, it is quite touching without engaging in common sentimentality. And it can be enjoyed by many people of diverse backgrounds and ages without the faintest qualm.

If you haven't seen THE AFRICAN QUEEN in a while (or heaven forbid never seen it at all) don't take it for granted thinking you'll catch it sooner or later. Sit down with the film and watch it with fresh eyes. You'll be amazed.