Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart on a sweaty romantic river cruise in The African Queen |
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Charlie Allnut), Katharine Hepburn
(Rose Sayer), Robert Morley (Reverend Samuel Sayer), Peter Bull (Captain of the
Königin
Luise), Theodore Bikel (First Officer of the Königin Luise), Walter Gotell
(Second Officer of the Königin Luise), Peter Swanwick (First Officer of Fore Shona)

In 1914 in German East Africa, missionary brother and sister
Samuel (Robert Morley) and Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) plough their lonely
furrow bringing God’s word to the disinterested natives, their only contact
with the outside world being drunken Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), captain
of the steam ship The African Queen,
who delivers their supplies. Their world is turned upside down when Charlie
brings news of World War One. The Sayers plan to stay, until German soldiers
burn down the mission and assault Samuel who swiftly dies of fever. Charlie
agrees to take Rose out of danger on his steam boat – but on the dangerous
journey Rose develops a plan to use The
African Queen to sink a German gun boat preventing British access to
Africa, and Charlie and Rose find themselves – much to their surprise – falling
in love.
Truth be told, nothing happens in The African Queen that you will find remotely surprising if you’ve
ever seen a film before. Not even in 1951 could anything in this film be said
to be pushing the envelope or offering something different to hundreds of studio
epics past. Two people who seem to have nothing in common come together only to
find, by heck and by jiminy, they actually are perfect for each other.
Obstacles are put in place for them to struggle against but eventually love
(and our heroes) triumph over all. Hip hip hoorah! You can see why the picture
is so widely loved – it’s in many ways totally unchallenging and familiar.
John Huston seems to know this and just sits back and allows
the film to almost tell itself with a professional, unfussy precision. The African Queen is an extremely well
made film, sumptuous to look at, and never overstaying its welcome. It’s been
boiled down to its barest necessities, and as such it works extremely well. There’s
nothing extraneous in there – heck the film only really has three characters
and one of them dies in Act One. Huston’s demands to film the entire thing
(more or less) on location in the Congo is totally validated by the immersive
filth, sweat and heat that reeks off the picture and seems to have soaked into
the skin of the actors.
Huston also understood that the real gold here was the
acting – and the chemistry – of his two beloved stars. Tales of the making of
the film are legendary – Bogie brought along Bacall, who helped out on
catering, Hepburn refused to join the Bogart/Huston drinking sessions and
became the only one to get ill from drinking the water, all four became lifelong
friends. The script originally demanded Allnut to be a chippy cockney and Rose
to be a prim schoolmistress type. The parts were re-written, Allnut into a
“Canadian” (yeah right) while Hepburn reimagined Rose as, by her own admission,
a sort of Eleanor Roosevelt in the jungle.
But it works a treat because both stars are on fire in this
vehicle. Bogart perfectly mixes drunken awkwardness and defensiveness with a
roguish charm, and what grows into a sprightly delight at being taken seriously
for the first time in his life. Allnut is besotted with Rose from early on –
even if he can’t admit it – and his whole personality seems to flourish and
grow from her attentions, while never losing that slight “little boy lost” air.
Mind you, Rose is as clearly attracted to Allnut early on as he is to her – but
with her ideas of standards she would never allow herself to explore those
feelings except in extreme circumstances.
Hepburn is such a gifted actor that you always know Rose is
a far more intelligent, interesting and dynamic character than the one we are
introduced to playing piano at one of her brother’s interminable sermons.
Shaking off – with Allnut’s help – her shock at his death, she swiftly displays
a head-girlish determination and pluck,that extends from rolling up her sleeves
to steer the boat to laying out a plan to torpedo a German gun boat. Far from
domineering Allnut, she flourishes and grows just as he does from her
attention, and Hepburn suggests worlds of feeling and engagement opening up in
Rose that she has never considered possible before.
The chemistry between them is scintillating and extremely
warm, while the burgeoning romance is very sweet. I love the gentle way they
switch form formal address to “Rosie” and “Dear”, the first few times each with
that gentle hesitation that half expects rejection and anger. The film is also
surprisingly daring about its depiction of sex (it’s pretty clear Rose and
Charlie get jiggy in the boat at least twice while cruising down the river).
The film mixes this touching stuff with some generally winning comedy – Rose pouring
away Charlie’s huge whisky reserve after a particularly drunken display early
on is a highlight – that really plays off the odd-couple combination of the two
of them. It also helps play into the sweetness of the romance: Charlie
impersonating a hippo to a delightedly bemused Rose is also very sweet.
It’s obvious stuff really – and Huston intersperses a few
too many shots of crocodiles and hippos, as if he was keen to hammer home that
they actually went on location – and there isn’t much in the film to surprise
you or that you might not expect. It’s really all about the success of the two
stars working together – and their natural chemistry and warmth spills out of
the screen. Really it’s Bogart and Hepburn just doing their thing – but when
their thing is as good as is this, you can certainly sit and watch it for ages.
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