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Signature Classic |
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The African Queen Sponsored by UBS Financial Services 1951 | Not Rated | Adventure, Romance | d. John Huston Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn |
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| If director John Huston ever needed an excuse to go to Africa, this was it! A salty, riverboat bachelor and a prim Methodist old maid fight their way down an unruly river in hopes of destroying a German warship. But all this is just entertaining background for the real show: an excuse to get Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn on screen together. As the small steamer escapes one trial after another, the odd couples’ stiff attitudes toward one another slowly bend to admiration…and finally love. Bogart won his only Oscar and Huston and Hepburn picked up nominations. - CH | ||
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One of the more remarkable aspects of The African Queen, which has kept it a classic, is the simplicity of its plot, a character showcase maintained by Katherine Hepburn as the prim missionary and Humphrey Bogart as the salty old sailor (with “Robert Morley as The Brother” in the opening scenes and the Germans near the end as the only other speaking roles). The Queen itself, that old tub of a boat, is a character in its own right and the African location shooting adds versamilitude (as did the use of actual leeches and other less comfortable touches of realism). But the movie remains a chance to watch Rosie (Hepburn) and Charlie (Bogart) exchange barbs, barks, and ultimately fall in love (and the dirt and sweat surrounding their romance, and the filming itself, makes it all the more heartfelt). - AL | ||