Year of Release: 1951Country of Origin: UK, USA
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn
Plot outline: In Africa during WWI, a gin-swilling riverboat owner is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship (IMDb).
One of the most popular of all classic Hollywood movies, The African Queen was also the only movie which paired Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn together as the leads. The top-ranked American Film Institute Actor and Actress, respectively, they proved to have good romantic screen chemistry together as a middle-aged Odd Couple forced together by circumstance, and learning to like it. Although unquestionably a good movie, The African Queen itself is not as impressive as the clever Hollywood formula construction upon which it was based. In retrospect, it was genius to cast Bogart as the salty but kindly sea merchant, and Hepburn as the prim but headstrong missionary. The problem was that their characters were too fluid. Bogart is all too willing to risk his life (and hers, too) on an unlikely mission that had little chance of impacting the war, anyway, which was waged on the battlefields of France. The feel-good story certainly delivers, but relies too strongly on coincidences. The Germans arrive at the village seemingly just after Bogart has left, delivering as an aside the news of the sudden war. Bogart shows up again the day that the failed missionary has died, despite earlier saying that he wouldn't be back for some time. On the day chosen to torpedo the Louisa, there is a terrible storm. But they go ahead with the plans anyway, despite an earlier assurance by Bogart that the Germans would return again and again. There's hardly need to mention the incredible timing of the Louisa hitting the African Queen, after the marriage ceremony but before the execution. Somehow, Bogart and Hepburn are united again but separated from the German crew, with nowhere to go but back to the leech-infested marsh. Then there is the stereotyped depiction of Africans as simple-minded children, of WWI era Germans as bullying oppressors, and of missionaries as clueless fools. Bogart's character rings the most true, but it is his performance that makes it credible. (BK)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
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