"The African Queen" is a 1951 adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester. The film, directed by John Huston, stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in unforgettable roles. This classic wartime romantic adventure showcases superb direction and the inevitable, yet believable, romance between the mismatched couple.
The screenplay for "The African Queen" was written by James Agee and John Huston, with uncredited contributions from John Collier and Peter Viertel. The film was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff and features a music score by Allan Gray.
The performances delivered by Bogart and Katharine Hepburn were among their most memorable. Bogart plays Charlie Allnut, a drunken boat captain, while Hepburn portrays Rosie Sayer, the impossibly prim spinster who convinces him to take her on his boat. Their on-screen chemistry and powerful performances are central to the film's enduring appeal.
Plot Overview
The film is set in German East Africa in August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I. Samuel Sayer and his sister Rose are English Methodist missionaries. When Charlie Allnut warns them that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, they choose to remain in Kungdu, only to witness German colonial troops burn down the village.
Rose buries her brother and sets out on a river journey, determined to avenge her brother's death by destroying a German submarine with a torpedo. Along the way, the mismatched couple connect and fall in love.
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Rose comes up with a plan to convert the African Queen into a torpedo boat and sink the Königin Luise.
After a perilous journey down the river, facing rapids and German soldiers, Charlie and Rose find themselves in an embrace and kiss.
The Königin Luise returns and Charlie and Rose steam the African Queen out onto the lake in darkness, intending to set her on a collision course. Eventually the boat capsizes, throwing Charlie and Rose into the water.
Charlie asks the German captain to marry them before they are executed. The captain agrees, and after conducting the briefest of marriage ceremonies, is about to carry out the execution when the Königin Luise is rocked by a series of explosions, quickly capsizing.
Challenges in Production
The making of "The African Queen" was fraught with challenges. The cast and crew assembled in Africa in December 1950, shooting much of the film in Lake Albert, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo. This was novel for the time, especially for a Technicolor picture using large, cumbersome "Three-Strip" cameras.
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The cast and crew endured sickness and spartan living conditions during their time on location. In the early scene in which Rose (Hepburn) plays an organ in the church, a bucket was placed off-camera in which she could vomit between takes because she was sick.
About half of the film was shot in the UK. The scenes in which Bogart and Hepburn are seen in the water were all shot in studio tanks at Worton Hall Studios in Isleworth, near London. These scenes were considered too dangerous to shoot in Africa. All of the foreground plates for the process shots were also filmed in studio.
A myth has grown that the scenes in the reed-filled riverbank were filmed in Dalyan, Turkey, but in her book about the filming, Hepburn stated: "We were about to head... back to Entebbe but John [Huston] wanted to get shots of Bogie and me in the miles of high reeds before we come out into the lake...". The sequence was shot on location in Africa and at the London studios.
Sections of the boat set could be removed to make room for the large Technicolor camera. This proved hazardous on one occasion when the boat's boiler, a heavy copper replica, almost fell on Hepburn.
Because of the dangers involved with shooting the rapids scenes, a small-scale model was used in the studio tank in London.
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The vessel used to portray the German gunboat Königin Luise was the steam tug Buganda, owned and operated on Lake Victoria by the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation.
Behind the Scenes Photos: The African Queen
Key Differences from the Novel
There are several key differences between the film and the novel by C. S. Forester:
- In the novella, Charlie and Rose fail in their attempt to sink the Königin Luise, and the ship is instead sunk in a lake battle by a Royal Navy gunboat. In the film, their efforts cause the sinking of the Königin Luise.
- In the novella, the character of Charlie was British; in the film, he becomes Canadian to accommodate Bogart's American accent.
Reception and Legacy
The African Queen opened on December 26, 1951, and received mostly positive reviews. Critics praised the novelty in casting and scenery, as well as the performances of Bogart and Hepburn. Bogart won an overdue best actor Academy Award for his wonderful performance.
Variety called The African Queen "an engrossing motion picture ... Performance-wise, Bogart has never been seen to better advantage. Nor has he ever had a more knowing, talented film partner than Miss Hepburn."
The film has a 96% rating based on 47 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.8/10.
In 1994, The African Queen was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The African Queen has left a lasting impact on cinema and popular culture. The film partially inspired the Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland.
One of the two boats used as the African Queen is actually the 35-foot (10 m) L.S. Livingston, which had been a working diesel boat for 40 years; the steam engine was a prop and the real diesel engine was hidden under stacked crates of gin and other cargo.
