Film Review: "The African Queen"

Directed by John Huston
Starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart
Running time: 105 minutes

Rose is standing on the edge of the boat; a parasol protects her from the sun. With an emotionless face, she pour bottle after bottle of gin into the river. Her travel partner Charlie wakes up, still drunk from the night before, and is mortified by what he sees. An inevitable quarrel begins. Such is the relationship between this film’s odd but endearing couple.

“The African Queen” embodies perfectly what is meant when someone refers to a “classic film.” It involves an epic adventure that ends in victory. It follows two unique individuals who begin the film at odds but along the way they fall in love. Above all, however, this film is worth of the title “classic” because it boasts strong performances from two of old Hollywood’s most legendary actors, Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

Rose Sayer (Hepburn) has lived in East Africa as a missionary with her brother for nearly a decade when World War I breaks out. Their village is burned and their congregation is taken off to war, and her brother is driven to insanity. He soon passes away, and in sweeps steamboat captain Charlie Allnut (Bogart) to save the day. Charlie and Rose, quite the unlikely pair, decide to journey down the river and take on the Germans to escape war-torn Africa.

Among the greatest onscreen parings of all time – Gable and Lee, Rogers and Astaire, just to name a few — Hepburn and Bogart should certainly be remembered. Their chemistry onscreen is electric. Hepburn plays a conservative, unmarried, Godly woman who typifies all things proper. Bogart plays a rough and tumble guy who loves the bottle more than just about anything else. Along their journey, they meet somewhere in the middle, and a wonderful relationship forms.

Cinema today is full of cliché relationships with unbelievable pairings. Such is not the case in this film – these character’s qualities simultaneously make them the most impossible and most believable couple you have ever encountered. It only makes sense that a holy roller would fall for a gin-soaked ship captain. It only makes sense that a stubborn man would fall for a woman that challenges him and strives to change his ways.

Bogart and Hepburn’s performances are spectacular, both worthy of individual praise. Bogart’s portrayal of Charlie is hard and soft, sarcastic and compassionate, and at times, simply hilarious. He’s able to quip at Hepburn, calling her an “old maid,” and minutes later he is trying every trick in the book to win back her affections. When compared to a much more romantic and polished performance in “Casablanca” and the “good cop” roles he played in films like “The Maltese Falcon,” this film certainly stands out as a unique role in Bogart’s career. He won the Academy Award for this performance, and it was certainly well-deserved.

Hepburn, the ying to Bogart’s yang, plays Rose in one of the many memorable performances of her career. When their journey begins, Hepburn’s formal and polite way of behaving is almost exhausting. The number of times and manner in which she says his name, “Mr. Awe-Nuh” – in a voice only Kate herself could deliver – becomes tiresome but hilarious. Literally every time she speaks to Charlie she uses a formal address. In the moments when her eyes are welling with tears, in the moments when she’s laughing, in the moments when she is bossing Bogart around, Katharine Hepburn is, as always, captivating. The subtlety of her performance, the amount she’s able to communicate on the screen without saying anything, is truly incredible. That would explain why Hepburn received her 5th of 12 career Oscar nominations for this performance – she would up receive the Academy Award 4 times during her career.

Director John Hughes, responsible for titles such as “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “The Maltese Falcon,” certainly delivers with this production of “The African Queen.” The majority of the film was shot on location in Africa, so genuine footage of the river, the foliage that surrounds it, and teams of indigenous animals – lions and elephants and hippos, oh my! – gives the film an authentic feel.

The screenplay, and particularly the back-and-forth dialogue between Hepburn and Bogart, is well-paced and entertaining. The primary reason it’s memorable, however, is because it allows the film’s stars to shine. After traveling over a patch of rapids on the river, Rose says it was the most “stimulating physical experience” of her life. I think you catch my drift. After spending several days on the river with Charlie, and after sharing their first kiss, Rose asks the ironic question, “dear, what’s your first name?” Bits of humor like this help to draw viewers closer to the characters, and when such legendary actors as Hepburn and Bogart are playing the parts, the effect is even stronger.

Regardless of what year a film was made, if you personally have never seen it before, it’s new to you. Robert Osborne shared that bit of information with me, and I hope you will keep it in mind and decide to travel down the river with 1951’s “The African Queen.”