The African Queen

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The African Queen is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart[1] in the role that would win him his only Oscar.

Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in British Colonial Africa at the start of World War I. Bogart is Charlie Allnut, the hard-drinking man with a riverboat who, among other things, brings the mail from town every few weeks. When Rose's brother dies, he offers to take her to the nearest town to catch a ship and go back to Britain. Being gutsy as she is, Rose instead creates a daring plan to build a makeshift torpedo, sail down the river (which no one has ever done) and take out the Königin Luise, a ship patrolling the German-controlled lake that is the only thing standing in the way of the British army. This being a film with a man and a woman as its primary stars in the 1950s, naturally, they fall in love.

Bogart, of course, would win his only Oscar, while Hepburn would add yet another nomination to her impressive collection. The African Queen itself was added to the National Film Registry in 1994.

The Troubled Production film made such an impression on Hepburn she later wrote a book about it, entitled The Making of The African Queen: or How I Went To Africa With Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. This film is notable for how damn long it took to come out on DVD despite widespread interest: it came only out in 2010, at least in the US. (An earlier British DVD was taken from a faded print. Later DVD and Blu-Ray releases are fully remastered.)

Tropes used in The African Queen include:

Charlie: I don't blame you for being scared, Miss, not one little bit. Ain't no person in their right mind ain't scared of white water.
Rose: I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!
Charlie: How's that, Miss?
Rose: I've only known such excitement a few times before - a few times in my dear brother's sermons when the spirit was really upon him...I must say I'm filled with admiration for your skill, Mr. Allnut. Do you suppose I'll try practice steering a bit that someday I might try? I can hardly wait... Now that I've had a taste of it.

    • And the scene of her pumping the bilges, as he shows her how to do it...more...slowly...
  • Deus Ex Machina: When the African Queen is stuck and lost in a marsh, Rose prays for help. When she and Allnut go to sleep that night, a sudden rain-storm washes them into the lake where they were headed to.
  • Dry Crusader: Rose really doesn't like people drinking alcohol and demonstrates it by dumping out Allnut's gin.
  • Dueling Stars Movie
  • Grande Dame: Rose has some of the characteristics of this type, especially early on.
  • Kick the Dog: The German army burning down a native village in act one. Not an example of Moral Event Horizon in that it is implied the villagers survived and captured, not slaughtered.
  • MacGyvering: Allnut manages to repair his damaged boat using a makeshift bellows and anvil, and uses some canisters, blasting powder and bullets to create some makeshift ramming explosives.
  • Last Request: Allnut and Rose get one before the Germans are about to hang them. Allnut uses it to ask the captain to marry them.
    • According to The Laws and Customs of War as accepted at the time, civilians who attack soldiers were supposed to be executed, just like spies.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Rose is actually supposed to be a Briton (the sister of very British Robert Morley); for most Americans, at least, Hepburn's Bryn Mawr educated tones are a reasonable approximation. (Allnut is somewhat justified in the film [though not in the original novel] as a Canadian.)
    • To North American ears, he does not sound the least bit Canadian.
    • In novel and original script Allnut was meant to be Cockney. Huston cast Bogart and changed his nationality because he knew Bogart wasn't going to pull off that accent.
  • Opposites Attract
  • The Quest
  • Uptight Loves Wild
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story: It was based on the real-life sinking of a German gunboat in World War I that required hauling a boat through the wilderness. No, it was not done by a beautiful movie star and a plucky mechanic. It was done by the Royal Navy.
    • In turn, Clint Eastwood made a thinly veiled depiction of this film's production in White Hunter Black Heart.
  • Wartime Wedding: Rose and Charlie.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: Rose liked going through rapids!
  1. ↑ who, as it turns out, were ranked by the AFI as the greatest actress and actor in Hollywood history, respectively
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