237. The African Queen (1951)

Directed By John Huston

Synopsis

WWI starts and a couple of British Methodist missionaries in West German Africa get notified of it by a Canadian who goes up and down the river with the mail. Well the Germans come into the village and burn all the houses and take all the natives for conscription, the missionary dies and his sister remains alone in the village. The Canadian comes back eventually and they, mainly she, hatch a plan to sink a German boat which is stopping the British from coming in, with home-made torpedoes on what is a glorified dinghy.

Review

So here we are, with yet another great film on this list. The African Queen is a lovely film, very funny, very touching, very well acted and very good. There is of course a bigger plot, but it is little more than a MacGuffin to move the story along.

The real points of interest here are the performances by Bogart and Hepburn in the two main parts, their chemistry is amazing, and they are both spectacular actors, doing what is probably some of their best acting here, at least for Bogart. None of them are playing their usual parts, he's not supposed to be this attractive guy, much the opposite, and she isn't a feisty liberated woman, even if she becomes so throughout the film.

This is a great film where character development and the development of the relationship between the two main characters is just a joy to watch, even if at times it might feel a little bit rushed, it is easy to see how in that situation it would be exactly what would happen. Then the film is beautifully photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, Red Shoes, Pandora And The Flying Dutchman).

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Most of the action takes place aboard a boat - the African Queen of the title - and scenes on board the boat were filmed using a large raft with a mockup of the boat on top. 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 over onto Hepburn. It was not bolted down since it also had to be moved to accommodate the camera. The small boat used in the film was made in a boatyard in Lytham St Annes, England.

The film also features a German gunboat, the Empress Luisa, which is based on the former World War I vessel MV Liemba (known until 1924 as the Graf von Götzen), which sank in Lake Tanganyika in 1916, but was subsequently refloated by the British and continues to operate as a passenger ferry to this day.

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