MOTHER: What you watching?
ME: The African Queen
FATHER: What is it you're watchin'?
ME: The African Queen!
Before you can say HOLY TESTICLE TUESDAY!...all three of us are on the couch, eyes held in the glow and flicker of the TV.
Released in 1951, this rollicking adventure film, adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester, was directed by John Huston and stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor – his only Oscar), and Katharine Hepburn.
In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship.
It's hard to define who the real star in this picture is. Both Bogart and Hepburn are considered legendary actors (Hepburn is hailed as the greatest female actor of all time!), but these two monoliths match up so perfectly! Both are given their equal scenes to shine both comically and dramatically. You could cut the awkward sexual tension with a machete...well....s’pose you could actually cut a lot of things with a machete...
The beautiful African backdrop, filmed on location in Uganda and Congo, shows no mercies to our characters. Sending them rapids, crocodiles, mosquitoes and eventually Germans (They may not be native to Africa...) and feel free to chuckle at the rudimentary Green Screen shots. Even though the actors have a healthy green aura around them it's still a testament to the emerging technologies of the era.
This film definitely deserves to be on the list! It really is a classic. Plenty of laughs, romance and adventure! You’ll be grinning from beginning to end. The African Queen = the Queen of Adventures!
