The African Queen

film by Huston [1951]

Written by Lee Pfeiffer

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The African Queen, American adventure film, released in 1951, that was based on C.S. Forester’s 1935 novel of the same name. The film is especially noted for Humphrey Bogart’s performance, which earned him the only Academy Award of his career.

Set in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I, the film focuses on Charlie Allnut (played by Bogart), a slovenly gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain, and Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn), a prim psalm-singing British missionary. After German troops burn Rose’s mission, which leads to the death of her clergyman-brother (Robert Morley), Charlie comes to her rescue, helping her bury her brother and escape down the nearby river on his dilapidated boat, the African Queen. Although the two lock horns almost immediately—in part because Rose despises Charlie’s drinking and coarse behaviour—she manages to convince him to attack the Louisa, a German warship stationed at the mouth of the river, by attaching makeshift torpedoes to their vessel. As their journey continues, the mismatched couple suffers one hardship after another—including rapids, torrential rains, and damage to the boat—and they constantly trade insults and barbs along the way. Eventually, however, a mutual admiration for one another sets in, which soon turns to love. The pair finally draw near to the Louisa, but before they can carry out their plan, the African Queen capsizes. Captured by the enemy, Charlie and Rose are sentenced to death, but they convince the German captain (Peter Bull) to marry them first. As soon as they are married, the Louisa collides with the African Queen and explodes, and in the commotion the newlyweds swim to safety.

Although the screenplay was written with little humour in mind, the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn was so apparent that director John Huston advised his stars to improvise witty banter. Huston’s insistence upon filming in the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and Turkey added immeasurably to the lush look of the production, even if the rough conditions in Africa were trying on the cast and crew. (Bogart later boasted that he was one of the few to stay healthy through the shoot, attributing the accomplishment to his drinking of whiskey instead of the local water.) The film inspired uncredited screenwriter Peter Viertel’s semifictional book White Hunter, Black Heart (1953), which in turn was adapted into a 1990 film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.