Cinema Sunday: The African Queen

Cinema Sunday turns it's attention to a classic 1951 adventure film directed by John Huston starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. 

Ladies and gentlemen, here is The African Queen.

Two people make a hazardous journey up a jungle river in Africa during World War I to take on a German warship.

The end.  

Wow, that was a short post. I guess there's not much else to say.

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OK, let's be serious a moment. There is a lot more going on than just "2 people travel up a river".  There are reasons why  The African Queen was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994 and the Library of Congress deemed it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."  

The notoriety and esteem The African Queen has earned hinges on the stellar performances of Bogart and Hepburn.    

Katherine Hepburn is Rose Sayer, a very prim and proper sister to her brother  Samuel, a straight arrow British missionary in German East Africa.  They are so caught up in their fervent devotion to their good Christian work that they're not aware that there's a World War going on. 

Until the war rudely intrudes on the African village where the Sayers have their mission. German colonial troops burn down the village and herd the villagers away to be pressed into service. During the assault on the village, Sam is injured and subsequently dies. 

Rose is left alone, unsure what to do. 

That's where the African Queen comes in. 

Helmed by Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), the African Queen is a small steamboat, a cobbled together relic that delivers supplies to villages up and down the river. Charlie's coarse casualness is in marked contrast to Rose's controlled reserve but she has nowhere else to go. Rose agrees to accompany Charlie on the African Queen. 

Charlie figures to take the African Queen to somewhere hidden and safe and wait out the Germans.  The British ain't coming any time to soon to save them what with that large German gunboat, the Königin Luise, patrolling a large lake downriver.

Not content to wait out the war, Rose proposes a plan of action, to convert the African Queen into a torpedo boat and sink the Königin Luise.   

Charlie's reaction to this plan can be summed at thusly: "What the fuck?"

OK, this is a movie made in the 1950's under the Hays production code. So no, he does not literally say "What the fuck?"

But...

Yeah there are empty oxygen tanks on board along with some dynamite and yeah, he could convert these items into torpedoes but....

There's a lot of shit in the way between where they are now and the lake where the Königin Luise is. Like rapids and waterfalls and creatures that would like to eat them and German army patrols and....

And even if they could get down the river, could they actually get across the lake to the Königin Luise and successfully ram the African Queen into the gunship and assuming it would do any significant damage and...

And...

And...

"What the fuck?"  

Rose is insistent they proceed despite the odds and damn if Charlies ain't too happy with the Germans anyhow so damn it, let's turn the African Queen into a bomb! 

Charlie expects Rose will lose her nerve as they encounter obstacles as they head down the river.

But she does not. 

After one particularly harrowing passage down some especially violent rapids which devolve into a water fall wherein the river does not kill them despite it's best efforts, Rose and Charlie fall into an embrace and kiss each other. 

The next scene finds the pair referring to each other as "darling" and "sweetheart" so we may assume they had sex. 

Again, we must remember this is a movie made in the 1950's under the Hays production code so the sex can only be assumed now. 

But damn it, they're in love now.  

And Rose still wants to blow up the bloody German gunship! 

But they are in love now and have so much to live for.

So...

So...

"What the fuck?" 

So the mission continues.

Suffice to say so much continues to go wrong and friggin' Charlie and Rose nearly die.

And more things go wrong and friggin' Charlie and Rose nearly die. 

And even more things go as friggin' wrong as possible and friggin' Charlie and Rose nearly die. 

What pray tell will become of Charlie and Rose.

Please remember this is a movie made in the 1950's under the Hays production code. So... 

Spoiler alert: there is a friggin' happy ending for friggin' Charlie and Rose.  

Surprise: the Germans kind of help. 

The "That Person Who Was In That Thing" Dept.

• Theodore Bikel is the First Officer of the Königin Luise.  Bikel was Zoltan Karpathy in My Fair Lady and more importantly to my mind, he was also Sergey Rozhenko, Worf's human adoptive father on Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

The African Queen is a fun and endearing movie propelled by the performances of two actors at the top of their game. Bogart and Hepburn are excellent as we watch Charlie and Rose evolve over the course of their perilous journey.