The African Queen (1951)Director: John Huston
I have a real soft spot for the golden era of Hollywood studio filmmaking that stretched from the 1930s through to the 1950s. There is something about that classical Hollywood style which I really enjoy. But despite this I there are still a lot of gaps in terms of what I've seen from that era. One of the biggest gaps was John Huston's The African Queen. I've really enjoyed some of Huston and Bogart's other collaborations so was interested to see this one.
When word reaches missionaries Rose Sayer (Hepburn) and her brother Samuel (Morley) in the colony of German Eastern Africa, they find themselves in hostile territory. After German soldiers torch the village they were working in, the shock of which kills Samuel, Rose has no choice but to flee escape with the rough-around-the-edges ferry master, Charlie Allnut (Bogart), on board the African Queen. While Charlie is keen to find a place where the can moor and wait for everything to blow over, Rose's innate patriotism demands she take action. She concocts a scheme to use the explosives on board to turn the African Queen into a torpedo, drive it down the river and ram it into the German warship, the Louisa, which guards the delta, preventing Allied vessels from entering.
As far as genre goes, this is a road movie, or rather a river movie, with 90% of the film being concerned with their journey downstream. This also means that for 90% of the film, the only characters we have are Charlie and Rose, which is why it was so important that those parts be played by engaging actors. Amazingly, The African Queen is the only film in which Hollywood legends Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn share the screen, and they really make the film. The fact that the narrative allows for maximum screen time for these two legends, with the two of them going head to head without the distraction of other characters, is great to watch. However, I do think that they were a bit let down by the screenplay. As much as the story is about their mission to destroy the Louisa it is also about the romantic tension between the two, and I think the shift from at-each-others-throats tension to madly in love is just a bit sudden, and probably also happens a bit early in the film. There really isn't anywhere to go from there and they spend the rest of the film looking doughy eyed at each other.
Humphrey Bogart won his only Oscar for his performance as Charlie Allnut. Part of made Bogart's performance a standout was that he effectively shook off his stylish image to play a boozy old salt. That being said, I couldn't help but notice some similarities between The African Queen and another Bogart film, Casablanca. Both films capture a moment within the context of a World War. In both cases the events which unfold are not officially military actions, but are still doing their bit for the war effort. In the case of Casablanca it was supplying rebellion leader Victor Lazlo with transit papers which enabled him to escape from the Nazis. In The African Queen it was sailing the African Queen down the river to take out the Louisa and open up the delta to allied forces. Also, in both cases Bogart plays a man who is determined to stay out of the conflict but ultimately can not ignore his innate morality. It just really struck me when watching the film that while on the outside Bogart's character looks completely different than we are used to seeing him, he is still playing a part that is very much familiar to him.
The African Queen has one of those great Production Code era suggested sex scenes. Because of the strict guidelines of the Production Code films were not allowed to show sex scenes so filmmakers had to think up other suggestive ways of implying them. This is the era that gave us fireworks, trains going into tunnels and popping champagne corks. In The African Queen it is slightly more subtle than that, but not much. After making it safely past the German fortress Rose and Charlie are overcome with emotion and finally kiss each other. The image then fades to black. When it fades back in we find Rose quietly making two cups of tea while staring adoringly at Charlie who lies asleep on the bed which is obviously made up for more than one. She then brings the tea in and sits next to him, waking him by calling him "Darling." They may as well have just faded back in on the two of them lying next to each other smoking cigarettes.
The African Queen is a good film, but if I'm honest, I was probably a bit disappointed by it. The storyline was good enough and provided a great opportunity to watch these two screen legends go head to head, but there was nothing subtle about the relationship between the two characters. In 1951 Marlon Brando was only just about to burst on to the scene and thus method acting and naturalism were a while off become the standard in acting, so the performances in The African Queen felt a bit overly theatrical, especially on Hepburn's part. So while The African Queen was good, it isn't one of the absolute classics of that golden era of Hollywood filmmaking like I expected it to be.
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