The African Queen

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This article is about the film. For other uses, see African Queen (disambiguation).
The African Queen

original film poster
Directed by John Huston
Produced by Sam Spiegel
John Woolf (uncredited)
Written by C. S. Forester (novel)
John Huston
James Agee
Starring Humphrey Bogart
Katharine Hepburn
Robert Morley
Music by Allan Gray
Cinematography Rick Cardiff
Editing by Ralph Kemplen
Distributed by United Artists (US)
Independent Film Distributors (UK)
Release date(s) 20 February 1952
Running time 105 minutes
Country U.K. / United States
Language English

The African Queen is an American 1951 drama film adapted from the 1935 novel by C. S. Forester. The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel[1] and John Woolf. The screenplay was adapted by James Agee, John Huston, John Collier and Peter Viertel. It was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff and had a music score by Allan Gray. The film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor - his only Oscar), and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marner and Theodore Bikel.

The African Queen has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.


Contents

[edit] Plot

Robert Morley and Katharine Hepburn play Samuel and Rose Sayer, brother and sister British Methodist missionaries in a village in German East Africa in 1914 during World War I. Their mail and supplies are delivered by the rough-and-ready Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) of the African Queen, whose coarse behavior they tolerate in a rather stiff manner.

When Charlie warns them that German troops will soon invade, the Sayers choose to stay on, only to witness the Germans burning down the local village and herding the villagers away to serve in the war effort. When Samuel protests, he is beaten by a German soldier. After the Germans leave, Samuel becomes delirious with fever and dies.

Soon afterward, Charlie returns. He helps Rose bury her brother, and they set off in the African Queen. Charlie tells Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Empress Louisa, which patrols a large lake downriver, effectively blocking any British counter-attacks. Rose comes up with a plan to convert the Queen into a torpedo boat and sink the Louisa.

Charlie points out that navigating the river would be suicidal: to reach the lake they would have to pass a German fort and negotiate several dangerous rapids. But Rose is insistent and eventually persuades him to go along with the plan. Charlie is furious when the teetotaler Rose throws away all of his gin, but she insists that he needs to be sober for the task at hand.

Charlie hoped after passing the first obstacle that Rose would be discouraged, but she is confident they can handle what is yet to come, and argues that Charlie promised to go all the way.

During their journey down the river, Charlie, Rose and the African Queen encounter many obstacles, including a German fortress perched on a hilltop near the river (with the drafted native villagers shooting at them) and three sets of rapids. The first set of rapids is rather easy; they get through with minimal flooding in the boat. But Rose and Charlie have to duck down when they pass the fortress and the soldiers begin shooting at them, blowing two bullet holes in the top of the boiler and causing one of the steam pressure hoses to disconnect from the boiler, which in turn, causes the boat's engine to stop running. Luckily, Charlie manages to reattach the hose to the boiler just as they are about to enter the second set of rapids. The boat rolls and pitches crazily as it goes down the rapids, leading to more severe flooding in the boat and also collapsing the stern canopy.

While celebrating their success, the two find themselves in an embrace. Embarrassed, they break off, but soon afterwards they appear to have a sexual encounter, after which Rose asks "What is your first name, dear?" He tells her and she calls him "Charlie", rather than "Mr. Allnut" afterwards. He begins calling her "Rosie" rather than "Miss."

Later on, the couple decide to take a pit stop to gather more fuel and drain the boat. Back on the river, Charlie and Rose watch crocodiles frolick on the nearby river bank when the third set of rapids comes up. This time, there is a loud metallic clattering noise as the boat goes over the falls. Once again, the couple dock on the river bank to check for damage. When Charlie dives under the boat, he finds the propeller shaft bent sideways and a blade missing from the propeller. Luckily, with some expert skill using suggestions from Rose, Charlie manages to straighten the shaft and weld a new blade on to the propeller, and they are off again.

All appears lost when Charlie and Rose "lose the channel" and the boat becomes mired in the mud amid dense reeds near the mouth of the river. First, they try to tow the boat through the muck, only to have Charlie come out of the water covered with leeches. All their efforts to free the African Queen fail and in the end, Rose and Charlie go to sleep convinced they will die. Before going to sleep Rose prays that she and Charlie be admitted into Heaven. As they sleep, exhausted and beaten, heavy rains raise the river's level and float the Queen off of the mud and into the lake which, it turns out, is just a short distance from their location. Once on the lake, they narrowly avoid being spotted by the Louisa.

That night, they set about converting some oxygen cylinders into torpedoes using gelatin explosives and improvised detonators that use nails as the firing pins for rifle cartridges. They then attach the torpedoes through the bow of the Queen.

At the height of a storm they push the Queen out onto the lake, intending to set it on a collision course with the Louisa. Unfortunately, the holes in the bow in which the torpedoes were pushed through are not sealed, allowing water to pour into the boat, causing it to sink lower and eventually the Queen tips over.

Charlie is captured and taken aboard the Louisa, and after being questioned, Rose is captured and Charlie hollers her name, then pretends not to know her. The captain questions her, and Rose says they planned to sink the German boat and encourages Charlie to describe his torpedoes. The captain sentences them to be executed as spies. Charlie asks the German captain to marry them before executing them. After a brief marriage ceremony, the Germans prepare to hang them, when there is a sudden explosion and the Louisa starts to sink. The Louisa has struck the overturned hull of the African Queen and detonated the torpedoes. Rose's plan has worked, if a little belatedly, and the newly-married couple swim to safety in Kenya.

[edit] Production

Production censors objected to several aspects of the original script, which included the two characters cohabiting without benefit of marriage. Some changes were made before the film was completed.[2]

The film was partially financed by John Woolf and James Woolf of Romulus Films, a British company, which was so pleased with the results that they talked John Huston into directing their next picture, Moulin Rouge (1952).

Scenes in which Bogart and Hepburn are seen in the water were all shot in studio tanks in England (at Isleworth Studios, Middlesex) because of health concerns. Almost all of the other scenes were filmed in central Africa, causing considerable hardship for the cast and crew, but the result was a critical and commercial success.

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.

Because of the dangers involved with shooting the rapid scenes, a model was created at the studio tank in London.

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.

[edit] Premiere

The African Queen opened on December 23, 1951 in Los Angeles, in order to qualify for the 1951 Oscars, and on February 20, 1952 at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

[edit] Awards and honors

[edit] Academy Awards

Award Person
Best Actor in a Leading Role Humphrey Bogart
Nominated:
Best Actress in a Leading Role Katharine Hepburn
Best Adapted Screenplay James Agee
John Huston
Best Director John Huston

[edit] Others

American Film Institute recognition

[edit] Script changes

Although Bogart won an Academy Award for the performance, his entire part had to be rewritten after casting. The original screenplay depicted his character in thick Cockney dialect but Bogart was incapable of the accent.

[edit] Subsequent releases and rights issues

The film has been released on Region 2 DVD in the United Kingdom, Germany and Scandinavia.

The British DVD includes a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by cinematographer Cardiff in which he details many of the hardships and challenges involved in filming a movie in Africa. The picture quality is somewhat grainy and suffers from colour shifts; the sound lacks bass response and suffers from clicks and pops.

The film has been released in the United States on VHS video and laserdisc, but not as a region 1 DVD as of the present. However, a region 1 DVD is available and distributed by The Castaways Pictures and has English and Chinese subtitles available with no other features. It is not clear if this is authorized or not. While Granada International holds international rights, the underlying U.S. rights are held by CBS (whose Viacom predecessor acquired the rights from copyright holder Horizon Film Management in the 1970s, and for a time in the 1980s, 20th Century Fox had the U.S. rights until Viacom re-acquired the film in 1997).

Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures (acting on behalf of CBS, the former parent - and later a subsidiary - of Viacom) currently handles U.S. theatrical distribution rights. It can often be found on either Turner Classic Movies or pay-per-view. Trifecta Entertainment & Media currently handles television syndication of this film on behalf of Paramount/CBS.

Paramount has since confirmed that restoration work for region 1 is underway for future DVD issue[citation needed].

[edit] Miscellany

  • The boat used in the picture, "The African Queen", is on public display behind the glass bottom boat on an ocean access canal adjoining the Key Largo Holiday Inn in Key Largo, Florida.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Spiegel was billed as "S.P. Eagle".
  2. ^ Censored Films and Television at University of Virginia online

[edit] Bibliography

  • Farwell, Byron. The Great War in Africa, 1914-1918. 2nd ed. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989.
  • Foden, Giles (2005). "Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika". Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-100984-5
  • Henderson, William Otto. The German Colonial Empire. Portland: International Specialized Book Services, Inc, 1993.
  • Hepburn, Katharine (1987). The Making of the African Queen, or: How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind (Knopf)
  • Werner, A, and R Dilthey. "German and British Colonisation in Africa." Journal of the Royal African Society 4.14 (1905): 238-41. Historical. J-Stor. Golden Library, ENMU. 18 April. 2005.

[edit] External links

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