The African Queen is a 1951 romantic adventure film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. The film was based on 1935 novel of the same name by C.S. Forester and it was produced by Sam Spiegel.
Director: John Huston
Production Company: Horizon Pictures, Romulus Films
Distributor: United Artists
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn
US Box Office: $10,323,775 ($186,400,000 Adjusted for Inflation)
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Release Date: December 26, 1951 (Premiere); February 20, 1952 (General)
Plot Summary: At the start of World War I in German Africa, Alcoholic steamboat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) helps English missionary Rose Sayer (Hepburn) escape from German soldiers, and she convinces him to help her destroy a German ship. An unlikely romance develops between the two.
Production: Much of The African Queen was shot on location in the Belgian Congo on the Ruiki River as well as in Uganda along the Nile. Filming in the jungle was rough for crew due to disease, and wild animals, and the extreme heat. Katharine Hepburn and most of the crew got dysentery for drinking local water. Notably, Bogart and Huston did not get sick during the shoot. Bogart attributed this to him only eating canned food and drinking whisky. Scenes that were too dangerous to be filmed on location were shot at Isleworth Studios in England.
Fun Facts and Trivia: In Forester’s novel, Charlie is Scottish, but Bogart couldn’t pull off a convincing Scottish accent, so the character’s nationality was changed to Canadian. A previous unproduced adaptation of The African Queen book for Warner Bros. was planned to star Bette Davis and David Niven. One of the boats used to portray “The African Queen” was an actual steamboat called the L/S Livingstone which had been a working ship for forty years beforehand. In one of his first film roles, Theodore Bikel played a German officer. The Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland, which was created in 1955, was partially based on The African Queen.
Reception: The African Queen received wide release in February of 1952 and received generally positive reviews. For example the film magazine Variety thought that Humphrey Bogart gave his best performance yet. The film was also a massive box office success, grossing more than ten times its $1 million budget. Modern reviews for The African Queen have been strongly positive and it is considered an important classic in the adventure genre. In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 17th best American film ever made. In their 2007 listing, AFI ranked it as the 69th best American film.
Oscars: The African Queen was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Bogart), Best Actress (Hepburn), Best Director (Huston), and Best Screenplay. Bogart won Best Actor for his performance as Charlie Allnut. It was his first and only Oscar win.
Why You Should See It: The African Queen is one of the all-time classic adventure films and has served as an inspiration for many that have come after it. The film is classy, thrilling, well-written, and features great chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.