Catherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart star in The African Queen. Set in Africa during the first world war Rose Sayer (Hepburn) runs a missionary post together with her brother. The Germans invade the country and leave Rose with no other option to leave the place by getting on board the African Queen, a little steamboat that’s run by Charlie Allnut (Bogart). The two don’t want to get captured and decide to see if they can do some damage to the Germans. The only problem is that the part of the river they have to go through is said to be impenetrable, with fast rapids and overgrown parts. To make matters worse the two can’t get along very well either.
Humphrey Bogart won an Oscar for his role as Charlie Allnut and it’s a deserved one. He manages to breathe life into the character who is witty, willing to please his guest and an experienced captain. Hepburn, who got a nomination, plays her role as the very religious Rose convincingly, although I must admit I couldn’t really understand her character, but perhaps that was the point (someone that’s hard to understand/get to). Through their journey the two get to know each other better and have to overcome various difficulties.
The African Queen is usually mentioned in many “best movies ever” lists. Personally I wouldn’t place it in those lists, I just don’t understand all the praise it gets. It was an entertaining watch, with some silly stuff in there (for example Bogart impersonating various animals) but the end left me disappointed. I kept thinking this would end differently and that this would be the reason why it is held in such high regard. I was wrong and very disappointed by its ending. Enough reason to write my own alternative ending soon.
Score: 7
I’m sad that you didn’t like this as much as I did. The final picture you have with Bogart in the swamp is one of the defining sequences in the film for me. I agree with the ending though. As much as I like it, it just seems slapped together. Nevertheless, I was happy to finally see it released this year after never making an appearance on DVD before.
Well, not everyone has the same taste. Maybe it’s also the fact that it’s a movie I heard so much about that I probably made it bigger than it actually is, which also might be a reason for my disappointment. At a later date I will write an alternative ending, just like I did for Toy Story 3…