The African Queen

The African Queen, motion picture about a rough-living boat captain who travels down a treacherous African river with a prim spinster during World War I (1914-1918), based on the novel by C. S. Forester. Released in 1951, this Academy Award-winning film was directed by John Huston. Humphrey Bogart stars as Charlie Allnut, a roustabout who delivers supplies to various villages along the river in his ramshackle boat, the African Queen. He meets Reverend Samuel Sayer and the reverend’s proper sister Rose (played by Katharine Hepburn), who run their village as if they are still back in England. When the reverend is murdered by Germans, he allows Rose to travel with him, and eventually the bickering duo concoct a plan to use the African Queen to attack a German war vessel.

Director

• John Huston

Cast

• Humphrey Bogart (Charlie Allnut)
• Katharine Hepburn (Rose Sayer)
• Robert Morley (Reverend Samuel Sayer)
• Peter Bull (Captain)
• Theodore Bikel (First officer)
• Walter Gotell (Second officer)
• Gerald Onn (Petty officer)
• Peter Swanwick (Officer at Shona)
• Richard Marner (Officer at Shona)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Actor (1951): Humphrey Bogart
• Selected for Registry by the National Film Preservation Board (1994)

Trivia

• This film was shot in Uganda at the juncture of the Albert Nile and Victoria Nile rivers. Many cast and crew members became sick from fever in the jungle climate, including actor Bogart’s wife Lauren Bacall, who had accompanied her husband on the shoot. Actor Hepburn documented the grueling production conditions in her book, The Making of “The African Queen”: Or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind.
• Though the novel on which The African Queen was based was a straight drama, the film contains many comic moments between actors Bogart and Hepburn. Director Hughes rewrote some scenes based on the actors’ off-screen working relationship.

Quotes

• Allnut: “How'd you like it?”
• Sayer: “Like it?”
• Allnut: “White-water rapids!”
• Sayer: “I never dreamed … ”
• Allnut: “I don't blame you for being scared—not one bit. Nobody with good sense ain't scared of white-water … ”
• Sayer: “I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!”