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Rating: 5 out of 5
One of the main reasons I decided to watch the African Queen was that it was the only time the legendary Humphrey Bogart won the Academy Award. Also, it is the only time I believe that this is the only time when AFI’s top actor and actress, Katharine Hepburn, appeared in the same movie together. Personally, I thought Bogart should’ve won for Casablanca or even the Maltese Falcon, but hey, he still won the Academy Award. Honestly, I don’t know what I was going to expect going into this film. I didn’t read anything about it or even ask anyone. I wanted to be completely unaware of it. Let’s just say that I immensely enjoyed this film, and it reminded me of a particular ride.
Directed by John Huston, the African Queen is a riverboat adventure where two people fall madly in love while fighting against the Germans. In the village of Kungdu in German East Africa at the beginning of the First World War on the hot ass day in August 1914, the film begins with brother and sister, Reverend Samuel (Morley) and Miss Rose Sayer (Hepburn). The siblings are British Christina missionaries and try to have the village sing church songs, but they are so off-key that it is almost unbearable. The siblings rely on talkative and loud Charlie Allnut (Bogart), who owns and operates a run-down riverboat called the African Queen for mail and supplies. Charlie is known through the parts as a Jack of all trades and works mainly as a mechanic at one of the mines. Let’s say the feelings toward Charlie from the Sayers are toleration as the dude is really rough around the edges, but hey, when you are in Africa, you gotta be rough around the edges. The Sayer’s lives change when Germans come and raid the village. During their raid, one of them hits Samuel. This left the reverend in a shock in which he died. Charlie manages to come to Rose’s aid and take her away before the Germans return. Rose looks for revenge against the Germans and decides to use the African Queen as a torpedo to defeat the Germans in the area. Will Charlie go along with this plan down the dangers of the river?
You know what the plot reminded me of??? It is an off-brand of the Disney ride, Jungle Cruise. Yep, I said it; it gave me a slight vibe of Jungle Cruise that turned into a love story and a revenge story. The story is very entertaining, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I thought it would be a movie about looking at the different animals in Africa, and Bogart’s character has to save Hepburn from danger. Yet, I got the exact opposite. You have this church-going person who wants revenge and to blow up a German Navy ship because they took her brother away. Charlie is the reluctant one to go get revenge, and Rose is the one that is a calm gangster.
Now the film has really two storylines. The first one that you will see is the adventure Charlie and Rose go through to blow up the German ship that is wrecking havoc, and the other is a love story between Charlie and Rose. When I say that Charlie and Rose go on an adventure, these fools go on an adventure to get revenge. First, Rose looks at the African Queen and decides to convert it into a torpedo boat to sink the German boat. When Charlie points out that they would have to navigate Ulanga River to get to the lake where the boat is, it would be suicidal as they would have to pass dangers. When I say threats, there are some MAJOR dangers. There are some severe rapids that seem to get more and more dangerous as they go down the river. At one point, the rapids destroy the boat’s rudder, where Charlie and Rose have to fix it. Another time, they have to pass a German fort, and gunfire rains down upon them, with them surviving somehow. Let’s not forget that they get stuck in some marsh area where Charlie gets covered in leeches, and Rose becomes feverish. Somehow, they survive all of this.
This brings us to the second storyline, the one of love. That thing Nat King Cole sang about: L-O-V-E. Through all the dangers, Charlie and Rose fall in love with each other. It was strange because Rose and her brother were so disgusted with Charlie. Case in point, when Charlie came for dinner, and his belly was making all types of sounds. Homeboy sounded like he had a mighty lion in his belly. Honestly, Rose didn’t want anything to do with Charlie. When it was pouring outside, Charlie slept on the deck while Rose slept under a nice canopy. Charlie comes underneath the canopy to get dry and stay out of the rain, but Rose flips out until she recognizes that it’s raining and asks him to sleep underneath the canopy. My favorite part was when Charlie got WASTED and called Rose a skinny psalm reading girl. Rose didn’t take that lightly and poured all the gin out. Straight up broke Charlie’s heart. These two really fell for each other was the German fort scene. After that scene, Rose had them heart-shaped eyes for Charlie. It was crazy the way she looked at him. This developed into him making fun of the animals and never leaving each other side.
I also want to say that this film’s action and intensity were outstanding. Like I said, I thought it would be something like the Jungle Cruise, but it seemed like the minute you took a breath, they were back at it. It seemed like the rapids were straight-up dangerous, and it was fun to see Hepburn and Bogart ride the current. I was so entertained that I couldn’t take my eyes off and it was very rare that I got bored with this film.
What can I say about the biggest stars in the game at the time? Humphrey Bogart as Charlie Allnut and Katharine Hepburn as Rose Sayer were great and exciting in their roles. They seemed polar opposites in their roles. Charlie was straight-up dirty, rough around the edges, and a talker. On the other hand, Rose was a little prissy and tried to keep her composure. Yet, this made the movie work because they were so opposite, and it was a joy to watch them interact with each other.
The African Queen was definitely a surprise for me. It felt like the old Disney ride Jungle Cruise before the actual movie. It’s an entertaining movie to watch as the two main characters go down the river to destroy a major German boat. Bogart and Hepburn are excellent in their respective roles. Watch this film and have fun riding on the African Queen.
