The African Queen-1951

Director John Huston

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn

Scott’s Review #76

Reviewed June 28, 2014

Grade: B-

The African Queen (1951) is a difficult film to review.

Revered and appearing on many of the greatest films of all time lists, this film is disappointing.

Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn star as a couple who despise each other, stranded together on a tugboat in Africa on the eve of World War I.

Sure, the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn (Hollywood royalty in their day) is there, and the opposite attraction has a definite rooting value as their passion oozes off the screen.

He is a grizzled alcoholic American. She is a repressed, puritanical British woman. The locales of Africa, as the couple traverses on a makeshift boat, are gorgeous.

That is it for me, though- nothing else about the film is spectacular.

The plot is silly and unrealistic, and the two are thrown together purely for plot purposes. The adventure seems quite secondary to the love story at hand.

How far-fetched is that an “old maid” and a sailor could build torpedoes and blow up an enormous German warship?

The film is a decent, old-fashioned romantic adventure but not much more, which disappoints me because, given its accolades, I was expecting much more.

Bogart won the 1951 Best Actor Oscar for this performance.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Director-John Huston, Best Actor-Humphrey Bogart (won), Best Actress-Katharine Hepburn, Best Screenplay