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The African Queen Movie Review

The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. It’s a fun and charming, but thinly plotted and overrated film.

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“Dear? What is your first name?“

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Charlie Allnut, the captain of a steamer called the African Queen, meets Rose Sayer, sister of a British missionary. In spite of being totally opposite to each other, they fall in love. A big box office hit and a critical and awards darling, this picture still did not age all that well and is not great in retrospect. For every little thing that they did right here, I could also find one fatal flaw, which made it a wildly uneven effort.

First off, this is an old-fashioned adventure that also can be considered to be a progenitor of action flicks as there are numerous fun and exciting action sequences interspersed throughout. It’s also comedic and romantic in tone, so it can be regarded as a rom-com sorts. But it’s a charming adventure above all else and it mostly succeeds in that area.

The best aspect to this entire production is the technical craftsmanship. John Huston’s directing is effortlessly professional and I could see why the Academy would honor him with a nomination. The score is a bit too chirpy, but memorable regardless. The cinematography is terrific and the fact that they actually shot it on location made this production unusually modern and very much ahead of its time. The riverscape was frequently gorgeous and the movie is well detailed and consistently beautiful to observe.

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Another positive aspect is the authenticity of the actors’ looks. They looked uncharacteristically unglamorous, which was daring for the time. You can sense the heat and the exhaustion as you see the sweat and dirt plastered across both of their faces. This made the movie felt authentically lived-in.

So yes, both performers did a great job in their respective roles, but with some caveats. Hepburn was lovely for sure. She killed it as this at first ladylike and then adventurous and brave woman, but there was certainly a missed opportunity for the movie to cash in on her usual personality, which is much more interesting and comedic than it was here. I would have loved to have seen the 1930s and 1940s Hepburn playing opposite Bogart, but we instead got a parody of polished and stuck-up ladies from the turn of the century.

As for Bogart, he was also excellent and quite believable in the role. He was very charismatic, endearing and likable in every scene. The two shared solid chemistry between each other and some of their scenes were so lovely and tender. How she called him Mr. Allnut constantly was hilarious and oh so charming. But the fact that Bogart won an Oscar for this rather thin role when he should have gotten it before for much better roles was unfortunate, especially when you consider the fact that he beat out much stronger competition in the process.

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The African Queen is pretty much a two-person show as the other characters are just Rose’s brother who dies too soon and the evil Germans who are stereotypical and annoying. The plot is almost non-existent, the themes are also absent, and the movie is fluff with no substance throughout, but it’s also not adventurous or romantic enough to fully compensate for those shortcomings. It could have been funnier as well. I liked the dialogue, but eventually it became repetitious. I like this film overall, but its many flaws prevented me from enjoying it more.