Humphrey Bogart proved a versatile actor, starting with bit parts in Bowery Boy adventures and B movies and moving all the way up to leading man in Hollywood features. In between he played gangsters, killers, detectives, soldiers, and, on more than one occasion, characters in the throes of insanity.
The African Queen shows another side of Bogey, the shiftless wastrel with a heart of gold. Set in 1916 East Africa, it details the voyage of The African Queen down the uncharted river to its source in Lake Victoria.
Bogart plays the skipper of the African Queen, Charley Allnutt. The trip is occasioned by the German military takeover of the country. Bogey just happens to be there, delivering the mail at the mission, when he learns that the Germans came thru and took all the men away for the army, burning the village down for good measure. The old English missionary, played by Robert Morley, had died after being struck down by the butt of a German rifle. His spinster sister, Rosie, played by Katharine Hepburn, is left and Bogey takes her with him to escape, after a quick burial service. The spinster tells Bogey they need to strike a blow against the Kaiser for "old England." In Lake Victoria is a German gunboat, "the Luisa," the biggest ship in Africa. They will torpedo the ship using explosives aboard the African Queen. Bogey reluctantly agrees, but his smoking, drinking, and general demeanor proves unsavory to the old spinster. He also backslides by trying to weasel out of their mission. She sets out to set him right, first by throwing his liquor overboard while Bogey sleeps in a drunken stupor. Then giving him the silent treatment until he cracks. He agrees to continue the mission.
Charley and Rosie travel down the river, shooting rapids, passing under the guns of German fortresses and finally make it down to Lake Victoria. Hiding in the bullrushes, Charley ingeniously constructs two torpedos using oxygen cylinders and blasting gelatin, with rifle cartridge igniters. The torpedoes are suspended thru two holes cut for the purpose in the bow of the African Queen. They set out by night to deliver "the package". A storm suddenly comes up and the Queen starts taking on water, finally capsizing and sinking! The German gunboat comes and picks them out of the water. They are convicted as enemies of Germany and ordered to be summarily hanged.
The camera takes a distant shot of the gunboat, majestically steaming along. In the foreground we see the Queen, floating upside down just below the surface with the twin torpedoes protruding above. Charley and Rosie have a last request: Would the captain be so kind as to marry them before the execution? He agrees and declares them married in a single sentence. The nooses are placed around their necks. Suddenly, there is a huge explosion followed closely by another! The gunboat is sinking, having set off the torpedos when they ran over the submerged Queen. In the confusion Charley and Rosie swim away from the sinking gunboat. Their mission is accomplished!
Bogart and Hepburn made the most charming couple I can remember, transforming from polite strangers to a happily married couple, in the space of a few days. It was very heartwarming to see the changes in both characters' behavior from the beginning to that which they displayed at the end. It gives you hope! I recommend the African Queen without reservation: five stars!
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