Review of The African Queen (1952) by Jonny 9 — 15 Feb 2010

A classic in spite of itself. "The African Queen" is legendary more because of the confluence of cast, director, historical province, and the stories that came out of the shoot and less by being a technically good film.

Humphrey Bogart, six years before his death, plays the Canadian Charlie Allnut with as much effort at the accent as Kevin Costner put into "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Katherine Hepburn's appearance betrays the constant dysentery she suffered during the on location parts of the shoot.

According to the 1990 Client Eastwood film "White Hunter, Black Heart" director John Huston spent most of the shoot chasing an elephant and later cleaning in post production in a London sound studio.

The gaps between the London material and that filmed on location (the ending credits just say "Africa", I guess you identifying just the continent was good enough back in 1951) are blatantly obvious.

However, the story of a proper English missionary spinster finding secular thrills by running rapids and falling in love while exacting explosive revenge against the World War I edition of German imperialism is a good one.

Mix in some genuinely good repartee and the exotic location (hippos and alligators and leeches, oh, my!) and you can overlook the high-school-film-strip soundtrack and the laughably bad green screen effects.