I rode in a helicopter piloted by a serial killer, spent the day with a significant figure in American history and even made national news and became an ACLU poster-child following a manufactured porn scandal. On a significantly less interesting note, a few years ago I rescued an abandoned kitten, spoiled her and raised her as my own and every time she falls asleep in my lap I realize that taking her in is the best thing I have ever done. Not the most exciting or funniest, not the thing people will remember most about me someday, but the best. The movie “The African Queen” has both Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart branching out of their cinematic comfort zones and, while it may not be what people remember them for, it is in my estimation the best thing either one of them has ever done. In other words, “The African Queen” is their homeless cat.
While there are traces of Humphrey Bogart’s rubber-stamp character in the role of Charlie (the gruff loner with somewhat self-destructive tendencies) most traces of nobility and bravery are washed away in a sea of gin. In fact, there is a compelling study within the film on the negative effects of alcoholism, whereas in most previous films, drinking is simply glamorized and expected of men. Rather than an anti-hero, Bogart is more like a loser who happens to be capable of a good deed, which is very compelling. On the other hand, Katharine Hepburn makes a huge leap from the sassy socialite character she plays in movies like “Bringing up Baby” and “The Philadelphia Story” to play Rose, a frigid old maid/missionary.
The simple white-fonted opening credits appear and dissolve against a moving scene of a jungle as if the camera is looking up while moving downstream. Once the narrative begins the camera arrives at a stereotypical Africa village, complete with bamboo huts with straw roofs. However, there is also a similarly built but conspicuously out of place traditional-looking Christian church which is filled from front-to-back with primitive looking tribesfolk. Despite their enthusiastic participation in one of the hymns led by Rose’s pastor brother, the natives seem out of place and as if they are not fully understanding of their surroundings. Conversely, the arrival of Charlie on his dilapidated little supply delivery boat, The African Queen, is crude and obvious- with a loud steam whistle blowing over the hymn.
There is an interesting and subtle contrast going on here between Charlie and Rose; she is dressed formally and is generally performing a respectable action whereas Charlie is drunk and carelessly litters in the pristine, untouched jungle. This early comparison is crucial to the development of the dynamic between Charlie and Rose, which will become the focal point of the film. In spite of their obvious differences there are some incredibly understated similarities between the two. For instance, in their own ways they are both encroaching on the native African’s way of life- Charlie by treating them like slaves and Rose by essentially changing their way of life from making them sing hymns and even leave their spears outside the chapel like some kind of coat-check.
The invasion of German soldiers near the outset of World War 1 all but destroys the village and all the natives, as well as Rose’s brother, whose health deteriorates rapidly after the invasion, ultimately killing him. Without her brother and completely dependent on Charlie to get her out of Africa, Rose joins him on the boat and almost immediately voices a plan to essentially suicide bomb a German warship by using The African Queen as a torpedo. Though Charlie is skeptical and not at all enthused about being a hero, he does entertain the idea by acknowledging that the explosives on board the ship would be capable of executing the job.
“I ain't worried, Miss. Gave myself up for dead back where we started” (Charlie Allnut, “The African Queen”)
A nasty cliché in cinema has since been born of the middle part of the movie, the whole “opposites attract” premise. Arguments about bathing situations and sleeping arrangements are reminiscent of the far inferior “It Happened One Night” but innovative in how the characters are forced together by circumstance and far more realistic in the progression of feelings. Also, “Pirates of the Caribbean” could learn a thing or two about the proper way to illustrate a true alcoholic’s reaction to having a woman dispose of his booze. The detoxification and character transition Charlie experiences after Rose forces him to stop drinking does not come quickly or too sharply to make it absurd.
These extended scenes of just Rose and Charlie benefit from the on-location filming far more than you would think. With so much natural background scrolling by as the dialogue unfolds, a green-screen or “Mighty Joe Young” like scenery would have made it laughable and probably unwatchable. Instead, the lively and fresh jungle scenery and occasional shot of real wildlife not only break up the potential monotony of a film with such few characters, but they also make every little obstacle (equipment failure, impassable conditions etc) seem like a far more realistic threat and enhance the intensity of the movie.
At one point the boat is stuck in a densely overgrown patch of vegetation and leech-infested water. Charlie establishes his heroism inadvertently when he tows the broken down ship with his own body through the weeds. As the camera pulls away and upward we see that the obstruction only goes for a short distance, with the river that is their goal being just within reach. The fact that Charlie does not know this implies that he would have towed the ship on his own strength for miles if necessary.
While prepping the conversion of the boat into a torpedo a massive storm erupts, turning the ship over and throwing Rose and Charlie overboard. Charlie is captured and sentenced to death for his attempted attack on the Germans, all the while not knowing if Rose died in the wreck. When she is brought aboard the warship after having also been found by German troops her and Charlie are sentenced to hang together. As a last request they ask to be married- which ends up accidentally buying them time for The African Queen to resurface and drift towards the ship- blowing it up in accordance with the original plan. The most endearing part of this ending is actually the fact that Charlie and Rose DON’T blow up the ship the way they planned. Not everyone has to be a hero, people who are generally losers don’t suddenly pull off major heroics no matter how good their intentions are and the true happy ending is not the destruction of the ship but the fact that these two people have found each other.
It is not easy to pull off a movie that is mostly dialogue driven between two people. It is even less attractive when the two characters are played by actors who are really stretching beyond their comfort zones. Not only do Hepburn and Bogart pull it off, but they completely reinvent themselves in the process. John Huston also deserves a great deal of credit for having the foresight to move this movie off Hollywood backlots and into the African jungle. The authenticity and the scenery could NOT have been pulled off any other way.
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