Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951)

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African Queen (1951) is #95 on the all-time list at IMDB, with a 8.2/10 rating. Leonard Maltin awards 4 stars, and Apollo has it at 88.

Humphrey Bogart won best actor for his portrayal of curmudgeonly steamboat captain Charlie Allnut, and Katharine Hepburn was never better as Rosie Sayer, sister of a missionary. The film was nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress.

It was shot on location in Africa during WW-I. Rosie's brother dies, and she convinces Charlie to steam to a lake, and torpedo a German ship which is causing the allies a lot of trouble. They battle each other, leeches, mosquitos, rapids, waterfalls, weather and Germans along the way. They also fall in love.

Trashing this film would be a lot like telling a dying Tinkerbell that I don't believe in faeries. Fortunately, this film as at least as good as its ratings. The DVD is one of those all-region jobs, and looks like it was mastered from a video tape, but it did allow me to isolate a few frames that kind of show pokies. For a classic of this magnitude, I would have done the film even with no pokies though.

This is another film I hope they do a credible Region 1 DVD on some day.

Written by: Tuna ...courtesy of Scoopy.net