Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Flick of The Day: The African Queen

We have looked at the work of Humphrey Bogart before in The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon which was the first collaboration between Bogart and director John Huston. Perhaps their most famous collaboration is today's flick of the day, The African Queen. A film as famous for its laborious location shoot as for the end result, it is a great technical achievement even today its arduous shoot earned Bogart and co-star Katharine Hepburn Academy Awards nominations.
Adapted from a novel by C.S Forester, the African Queen is set in East Africa during World War 1 and stars Bogart as Charlie Allnut, a gin swilling slob of who captains the steam boat of the title, delivering supplies up and down the river. Hepburn is her usual prim self as Rose Sayer, this time the sister of a missionary who dies when the Germans invade. Allnut offers to take Rose back to the civilisation and together the two begin an arduous journey down the river. Charlie mentions in passing that the Germans have a gunboat, the Louisa, that controls the lake into which the river drains. Rose becomes obsessed with sinking the gunboat, perhaps for retribution at the death of her brother or perhaps for a need to do something to help the war effort. In either case, Charlie believes navigating the river will be suicide enough without turning their small steam boat into a torpedo boat. The pair overcome a number of obstacles, from white water rapids to a German Fort, gradually revealing the softer sides of their characters to each other and falling in love. When they eventually make it to the lake, they are resolved to sink the Louisa.
As noted at the outset, this film is best remembered for the filming of it as much as anything else. The shoot was over 4 months on location in the Congo and Uganda. This was not your typical Hollywood shoot with Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall on set for the duration and in her own words acting as cook, nurse and clothes washer. To combat the threat of disease, both Bogart and Huston survived on a diet of canned food and Scotch whiskey, more of the latter than the former. It worked as almost everyone else in the cast came down with dysentery during filming. As Bogart explained:

"Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead"

Hepburn, who did not drink, fared much worse, losing weight and getting very ill at one point. Despite this, the cast and crew pulled through and overcame many other obstacles such as marauding hippos and a boat fire to put together a memorable film. The shoot was documented in Clint Eastwood's fictionalised White Hunter, Black Heart
The true strength of the film is the interplay between Bogart and Hepburn, for they are the only ones on camera for most of the film. If they don't gel, then you don't really have a film, thankfully they make great sparring partners.

Charlie: All this fool talk about The Louisa. Goin' down the river... 
Rose: What do you mean? 
Charlie: I mean we ain't goin' to do nothin' of the sort. 
Rose: Why, of course we're going! What an absurd idea! 
Charlie: What an absurd idea! What an absurd idea! Lady, I may be a born fool, but you got ten absurd ideas to my one, an' don't you forget it!

This apart, the film is a romantic melodrama with adventure elements, it is however a fun journey all the same, holding your interest as they go from A to B. The difficulties involved in filming are obvious throughout, from the leech invested waters where only for Bogart's objection, they would have used real leeches at John Huston's request. Even for a director as peerless as Huston, this stands out as an achievement.
All in all, a fine film which earned Bogart his only Oscar win, a crying shame for perhaps the greatest leading man in cinema history. A great script and an interesting tale are combined to great effect by John Huston. It is well worth seeking out for a viewing.

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