My Favorite Films: The African Queen

My third and final My Favorite Films post in honor of the Humphrey Bogart blogathon is going to focus on The African Queen. I've really been looking forward to writing this post because it's my favorite Bogie film tied with Casablanca, and also because it premiered 60 years ago today in Los Angeles.

Released in 1951 and directed by John Huston, the film takes place in Africa during World War I and tells the story of an alcoholic boat owner (Bogie) who is persuaded by a missionary (Katharine Hepburn) to use his boat to sink a German warship.

There are so many reasons why I love The African Queen. It contains just about every element you'd want in a film (comedy, drama, adventure, romance, etc), it pairs Bogie with Katharine Hepburn, the color cinematography is beautiful and the story remains timeless to this day.

I think Bogie's role as Charlie Allnut really shows his diversity as an actor. Yes, his character is the "tough guy" he was most commonly known for playing, but it's different here because he's absolutely hilarious. The scene where he becomes intoxicated from gin and later when he attempts to imitate a hippo nearly made me fall out of my seat laughing the first time I watched it. Forget Marlon Brando, Bogie rightfully deserved the Oscar.

As with Bogie, this is also my favorite film and performance from Katharine Hepburn. Bette Davis was originally considered for Rose (she later dropped out because of pregnancy), but no one could have played her as well as Hepburn did. I do like Vivien Leigh, but I personally feel that the Academy made the wrong decision in the Best Actress category that year.

One of the best aspects of The African Queen is the chemistry between Bogie and Hepburn. It's so interesting to watch their relationship progress throughout the film- they start out as barely tolerating each other then end up in love by the films' ending. This was the only time they worked together, but they remained close friends for the rest of Bogie's life (she and Spencer Tracy were some of the last people to see him the night before he died in January 1957). 

**SPOILER ALERT**

The film was adapted from the C.S. Forester novel of the same name. I haven't read it, and I don't plan to, mainly because of different endings between the film and the book. If you've seen the (and if you read past the spoiler alert, I'm assuming you have), you know it ends as Charlie and Rose are captured by the Germans and married by the captain before execution. The Louisa then crashes into the remains of the African Queen and the torpedoes explode the ship, allowing Charlie and Rose to flee to the Belgian Congo. The book, however, ends as the Louisa is destroyed and Charlie and Rose go to inform the British Army. Honestly, I don't think I would like the film as much as I do if the ending hadn't been changed. I rarely say this, but I think this is one example of the movie being better than the book.

The African Queen was restored in 2009 for it's first release on DVD in 2010. I hadn't seen the film pre-restoration, but the video linked above shows comparisons between the two versions, and it's amazing to see how much the quality has improved. The color cinematography along with John Huston's direction is beautiful.

Overall, The African Queen is one of my favorite films and I hope it will be remembered 60 years from now just as it is today.

Review: Ace In the Hole (1951)

IMDb Synopsis: A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.


Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors, who made quite a few of my favorite films- Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17 and The Apartment being just a few of them. Being a huge Wilder fan, I expected quite a lot from Ace In the Hole. I'm glad to say my expectations were met.


I'm starting to become a big fan of Kirk Douglas (and I have TCM to thank for that as I've seen several of his films since he's Star of the Month for September), and this is the best performance from him that I've seen so far. I thought it was really interesting to see him as the "bad guy" since he plays more of the hero-type in films like Spartacus. The cast itself is made up of several marvelous actors, including Jan Sterling,  Porter Hall and Richard Benedict.


Billy Wilder's direction is wonderful, but considering it's from the same man who made Sunset Blvd, I'm not surprised.  Also worth mentioning is the extremely well written script from Wilder and screenwriters Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman, which was nominated for Best Story and Screenplay at the 1952 Academy Awards.


Overall, I found Ace In the Hole to be a wonderful film noir, thanks to both Wilder and Kirk Douglas. I'll be watching this again soon.

5/5 stars

Review: An American In Paris (1951)

IMDb Synopsis: Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is "discovered" by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound.




There is only one word that can describe my reaction to this film: Wow. I'm usually, not one for musicals, but this was just spectacular.


I think Vincente Minnelli is on his way to being one of my top twenty directors now. Everything about An American In Paris is just beautiful- Minnelli's direction is one reason alone to watch it, along with the Oscar-winning color cinematography, and the seventeen-minute ballet sequence (which took a month to film and cost half a million dollars).


I'll admit I'm still relatively new to Gene Kelly- prior to this I had only seen Singin' In the Rain. I did, however, enjoy his performance as Jerry Mulligan and am now interested to see more of his musicals, especially the ones he did with Frank Sinatra. An American In Paris also marked the debut of French actress and dancer Leslie Caron, who did remarkably well not only in her acting, but in her dancing as well.


Minnelli's masterpiece is memorable for so many reasons- the ballet sequence and Caron's debut being just two of them. But it's also one of few musicals to win the Academy Award for Best Picture- a handful of others being Gigi (also starring Caron), West Side, Story, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music. Would I choose it as being the best film from 1951? Well, no- I'm saving that honor for The African Queen and A Place In the Sun. But I do think it deserved the nomination, along with the other seven nominations and five wins it received.

If it isn't already obvious, An American In Paris receives much praise from this blogger. I would definitely recommend seeing Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in this musical masterpiece if you haven't already done so.

5/5 stars