STACK #241 November 2024

FEATURE MOVIE

Fun facts about The African Queen

Ranked as the 65th greatest film of all time by the American Film Institute. Lauren Bacall was on location serving as den mother to the crew, while her husband (Bogart) was filming. Walt Disney based his Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland on The African Queen , which was his favourite film of all time. It was the first colour film for both Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn In a sign of the times, censors objected to aspects of the original script, including characters cohabiting without being married. John Huston made no money from the film on account of distancing himself from the production company which was being sued for fraud. John Huston had large crates marked ’Medical supplies’ shipped to the Congo. They were filled with whisky and gin. Clint Eastwood’s White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) was based on a novel by The African Queen scriptwriter, Peter Viertel, who based the story on his experiences on location in Africa. In the 1930s, Columbia Pictures initially planned to make The African Queen with Hollywood couple Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. Instead, they produced The Beachcomber (1938), which shares the same story. The Beachcomber was later remade in 1954, starring Glynis Johns. Lanchester and Johns would later appear together in Mary Poppins . John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn’s 1975 movie Rooster Cogburn is certainly derived from The African Queen plot, and is a perfect example of Hollywood recycling their older productions.

Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn deliver Oscar-winning performances in the 1951 jungle adventure, directed by the great John Huston. Words Bob J

German gunboat with homemade torpedoes. During their perilous journey, the totally mismatched couple fall in love. Huston decided to film in Africa primarily because he wanted to experience big-game hunting. At first, he adamantly refused to shoot the film in colour, as all of his previous movies had been shot in monochrome. However, once he experienced the lush green tropical jungles of Uganda, he was immediately converted to the idea of a Technicolor film. As he began shooting the film, sure enough as with the two previous movie productions, most of the cast and crew rapidly became ill with dysentery, especially Kate Hepburn who continually vomited between scenes. Bogart was practically mutinous throughout the shoot, continually complaining about the depressive humidity, the flies, and the snakes, describing the location ”an absolute stink hole”. Yet, ironically, Bogart and Huston were the only two who didn’t fall ill throughout the shoot, probably due to both of them just eating canned food and swilling bottles of imported Scotch whisky. But despite the extremely harsh conditions, it didn't stop both stars from delivering superlative performances that deservedly won Bogart his only 'Best Actor' Oscar.

Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

T he first Hollywood feature movie to be filmed entirely in Africa was the 1931 MGM release Trader Horn . The problems encountered at the African locations were overwhelming, where cast and crew contracted malaria and dysentery as well as being plagued with locust, tsetse fly, and ant invasions. Over the next two decades, Hollywood’s ”jungle” movies, including the Tarzan series, were shot in Southern California, Florida, or on studio backlots. In 1949, however, MGM decided to film King Solomon’s Mines using Technicolor for the first time in an American feature filmed entirely in Equatorial Africa. But after four gruelling months of filming with both cast and crew suffering various bouts of sickness and heat stroke, director Andrew Marton requested the studio to allow them to return to Hollywood to finalise the production. The movie rights for C.S. Forester’s novel The African Queen had been purchased by Warner Bros in 1947 with the intention of starring David Niven and Bette Davis in the main roles. But instead, it was decided to shelve it. Enter film producer Sam Spiegel who, along with movie director John Huston, bought the movie rights from W.B. in 1950 and persuaded Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn to take the lead roles.

Set in German East Africa at the beginning of World War I, British Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his chatterbox spinster sister Rose (Hepburn) are devastated when German colonial troops destroy the village they used as their mission station. The appalling event results in Original poster art

Humphrey with his Oscar

the Reverend dying of a heart attack and the grief-stricken Rose becomes determined to seek her revenge. She's rescued by the usual once-a-month visitor, the gin soaked low-life river rat Charlie Allnut (Bogart). Rose with her sophisticated charm manages to persuade a reluctant Allnut to join forces and together steer his battered tugboat, the African Queen, downriver to sink a

15