Humphrey Bogart Movie:

				Salesrank: 86183
		Our Price: $32.99
		Used Price: $26.34
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
John Huston made better, more powerful films than The African Queen, but none so universally beloved, on first appearance and over the decades since. In this adaptation of the C.S. Forester novel, Humphrey Bogart (who would win the best-actor Oscar®) and Katharine Hepburn costar as an unlikely pair thrown together in German East Africa during the First World War. He's the gin-soaked skipper of what we might call the title character, a none-too-reliable steam launch chugging along the backwaters of the ""Dark Continent."" Hepburn's a straitlaced Methodist missionary who, following the demise of her bachelor brother (Robert Morley) and the burning of their village by Kaiser Wilhelm's troops, determines that the Queen should be used to attack the Königin Luise, a large German gunboat patrolling a lake downriver. It's an absurd proposition. Then again, John Huston and the absurd were always on familiar terms.

It wasn't until he got to the Congo that the director realized what a funny picture The African Queen was going to be, thanks to the odd coupling of Bogie and Kate: ""One brought out a vein of humor in the other, and this comic sense, which had been missing from the book and screenplay, grew out of our day-to-day shooting."" Within the gunwales of a not-very-large boat, Huston managed to devise myriad ways to keep his two leading characters on separate visual planes even as circumstance and tender emotional urgency conspired to push them together. This was Huston's first feature film in Technicolor, and the peerless Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes) was there to shoot it. Unfortunately, neither of them could do anything about the process-screen technology needed for, and glaringly inadequate to, the sequence of Bogart and Hepburn shooting the rapids--just about the only lapse in an enchanting fairy tale for adults. The script is credited to Huston and James Agee; the uncredited Peter Viertel, summoned to the African locations to write some additional material, would later fictionalize the experience as White Hunter, Black Heart, a savage roman à clef. --Richard T. Jameson

The African Queen [Region 2] Reviews:
Not Recommended
2009-12-10 - This DVD is for a European DVD player. I did not realize thiswhen I placed my order.

Love the movie, hate the print
2009-11-20 - I've enjoyed this film for years, and was delighted when I found it was finally available on DVD.

Unfortunately, when I got the Asian print ( a fact which my supplier did not mention), I found that its quality resembles a cell-phone camera pirate print.

My advise to y'all is to wait for a better version. When a good one comes out, I'll be throwing the one I bought away.

Best of the best
2009-10-18 - The African Queen has quality from start to finish. The actors are people who can actually act and do so at a very high level. The scenes were shot on location though the scenes of the boat rushing through whitewater were clearly not up to today's level of faking. The dialogue was excellent with just the right mix of humor and drama. I had to settle for VHS instead of DVD for now but quite pleased to add such a quality movie to my personal collection.

Charlie's Angel
2009-08-24 - The film opens at a tropical forest (bird calls) in German East Africa, September 1914. There is a missionary chapel in a village where the minister and his sister lead the congregation in a song. (Some don't look too religious to me.) A small steamboat approaches. [Is it too small to carry much cargo?] A brawl outside attracts the men from the chapel. The captain isn't too silent. [Can a minister be promoted if he marries wealth?] The war will delay the mail. Enemy aliens can be imprisoned. [The captain's opinions seem anachronistic.] German troops arrive to burn the village and disperse the people. Samuel is shocked by the events and dies. The captain explains why they must flee the German forces. [Why are English missionaries in German lands?]

Rose has plans to fight for Britain! Charlie goes along with her plan. [Believable?] The personal interactions keep the story going. The boat travels down the white-water rapids. Can gin purify river water? [Is this product placement? Is the film too talky?] There is danger is going down the river. Shots are fired at them. There is another perilous passage through rocks. They repair the mechanical problem. [This pads out the story.] Bugs are plentiful by the river bank. Will they get lost? Are there leeches? Will the boat get stuck in the mud? A heavy rain raises the river and lifts the boat, they drift into the lake. [Does the film drag here?]

The presence of the gunboat is a new hazard. Can they attack the 'Louise'? [Believable?] Is their attack suicidal even in the dark? They are caught in a forbidden zone. The penalty is death for spies. But there is an accident! There is a happy ending, mission accomplished.
This seems like a low budget film with two big stars to carry the story. Charlie is Canadian because Bogie doesn't do accents, unlike Kate. I wonder how this follows the novel or real history?



Good, good old movie
2009-08-14 - Forgot how good older movies can be? This one will take you back to when movies didn't have to have sex or cursing to be entertaining. Glad I bought it.
John