Review of The African Queen (65)

The African Queen features two of cinema's leading stars, won an Academy Award for Best Actor and was nominated for three others, yet it is the only movie on the Top 100 list that has not been released on DVD.  Wonderful foresight into this issue allowed us to record the movie when it was aired on TCM, and it sat there on our DVR for over a year while we worked our way up to this point.

Plot
During World War I, Charlie Allnut, the booze-guzzling captain of the African Queen, teams with the straitlaced, iron-willed missionary, Rose Sayer, to take on a German gunboat that is harbored in a lake downriver.

Jason's Thoughts
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what people like so much about this movie.  Sure Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn are A-list stars and carried this movie almost by themselves, but their clout alone does not make The African Queen a great movie, nor do their characters.

In fact, I found both of their characters to be highly unlikeable and, in the case of Hepburn, downright annoying, especially when she begins each and every sentence with the words "Mr. Allnut."  Take into consideration that a majority of the movie features these two characters alone on a riverboat and you can take a guess as to how many times that phrase is said.

Not to mention the fact that Hepburn usually gets under my skin no matter which movie it is that she stars in.

Annoyances aside, what little story there really is to the movie didn't help it either.  Even though it mixes elements of drama, suspense, romance, action and comedy, the actual story itself is paper thin and bland.  Opposites attract, hatch a plan to assist war effort, plan initially foiled but comes through and all is well.  The ending is a real doosey for those of you that can actually make it through that far.

The one interesting fact about this movie is that a majority of it was shot on location in Africa.  Not a big thing by today's standards, but was rarely done when this movie came out in 1951.  Other than that, this movie is probably more for fans who love to watch Hepburn or Bogart movies.  Since I don't fall into those categories, this movie wasn't for me.

Crystal's Thoughts
As Jason prodded for me to write my review on The African Queen, I struggled to even recall the movie and what I gave it in regards to the number of stars.  I guess you could say it isn't the most memorable of movies.  Though to give it a bit of a break, we did go on a movie watching frenzy right before the busyness of moving into our new home was upon us.  I do recall Jason mentioning after we watched the movie how much he loathed Katharine Hepburn.  I myself wonder how she could have been hyped up into one of the greatest of all times.  Unfortunately, I have yet to see it.  Obviously, Jason never will.

I continue to sit here now trying to recall what I rated this movie so I can blog about.  I still can't remember.  Perhaps we never rated it.  Then again, I seem to recall Jason giving it a two and me saying it wasn't that bad.  And really, it wasn't.  My other complaint on top of the acting I didn't care for was how it was drawn out and moved really slow.  While I know romantic flicks are predictable, I like to have a smidgen of humor or action to move it along.  And it's not that I didn't laugh during The African Queen as I do remember doing so a few times.

The storyline wasn't terrible with it taking place in Africa and keeping you wondering if the two would win against the enemy.  But it probably would have been a lot better had the movie moved along faster.  By the time they did defeat the enemy, I was too bored of the movie to care or find the action in it.  Overall, it was an ok romantic flick.

On an end note, Gone with the Wind was on TV recently, and it made me want to watch it again.  I guess we better get plugging away on these movies.  Hopefully now with what feels like a theater room, we'll make a bit more progress a bit more quickly.

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