- The African Queen is one of those rare examples of a good film elevated to greatness by its cast. That's not to say that there is anything particularly lacking in either John Huston's direction or the story, adapted by Huston and James Agee from the novel by C.S. Forester, but would this film possess even half its current reputation if not for the performances of its two leads? I tend to think not. In casting two of the era's most famous and talented actors strongly against type, The African Queen manages to make even a slow excursion down a remote African river seem interesting.
- Playing a Methodist missionary in East Africa, Katharine Hepburn initially bottles up her usual vigor, presenting Rose Sayer instead as the epitome of propriety and restraint. Her personality forms a stark contrast with that of the salty riverboat pilot Charlie Allnut, who retains all of the earthiness of Bogart's usual roles without his usual attendant sneer. Despite their many differences, a German attack on the mission forces the two to become strange bedfellows as they escape downstream in Allnut's riverboat, The African Queen. So what does Miss Sayer plan to do now that they're riverbound? Why, to have Mr. Allnut build a torpedo to blow up a German destroyer, of course. "We can't do that!" Allnut argues. "How do you know? You never tried it," retorts Miss Sayer. "Well, yeah, but I never tried shooting myself in the head neither," complains Allnut. Several pointless objections later, Allnut finds himself navigating downstream toward the German ship.
- Along the way, Allnut and Miss Sayer experience some striking location-shot (in technicolor!) interactions with alligators, hippos, leeches, and Germans, but the memorable part of the story involves these two polar opposite personalities slowly growing closer together. Allnut drinks too much and gets rude, so Miss Sayer dumps his booze in the river. Miss Sayer prohibits Allnut from sharing her shelter in a storm, but sympathetically relents. Miss Sayer needs Allnut's help reboarding the boat after a bath, but he must close his eyes first. Slowly, the layers of society that separate these two fundamentally decent people are peeled back, and they fall in love even as their impending impossible mission looms. While the film's explosive finale is more than a bit far-fetched, it doesn't really detract from the film's success in making two of Hollywood's biggest stars seem, just for a few hours, identifiably human.
- Great quote from Bogart on the location filming: "All I ate was baked beans, canned asparagus, and Scotch whiskey. Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead."
- The ship used to portray The African Queen is now docked in Key Largo, making that a great destination for Bogart fans.
