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British Equatorial Africa is the location of this epic movie set in the early days of WWI. Charlie Allnut (Humphery Bogart) is the skipper of THE AFRICAN QUEEN, a filthy old rust bucket on the Ulonga-Bora river. He delivers supplies and mail to the settlements. The "QUEEN" is Yankee built, but its been a while since she has been out of the water for a good scraping and a paint job. She's got a wood burning kettle and can make six knots. Charlie is calling on Rose Sayer and her brother who is a minister. Together they minister and teach the word of God to the natives. Today however, the Germans have come to take the men as slaves and Rev. Sayer has been killed. Charlie helps bury the Reverend and convinces Miss Rose that they have to go before the Germans return. The Germans are down river and it will not be easy to get past them. Charlie thinks that the river splits into many channels and it just may br possible to go up river to Lake Victoria. Miss Rose is prim and proper and a tea-totler and very outspoken. Charlie, on the other hand, is unkept, he swears, smokes, and drinks gin, all of which offend Miss Rose. With the supplies on board the "African Queen", Charlie gets an idea that if they can reach Lake Victoria, he could rig a couple of home-made torpedoes and they could ram the German Steamer Gunboat "Louisa" and sink her. Rosie is all for it, and their trek begins. Through being shot by soldiers at a German fortress, to battles with insects and white water rapids, to going over a waterfall and surviving, Rosie and Charlie grow close and fall in love. They fight as hard as they can, but eventually wind up hopelessly stuck in the mud and weeds. Nearly delirious with fever and sick from leeches, they are finished. Suddenly it starts raining and continues for days. Charley wakes up only to find The African Queen on Lake Victoria! The water rose and washed them out of the reeds. In the distance they see smoke. Its the LOUISA, and it is coming their way. Hurriedly Charlie and Rosie get back into the reeds and hide as the Louisa passed near by. They were now deciding what to do. They figured the Louisa would be back the next day, and if they were to go out after her in the dark, they just might be able to pull it off. Charlie fills a couple of oxygen cylinders with explosives and makes detonators from bullets. His plan is to mount them through the bow of the African Queen and ram the Louisa. Even the best of plans don't always work, but providence has a way of correcting everything. This is a film classic that everyone should invest the time to see. Excellent!Read full review
I bought the movie because I had once seen it on regular TV and I really loved the movie. The movie is full of adventure, and romance; a winning combination. The adventure is to go down the very rough river until they get into a very large body of water, to sink an enemy ship with homemade exploding devices. I love every minute of this movie, so I have seen it over and over. I have not yet gotten tired of it. Some of this movie was filmed on location in Africa where wild animals are in this film. I hope you buy this movie; you will enjoy it each time you watch it.
Why did I buy it? I was influenced by the mosquitoes in my garden. Their swarming reminded me of the scene where Charlie and Rose were enveloped by swarms of the little buggers. It was then that I thought to myself that I would like to see that film again, so I checked Amazon and eBay. I ordered the cheapest one I could find. The film was everything I expected, more quaint than I had remembered. It was more colorful than I remembered as I'm sure that the last time I had watched it was on a black and white TV. Delivery was a little slow, as it was mailed under the Media rate. My wife enjoyed seeing it for the first time.
There is little I can add to what has already been said about this movie by critics, audiences or anyone else. This is simply one of the all-time great movies and performances by Bogart and Hepburn are absolutely irresistible. This goes in my all time top 10 ever selections.
I had seen the movie on t.v. It had all the good qualities a movie should have today. It was funny and contained drama & action. It was enjoyable even though it wasn't full of x-rated stuff like todays movies. I'd recommend it to anybody who enjoys the older movies. A++++
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