The African Queen

The African Queen is a 1951 movie. The film was adapted by James Agee, John Huston and Peter Viertel from the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester. It was directed by Huston and photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff. It starred Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor - his only Oscar), Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley and Theodore Bikel.

Story

Morley and Hepburn play Samuel and Rose Sayer, brother and sister British missionaries in a central African village in 1914. Their mail and supplies are delivered by the rough-and-ready Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Bogart) of the African Queen, whose coarse behavior they tolerate in a rather stiff manner.

Related Topics:
British - Missionaries - 1914 - Canadian

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When Charlie warns them that German troops will soon invade the Sayers choose to stay on, only to witness the Germans burning down the local village. When Samuel protests he is beaten by a German soldier. After the Germans leave Samuel becomes delirious and shortly dies.

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Soon afterward Charlie returns, and after helping her to bury Samuel they set off to escape in the African Queen. Charlie tells Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Empress Luisa, which patrols a large lake downriver, effectively blocking any British counterattacks.

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Rose comes up with a plan to convert the Queen into a torpedo boat and sink the Luisa. Charlie points out that navigating the river would be suicidal: to reach the lake they would have to pass a German fort and negotiate several dangerous rapids. But Rose is insistent and eventually persuades him to go along with the plan. Charlie is furious when the teetotal Rose throws away all of his gin, but she insists that he needs to be sober for this mission.

Related Topics:
Torpedo - Fort - Rapid - Teetotal - Gin

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Setting off downstream the two of them survive the rapids and German gunfire from the fort, as well as leeches, mechanical problems and swarms of flies, before eventually being stranded on a reed-bed. Their mutual hardships bring them closer together, and by the time they have reached the reeds they are well and truly in love.

Related Topics:
Leech - Flies - Reed

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Eventually heavy rains lift the Queen off of the reeds and into the lake, where they narrowly avoid being spotted by the Luisa. That night they set about converting some gas cylinders into torpedos using dynamite and improvised detonators which use rifle shells. They then attach the torpedos to the front of the Queen.

Related Topics:
Dynamite - Detonator - Rifle - Shells

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At the height of a storm they push the Queen out onto the lake, intending to set it on a collision course with the Luisa. Unfortunately the heavy swell capsizes and sinks the Queen, and Charlie and Rose are separated.

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Captured and taken aboard the Luisa, Rose and Charlie request that the German captain marries them before executing them as enemy spies. After the brief marriage ceremony the Germans prepare to hang them when there is a sudden explosion and the Luisa starts to sink. The Luisa has struck the submerged hull of the African Queen and detonated the torpedos. Rose's plan has worked, if a little belatedly, and the newly-married couple swim to safety.

Related Topics:
Marries - Executing - Spies - Hang - Explosion

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