It’s Bogart at his finest! Well, maybe not his finest. I prefer Casablanca and Maltese Falcon to this. It’s still a good movie, though. And Katharine Hepburn ain’t so bad either.
My lack of familiarity with this movie precludes any witty and insightful commentary I may have, so again, I must defer to other Dopers to start things off. If no one does, then I’m afraid I’ll have to sing.
Laaaaaaaaaaaadyyyyyy of Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnn…
Ino, I love this film, too. Here are two of America’s best actors playing off each other just perfectly, under the direction of John Huston. In contrast to you, this is my favorite role for Bogey, although I feel that Casablanca and Maltese Falcon are very close behind. This is because he’s a bit more multifacted in AQ, and shows a strong comic streak, something which I don’t remember him doing in any other movie.
I once watched a little documentary about the making of AQ, and it featured an old interview with Bogey. He said that he HATED Africa, and that his wife Lauren Bacall and Kate Hepburn were in love with it. They drove him crazy wanting to go sightseeing, when all he wanted to do was drink and go home to America.
I saw another John Huston movie this week, “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison,” and the cable host pointed out that Huston borrowed the formula from his earlier AQ: tough guy stranded in a survival situation with a proper lady. As it worked for Bogey and Kate Hepburn, so it worked for Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr (tough marine and nun).
The problem with AFRICAN QUEEN is that it suffers from one of the most galring examples of deus ex machina when our heroes seemed doomed when magically the African Queen surfaces and sinks the Luisa. Also the second act is resolved through a similar device when a rainstorm manages to save them from their prediciment amongst the weeds.
Personally, i think the movie is quite good with two of my all time favorite actors in Bogart and Hepburn, but I think the story is somewhat lacking.
One of my favorite movies, or at least in the top twenty. My mom loves it too. There are just too many lines I like to quote them all, but three of my favorites are (1)"I never dreamed a mere physical experience could be so stimulating!(by Hepburn, after they shoot the rapids) (2) “Ah, miss, ya shoudna done that”(as Hepburn is pouring out the last of the gin into the river) and (3)“I now pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution”(the German captain)
One of the younger German officers, who did the “translating”, was played by Theodore Bikel, who had a stage career as well. I think he originated the role of Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” He also played Worf’s human father in ST-TNG and Rabbi Koslov, who visited Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5. And he was the Russian captain of the submarine in another funny movie, “The Russian are Coming, the Russians are Coming”
I won’t be able to watch the movie but I’ll pass along these items:
Katherine Hepburn reportedly based Rosie Sayer on Eleanor Roosevelt.
TAQ was written by James Agee, one of my favorite authors, who also wrote the screenplay for The Night of the Hunter, also in my top 20.
TAQ was remade as a TV movie in 1977, starring Warren Oates and Mariette Hartley. I’ve never spoken with anyone who has seen this version, but with that cast it sounds intriguing.
Tretiak: I agree with you about the sinking of the German ship, but I think Bogie mentioned at one point that rain was due soon or else they would be in trouble in the weeds unless they got some rain soon.
Finally IMDB lists Huston and Agee as nominees for Best Writing, Screenplay Oscar.
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There’s more available and it’s equally contradictory but the consensus seems to be: 1–Huston and Agee wrote the script based on Forester’s novel; 2–Viertel was called in to punch up the ending; 3–Forester may have consulted with Agee and Huston but did no scripting; 4–TAQ did not win an Oscar for best script, whoever wrote it.
I know Viertel wrote White Hunter, Black Heart, based on the making of TAQ (Clint Eastwood made it into a film of the same name) so I’m off to the library presently to grab a copy. I’ll post again with further info, assuming no one with more knowledge gets here first.
This is such a sweet movie – whenever I think about it, I think it’s just charming. But I am slightly amazed that it appears this close to the top of the Top 100 film list. It’s a darling little film, but it doesn’t seem (to me) to have the same impact as most of the films that we have seen on this list so far.
One thing that must show that I’m a very jaded person is that I’m always waiting for there to be more conflict. They’re just so gosh-darned happy all the time. And the ending is so happy! Which is a good thing, but it surprises me every time the ending turns out so well for all involved.