September 1914, news reaches the colony German Eastern Africa that its motherland is at war, so Reverend Samuel Sayer became a hostile foreigner; German imperial troops burn down his mission, driving him mad- shortly after his well-educated, snooty sister Rose Sayer buries him and leaves by the only available transport, the crummy river steamboat ‘African Queen’ of grumpy boorish compatriot Charlie Allnut. As if a long difficult journey without any comfort weren’t bad enough for such odd companions, she is determined to find a way to do their bit for the British war effort (and revenge her brother) and aims high as God is obviously on their side: construct their own equipment, a torpedo and the converted steamboat, to take out a huge German warship, the Louisa, which is hard to find on the giant lake and first of all to reach, in fact as daunting an expedition as nobody attempted since the late adventurous explorer John Speakes… –IMDb
The son of actor Walter Huston, American film director John Marcellus Huston was born in Missouri, travelling widely with his family in vaudeville circles, he enjoyed a wild and unconventional youth.
He boxed, rode horses in Mexico and wrote for magazines in New York, before writing dialogue for Hollywood. Before breaking into directing, Huston also spent time acting and street-performing in Paris and London.
His first film, ‘The Maltese Falcon’, was made in 1941, becoming the classic adaptation, and making a star out of Humphrey Bogart. Bogart also appeared in Huston’s next few films: ‘Key Largo’, ‘Across The Pacific’ and ‘The Treasure of The Sierra Madre’.
It was with the latter that Huston won his first Best Director Oscar. His father, Walter, also appeared in the film, winning Best Supporting Actor.
Making military documentaries during World War II, Huston hit the big time again with his 1950 crime film, ‘The Asphalt Jungle’. Following this was ‘The African… read more
This begins well, before it becomes less and less convincing as it goes along. But, it remains diverting enough. It’s carried by Huston’s always-steady direction and the charisma of its two dynamic leads, who are nice foils and then a nice couple. Both turn in great performances, as usual; in fact, Bogart is more convincing here than in any of the more iconic film noir roles I've seen him in.
"For all of its enduring popularity The African Queen has not been available on American home video since the distant days of the laserdisc
The African Queen is based on the book of the same name. This is a book which I have not read, so I can not compare the two works. This adaptation is my grandmother’s favourite film, something I will… read review
While Lawrence of Arabia remains the best WWI film set outside of Europe, John Huston’s The African Queen was something of a preceding breakthrough. It dared to make a film set in WWI when such pictures… read review
One of the most famous of all films, if not just because of the two star performances by Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, but because of the myriad of stories about it’s making, which is recounted… read review
