I honestly thought I'd written a post for John Huston years ago. Huston is one of the most iconic Hollywood directors, responsible for helming many iconic American films. He's closely associated with his favorite leading man, Humphrey Bogart, whose screen persona was fashioned into the ultimate hardboiled detective in "The Maltese Falcon" and a classic antihero in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." However, I always liked Bogart best when he showed a little more heart onscreen, and I'll always think of him first as Charlie Allnut, the captain of a steamboat named The African Queen.
The stories of the making of "The African Queen" are legendary, and ended up inspiring an entire separate film - "White Hunter, Black Heart," with Clint Eastwood playing the larger than life director obsessed with hunting, who wants to kill off his heroes at the end of the movie. Huston famously convinced his backers to shoot a good amount of "The African Queen" on location in Africa, braving tough conditions and constant technical problems. Katherine Hepburn's account of the production is famously titled, "The Making of the African Queen, or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind." Back in the 1950s, if you wanted to make an exciting, realistic looking adventure film, you didn't have to go on the adventure yourself, but it certainly helped.
And what a great adventure film "The African Queen" is. You've got the odd couple pairing of a stiff British missionary and a scruffy Canadian rogue, who decide to join forces against the encroaching Nazis. They go on an impossible journey, defy death and river rapids, and of course fall in love along the way. The romance is very implausible, but Bogart and Hepburn make it work, in a way that the stars of too many subsequent action-adventure movies have bungled. To this day, I don't remember the stunts and the thrills of "The African Queen" nearly as well as the banter. Bogart finally won his Best Actor Oscar for the movie for the ever grousing, ever put-upon Allnut, but I love Hepburn here just as much. Her reaction when she learns Charlie's first name is such a delight. The script is a bit slapdash, but the bones are sturdy and the flourishes are great - especially the funny bits. The marriage ceremony is certainly one for the ages.
I love that nobody in this movie looks like a movie star onscreen. When the action gets going, Bogart and Hepburn are sweaty, damp, stained, and eventually covered in mud. When Bogart has his shirt off to deal with the leeches, he doesn't look remotely sexy. Hepburn, in accurate period Victorian clothing, clings to dignity until it becomes ridiculous, and gives it up. The film is focused on capturing the viscerality of the experience more than the grand epic sweep of the story, or the nobility of the characters' motives. Each new obstacle feels truly daunting, and every narrow escape is a reason to celebrate. And no expense was spared to capture every speck of authenticity. "The African Queen" was shot in glorious three strip Technicolor - a first for Huston - which required a massive camera being lugged out onto the Congo River, along with substantial electrical lighting.
Huston, if Hepburn and other collaborators are to be believed, was perhaps too lackadaisical about the demands of the production. He kept putting himself in dangerous situations, often involving impromptu hunting trips, he never worried about the budget, and he sure liked drinking a lot. However, his talent was always evident. Perhaps no director in Hollywood was better suited to helming "The African Queen," having the experience as both a screenwriter and a director to improvise and adapt under difficult circumstances. Huston was also an actor, professional boxer, producer and painter. He was highly regarded for his ability to envision his films while on set, knowing exactly what shots he needed, and often leaving little for the editor to do. On "The African Queen," despite all the reported chaos, he got the job done, and he deserves all the credit for its success.
I don't feel like I've written enough here, either for Huston or for "The African Queen," but putting down everything I want to say would make this post several thousand words long. I'll just wrap up by noting that Hollywood keeps remaking "The African Queen," even though they never call it "The African Queen," and nobody has ever come close to matching the original.
What I've Seen - John Huston
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Key Largo (1948)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
The African Queen (1951)
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Beat the Devil (1953)
The Misfits (1961)
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)
Fat City (1972)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Wise Blood (1979)
Annie (1982)
Prizzi's Honor (1985)
The Dead (1987)
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