"FRIDAY MOVIE SUGGESTION NIGHT' PRESENTS: THE AFRICAN QUEEN!

The film you are about to see was written and produced with a tough athletic-type prose most people would associate with an Ernest Hemingway novel. However, tough-minded director John Huston ("The Maltese Falcon" and "Key Largo") brings to life the 1935 C.S. Forester novel, THE AFRICAN QUEEN. The book was adapted by Houston, James Agee, Peter Viertel, and John Collier. As for the story itself...

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Set in the colonial German Eastern Africa (Tanzania) in 1914, Humphrey Bogart is Charlie Allnut, a hard-drinking river boat Captain who makes a living ferrying supplies to villagers, including Reverend Samuel Sayer's mission and his Christian missionary sister Rose (Katherine Hepburn). After refusing to evacuate the area, despite Allnut's warnings that Germans imperial troops are coming, their worst fears are realized after the Germans arrive and level the church before beating Reverend Sayer to death. Rose Sayer then enlists Allnut to help her escape with his dilapidated steam engine boat. A man with only a modest education, Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) is mis-matched with the snooty, highly educated Rose to make up pair of personalities that would become Dr. Neil Clark Warren's worst nightmare. (Warren is the founder of e-harmony dot com).

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The duo assume a mutual dislike of one another immediately and disagree on virtually everything. With this tension, made worse from their constant bickering, enduring rough waters, leeches, crocodiles, evading German soldiers, and facing yet deeper hardships fate takes an unexpected turn. The film is a combination of adventure and a quest for Sayer to avenge her brother's death by aiding the British war effort as they steam up the Ulana and square off with a German ship that dwarfs "The African Queen" named "The Louisa".

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This film was the subject of Hepburns book, "The Making of the African Queen: Or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind". Indeed, the filming proved to be very hard on the crew with abominable conditions. "The African Queen" earned Humphrey Bogart his only Oscar Award as Best Actor with a Nomination for Hepburn as Best Actress. The Cast: Humphrey Bogart is Charlie Allut; Katherine Hepburn is Rose Sayer; Robert Morley is Rev. Samuel Sayer; Peter Bull is the Captain of "The Louisa"; with Theodore Bickel as First Officer.

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As a footnote, the film's tagline is "The greatest adventure a man ever lived...with a woman!"

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ENJOY THE MOVIE!