Althouse: "The characters act as childishly as they talk, and discriminating picture-goers will, no doubt, laugh at them."

November 3, 2019

"The characters act as childishly as they talk, and discriminating picture-goers will, no doubt, laugh at them."

"There is nothing romantic about either Katharine Hepburn or Humphrey Bogart, for both look bedraggled throughout."

From a 1951 review of "The African Queen," quoted at Wikipedia. We watched the movie last night. I think it was about the 3rd time for both of us. I saw it in the 1970s when it was on TV for the first time (which was portrayed in the media then as a big event), and I watched it at least once in the 80s or 90s when my sons were growing up.

More from Wikipedia about the contemporary reviews: Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times called it "rather contrived and even incredible, but melodramatic enough, with almost a western accent, to be popularly effective." Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "a slick job of movie hoodwinking with a thoroughly implausible romance, set in a frame of wild adventure that is as whopping as its tale of off-beat love ... This is not noted with disfavor."

52 comments:

mockturtle said...: My husband and I both loved that movie--good plot, likeable characters, nicely filmed.. And who are these 'discriminating picture-goers'?; 11/3/19, 9:50 AM
Temujin said...: It wasn't the best movie either of them made. However, it is still somewhat of a classic and will be remembered until our generation is gone, at which time the next batch of 'getting olders' will discuss the lasting impressions of such classics as The Avengers- The Final Final Act, and Avatar VI- Because We Have to Save the Planet- Still.

On second thought, I'd rather re-watch The African Queen.; 11/3/19, 9:54 AM
Birkel said...: I remember the leeches scene quite vividly.; 11/3/19, 9:55 AM
David Begley said...: I watched it recently. Trust me, “Frankenstein, Part II” is way, way better.; 11/3/19, 10:01 AM
Flat Tire said...: A beat up wreck of a boat on a trailer was jackknifed against the curb going up Bay Street in San Francisco about 1968. I stopped to gawk and driver said it was the African Queen. I'll never know if that was true but looked plausible.; 11/3/19, 10:04 AM
Rob said...: The critics probably identified with the leeches.; 11/3/19, 10:09 AM
gilbar said...: thoroughly implausible romance

Implausible?
the idea of a lesbo and an alcoholic falling for each other? I guess it DOES sound implausible; 11/3/19, 10:14 AM
Michael K said...: I liked it but both were sort of anti-heroes.; 11/3/19, 10:27 AM
robother said...: "Discriminating picture-goers." Reminds me how the movie theaters I went to as a kid in the 50s were tricked out to look like opera houses.; 11/3/19, 10:34 AM
Seeing Red said...: We just watched it, my husband for the first time. I was laughing remembering Carol Burnett’s take.; 11/3/19, 10:38 AM
Michael said...: Exhibit #1587 as to why I tune out the media, especially film and music critics. Starting in my 20s and growing ever since is an awareness of the divide between the cultural elite and the proles. The movies I liked and were solid box office were getting torn apart in the pages of the NYT, WaPo, Philly Inquirer, etc all the while the films glowingly pumped by these critics were dishwater.

There was a time in the 90s when the alternative weeklies were penning some great reviews, mostly because they were writing from a grassroots perspective (and were truly alternative to the pompous asses at the desk of big-city dailies). Sadly, a lot of those alt-media rags have gone woke and their current writers know a little less than sh!t.

Anyway: African Queen - 5 stars, Two Thumbs Up, 100% Fresh Tomatoes; 11/3/19, 10:47 AM
rcocean said...: Really. That's not a movie i would expect Althouse watch 3 times. Noting the story is implausible is a little like claiming "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is unhistorical. Obvious -but irrelevant.

Even cleaned up, neither 51 y/o Bogart and 43 y/o Hepburn were "romantic figures". Were either of them EVER Romantic figures? The writing/direction in "Casablanca" is so good, it makes us overlook a crucial flaw. Why is Beautiful Ingrid Bergman so in love with 5/8 Humphrey Bogart?

Anyway, I always liked the film - since it filmed on-location in Africa, and both Bogart and Hepburn are playing to their strengths. Personally, I would have been delighted to sit out WW I in East Africa, and dying to a sink a meaningless German Steamer on an African Lake seems like a waste of time. but its an adventure/romance so who cares?; 11/3/19, 10:54 AM
Ken B said...: Does it promote conversation around sexuality?; 11/3/19, 10:57 AM
Lucien said...: “Not noted with disfavor” evokes the discussion of the “not un-“ construction in “Politics and the English language.”; 11/3/19, 10:58 AM
Ralph L said...: The book is by the same author as the Hornblower series. I read it for 9th grade English. Never particularly wanted to see the movie.; 11/3/19, 11:13 AM
Ralph L said...: the “not un-“ construction

Not infrequent in Trollope.; 11/3/19, 11:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: LOL, Ken B.

It actually is a great movie for talking about masculinity and femininity — especially the weaknesses of both masculinity and femininity and feeling giddily inspired by the combination of the two.; 11/3/19, 11:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Every marriage is a trip down the river — with waterfalls and insects and snipers — and you can run aground with the lake in view if only you could see things from a higher angle.; 11/3/19, 11:18 AM
David Begley said...: “Frankenstein, Part II” is a love poem to marriage. Two misfits fall in love.; 11/3/19, 11:30 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Kathryn Hepburn was 5’10”; Humphrey Bogart was 5’6”, so they both went through life saying they were 5’8”.; 11/3/19, 11:35 AM
William said...: Humphrey Bogart, of all the great stars, had the greatest variety in his great roles. There's quite a lot of difference between Capt. Queeg, Fred C. Dobbs, and Rick Blaine, but he was not just credible but memorable in each role. I think he has by far the greatest number of great movies in his back list.; 11/3/19, 11:49 AM
William said...: I think Cary Grant could have pulled off Rick in Casablanca but no way could he have been Fred C. Dobbs or Capt. Queeg.....Of all the major movie stars, Bogart was the most ordinary looking and the least physically prepossessing, but, on a crowded screen, he's the one you paid attention to.; 11/3/19, 12:09 PM
EsoxLucius said...: Three lefties - Bogart, Hepburn, and Huston - sailing in Africa to hide from McCarthy and Cohn.; 11/3/19, 12:17 PM
Roughcoat said...: Implausible or no, it closely follows C.S. Forester's novel. I found it entirely plausible. It's a great movie.; 11/3/19, 12:21 PM
Roughcoat said...: Oh, btw ... I first saw African Queen on television in the late 1950s -- on Chicago's WGN Channel 9, a local station.; 11/3/19, 12:26 PM
buwaya said...: The C.S.Forester novel is better than the movie. IMHO. Not that I am so humble, but still.

The circumstances, the big and small details, the world, are there in the ways only writers like Forester can do it. The characters are also much better drawn. These are, in Foresters novel, much more ordinary people, more limited, more prosaic, more frightened, more tentative, more confused, more tragic.

Forester was and still is terribly underrated. He did sell a great number of books, but never had a literary reputation. But his books are much more complex than the popular idea of them. His characters in particular are much more real, or realistic.; 11/3/19, 12:28 PM
Roughcoat said...: The backstory about the making of the movie is quite good -- and revealing. Evidently John Huston and Bogart spent most of their waking hours getting rip-roaring drunk together, much to the dismay of Hepburn and Betty Bacall, who tagged along on the shoot. Clint Eastwood made a decent movie based on their shenanigans -- he played Huston.; 11/3/19, 12:30 PM
buwaya said...: My favorite Forester is "The Gun".
The old movie is a pale shadow of the book.; 11/3/19, 12:31 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: The book is by the same author as the Hornblower series. I read it for 9th grade English. Never particularly wanted to see the movie.

The movie is much better than the book. For some reason, Forester really seemed to dislike both of the protags in the book, the Hepburn character especially.; 11/3/19, 12:41 PM
chickelit said...: The weakest part of that movie was the pool scene at the very end. I suppose that it just had to be staged like that.; 11/3/19, 12:42 PM
Roughcoat said...: It also worth noting that, in the book, neither Charlie nor Rosie were prizewinners in the looks department. Rosie, a prim missionary, was at the outset described as plain, even homely -- Forester was firm on this point. And Charlie was Charlie, a bedraggled unshaven river rat, and a drunk. But Forester is equally as firm that both underwent a transformation during the course of their adventures; and that this transformation actually made them more physically attractive in addition to making them more attractive in terms of their respective personality and character. So, their attraction to each other was by no means implausible. They were two plain people who found each other, and themselves, in the crucible of war, and became better people -- and more attractive in the deepest sense -- because of what they experienced and overcame together.; 11/3/19, 12:45 PM
Roughcoat said...: At one point late in the novel Forester describes Rosie as almost literally blossoming -- her cheeks have taken on an appropriately rosie hue from being in the sun and even her breasts seem firmer. She is more confident and has a bold look. She becomes more of a woman -- even as Charlie is becoming more of a man. And they're falling in love with each other.; 11/3/19, 12:48 PM
dreams said...: It's great movie, I watch it every few years.; 11/3/19, 12:53 PM
Roughcoat said...: Finally: watch the scene, in the movie, where Charlie describes how he made the two torpedoes he will use to attack the German gunboat. Charlie was really ingenious in making them and Rosie gazes at him as he talks with frank admiration and affection. And Charlie is just as proud as a peacock that he has finally done something worthwhile, finally succeeded at something -- and finally attracted the attention of a pretty gal. He's trying to impress her, and in fact he does just that, and he knows it.

It's a charming moment.; 11/3/19, 12:56 PM
FullMoon said...: Birkel said... [hush][hide comment]

I remember the leeches scene quite vividly.

Me too.
"Damn leeches, filthy motherfuckers!"; 11/3/19, 1:19 PM
TML said...: OK, it's smashing time. This movie is an all-time great. I am holding my copy of this book in my hands right now

https://www.amazon.com/Making-African-Queen-Africa-Bogart/dp/0394562720

And I will fight anyone who besmirches this movie!

AAaaarggggghhhhhh!!!; 11/3/19, 1:27 PM
Huisache said...: As I recall, the book’s ending is ambiguous about the survival of their romance. A refusal of a happily ever after. The love scenes are arousing but also a little...Oedipal. Rose is described as large, ripe, strong, and big-breasted, Charlie as small and in as much need of a mother as a mistress, pillowing his head on her firm bosom, etc. Hepburn & Bogart are excellent but quite a different take.

I’m a romantic. I like the movie. I watch it with my kids. The book bums me out.; 11/3/19, 1:37 PM
Seeing Red said...: The Enchanted Cottage.

He scarred by war, dumped by his fiancée. She a meek, plain young woman. They get to know each other and see past their physical imperfections.

They become stronger together.; 11/3/19, 1:38 PM
John henry said...: Esox lucas

McCarthy? Movie stars?

What does one have to do with the other?

Sounds like you need to learn some basic history.

John Henry; 11/3/19, 1:41 PM
Nichevo said...: So much fine work from Forester - Hornblower, The Gun, Brown on Resolution, Payment Deferred, the list goes on - but this passage from one of his short stories in Gold from Crete is the one that always sneaks up on me unawares:

The dashing young general commanding the armor on the invasion beaches was already fretting and champing at the bit. He had forty heavy tanks at his disposal now, armed and fueled and ready to march, and London was no more than two long marches away from where he waited at Playden, his tanks distributed through the village, while the battle in the air still raged above him. But even forty heavy tanks were not sufficient for a decisive blow. Between him and London there was infantry, he knew; there would be roadblocks, there were a few guns, possibly. He needed artillery to help him on his way and motorized infantry to follow him up; he needed bridging equipment and air reconnaissance, and none of this was available as yet. Moreover, he had only to look behind him, down the hill from Playden, to see a huge column of smoke mounting up into the blue sky from the beaches; the last bombing attack there had hit two of his invaluable tank barges, and that smoke was rising from a million gallons of gasoline pouring in blazing rivers down into the sea. He drummed with his fingers as he sat high up in his command car in the shadow of Playden church.

That was when the old gentleman came along, the colonel, who had first been under fire in the Boer War and who had survived three wounds at Arras and the Somme. He was the only civilian in sight; such of the other inhabitants of Playden who had not fled before the parachutists were sitting apprehensively in cellars and kitchens. But the colonel walked boldly along. The empty sleeve showed that he was only a crippled noncombatant; his remaining hand was in the side pocket of his tweed coat. And running through his mind was Churchill’s phrase, ‘You can always take one with you.’

The keen blue eyes recognized the command car and the general with the Iron Cross under his chin. The old Mauser pistol, which had been his mascot on the Somme, had three rounds still in the magazine — thirty years old, but when he pulled out the pistol and pressed the trigger, they did their work. The young general fell headfirst out of the command car, tumbling to the road with a look of surprise still on his face, and the colonel fell four yards away from him, riddled by bursts from the pistols of the general’s infuriated staff.; 11/3/19, 1:44 PM
John henry said...: Buwaya, others,

I read the book for the first time last year and really liked it.

I've read a number of his other books and always like them. I did read a bunch of hornbloer at once though and found them a bit formulaic. Good but formulaic.

Best of all is The General.

John Henry; 11/3/19, 1:46 PM
Dave Begley said...: Roughcoat:

I like your comment. In my script, two misfits become attracted to each other. The Creature's arc is from murdering beast to happily married husband and ….; 11/3/19, 2:04 PM
jimbino said...: Yes, it's as entertaining as a movie should be. What I object to is the hackneyed theme of marriage as the denouement. Marriage, like kids, is to be avoided by thoughtful people. It would have been a better ending to have them blown up along with the African Queen and the German ship while discussing the naming of their first child or first dog.

As it was, it was more like an Anne Frank denouement where she marries one of her diary's imagined lovers, only to retire and go on living, happily ever after, in Amsterdam.; 11/3/19, 2:41 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: It's not my favorite Bogart movie by any means ("Casablanca" is one of my favorites of all time and "The Big Sleep" is up there too), but still, it's pretty good.

I've always been indifferent to Katherine Hepburn as an actress, never finding her attractive or really able to disappear into a character and make you believe in them. Maybe I've just never seen her best work.

Off topic, but:

I found the Casablanca love angle convincing because Ilsa seemed to be basically a weak person who was lost without a strong man to orbit around. Victor was out of town on business but rough-and-ready Rick was available. He served just fine at the time, but found himself on the train platform the next day with his insides kicked out. Sad!

She tried the old black magic on him later to get the letters of transit, but it didn't work. It's always fun to watch Rick making her squirm for a while before doing what he planned to do all along.

Interesting how successful films (and novels) end up saying true things about human nature almost unintentionally, in the process of trying to make the work plausibly true to life.

Thanks to buwaya for the tip about the Forester novel. I'll look it up!; 11/3/19, 4:16 PM
mockturtle said...: Rcocean, I found Bogart very, very attractive.; 11/3/19, 5:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Audrey Hepburn is not every one’s cup of tea. But Bogart fell for her. He must have got tired of Ingrid Bergman dumping him.; 11/3/19, 5:39 PM
ken in tx said...: Leeches!; 11/3/19, 7:11 PM
Unknown said...: The naval war in Africa vs WWI is fascinating, The German ship that inspired--likely--was the steamer Graf von Goetzen, which is still afloat today as a diesel powered passenger ship on Lake Tanganyika: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Liemba

Just what counts as romantic, anyway!; 11/3/19, 7:43 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: C. S. Forester's work varies significantly. His "Sink The Bismarck" is pretty weak. OTOH I've enjoyed his Hornblower series. I'll have to look up the African Queen novel.

As for the movie--I've watched it several times--or at least parts of it several times. I saw the original on the big screen when I was maybe a teenager.; 11/3/19, 8:21 PM
MacMacConnell said...: Roughcoat said..

"So, their attraction to each other was by no means implausible. They were two plain people who found each other, and themselves, in the crucible of war, and became better people -- and more attractive in the deepest sense -- because of what they experienced and overcame together."

I knew a couple that in their 30s fell in love on the Bataan Death March and got married after WWII. Both were Army, he a JAG, her a nurse. They had four children relatively late in life for the times.; 11/4/19, 8:47 AM
Johnathan Birks said...: African Queen is one of the most overrated movies of all time. The chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn is nonexistent and the plot, such as it is, beggars the imagination.; 11/4/19, 8:51 AM
PM said...: Like a lot of what Huston did - could watch The Man Who Would Be King a hundred times - but once or twice is enough for The AQ.; 11/4/19, 10:37 AM