History Film / TheAfricanQueen

* LastWishMarriage: [[spoiler: Charlie and Rose get one before the Germans are about to hang them. Charlie uses it to ask the Captain to marry them.]]

** When the ''African Queen'' is stuck and lost in a marsh, Rose prays for God's mercy. When she and Charlie go to sleep that night, a [[WeatherSavesTheDay sudden rain-storm]] washes them into the lake where they were headed to.

* EveryoneHasStandards: The command staff of the ''Königin Luise'' are rather pitiless, but do give Charlie every opportunity to tell them the truth during his trial. The captain also grants Charlie his last request of marrying him and Rosie.

* InVinoVeritas: When drunk, Charlie finally speaks up to how insane Rose "plan" is and how how much he hates her HolierThanThou attitude.

* MacGyvering: Charlie manages to repair his damaged boat using a makeshift bellows and anvil, and uses some cannisters, blasting powder and bullets to create some makeshift ramming explosives.

* WorstAid: And completely unintentionally, too. Take a wild guess how it ends for Charlie once Rose throws away all his gin, with nothing left to mix with the river water now. This is doubly ironic on meta-level, since Bogart was reportedly one of the few people on set that wasn't sick, ''precisely'' due to the heavy drinking he was indulging.

* AdaptationExpansion: [[spoiler: The end of the novel says that Rose and Charlie will try to find someone to marry them. In the film they actually are married on the deck of the German ship]].

* FinalSpeech: Rose's brother makes one about the disappointments of his life.

* InstantLeechJustFallInWater: Charlie gets covered in leeches when he drags the ship through reeds. After pulling them all off, he has to get right back into the river.

* ThePollyanna: Rose is this merged with StiffUpperLip. Katharine Hepburn was told by John Huston to play her like Eleanor Roosevelt, with her "society smile" at all times. She called this the best direction she ever received.

* SkewedPriorities: Subverted. Rose is initially horrified at Charlie coming into her sleeping quarters and orders him out. Then she realises how hard it's raining and tells him he can come back in.

* WartimeWedding: [[spoiler: Rose and Charlie's wedding on the deck of the German ship]].

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Subverted for the most part. Rose and Charlie certainly look like two people who have lived in Africa for a while - Charlie especially is very sun-tanned while Rose's complexion is explained by the hats she wears. Her clothes at least look as though she's had them for a while and they do rip after a while. Charlie seems to hang a lampshade on them not looking worse - by Rose being a {{Determinator}} who works hard to make an effort.

** When the ''African Queen'' is stuck and lost in a marsh, Rose prays for God's mercy. When she and Charlie go to sleep that night, a sudden rain-storm washes them into the lake where they were headed to.

--> '''Charlie:''' I don't blame you for being scared, Miss, not one little bit. Ain't no person in their right mind ain't scared of white water.\\

* LastRequest: [[spoiler: Charlie and Rose get one before the Germans are about to hang them. Charlie uses it to ask the captain to marry them.]]

The TroubledProduction of this film made such an impression on Hepburn that she later wrote a book about it, entitled ''The Making of'' The African Queen: ''or How I Went To Africa With Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind''. Hepburn being an ace DeadpanSnarker in real life, it is very funny. Screenwriter Peter Viertel also wrote a novel about the shoot that was later adapted by Creator/ClintEastwood as ''Film/WhiteHunterBlackHeart'' starring Eastwood as John Wilson (a Huston {{Expy}}). This film is notable for how damn long it took to come out on DVD despite widespread interest: it only came out in 2010, at least in the US. (An earlier British DVD was taken from a faded print. Later DVD and Blu-Ray releases are fully remastered.)

The TroubledProduction film made such an impression on Hepburn she later wrote a book about it, entitled ''The Making of'' The African Queen: ''or How I Went To Africa With Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind''. Screenwriter Peter Viertel also wrote a novel about the shoot that was later adapted by Creator/ClintEastwood as ''Film/WhiteHunterBlackHeart'' starring Eastwood as John Wilson (a Huston {{Expy}}). This film is notable for how damn long it took to come out on DVD despite widespread interest: it only came out in 2010, at least in the US. (An earlier British DVD was taken from a faded print. Later DVD and Blu-Ray releases are fully remastered.)

''The African Queen'' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by Creator/JohnHuston, based on the 1935 novel by Creator/CSForester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and Creator/HumphreyBogart.

Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in German East Africa at the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Bogart is Charlie Allnut, the hard-drinking man with a riverboat who, among other things, brings the mail from town every few weeks. When Rose's brother dies, he offers to take her to the nearest town to catch a ship to Britain. Being gutsy as she is, Rose instead creates a daring plan to build a makeshift torpedo, sail ''down'' the river (which no one has ever done) and take out the ''Königin Luise'', a ship patrolling the German-controlled lake that is the only thing standing in the way of the British army. This being a film with a man and a woman as its primary stars in the [[TheFifties 1950s]], naturally, [[UptightLovesWild they fall in love]].