History Film / TheAfricanQueen

* PluckyGirl: Rose is a little more refined than most examples, but her spirit and determination to sink the U-boat definitely puts her in there.

* AdaptationalBadass: In the movie version, Rose and Charlie actually succeed in sinking the "Louisa". In the novel they don't, the ship has to be sunk by a couple of more modern British gunboats transported overland piece by piece and then reassembled to be launched in the East African lake.
* AdaptationalNationality: Charlie is a patriotic working-class Englishman in the original novel. Bogart couldn't do the English accent, so the character was made Canadian. His patriotism still applies to UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire, which sort of works.
* AdaptationalVillainy: The Captain of the "Louisa" condemning Charlie and Rose to hang. In the novel he rejects that notion as uncivilized and hands them over to the British under a flag of truce.
** According to TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar as accepted at the time, civilians who attack soldiers were supposed to be executed, just like spies.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Rose can never look like someone who is eaten alive by tropical insects. [[FridgeLogic She's Katherine Hepburn.]]
** Still mostly subverted, Bogie and Hepburn look sweaty and weather-beaten the entire film, even if they do retain their natural charisma. Even Hepburn's nice English clothes look she's been wearing them her entire ten years as a missionary.
* BilingualBonus: Bring your German vocabulary flash cards.
* CharacterDevelopment: Rose learns to let go of her social inhibitions.
** It is safe to assume that Charlie introduced her to further 'stimulating physical experiences' seeing how badly they want to get married at the end.

* DeusExMachina: When the ''African Queen'' is stuck and lost in a marsh, Rose prays for help. When she and Allnut go to sleep that night, a sudden rain-storm washes them into the lake where they were headed to.
* DryCrusader: Rose really doesn't like people drinking alcohol and demonstrates it by dumping out Allnut's gin.

* KickTheDog: The German army burning down a native village in act one. Not an example of MoralEventHorizon in that it is implied the villagers survived and were captured, not slaughtered.
* LastRequest: Allnut and Rose get one before the Germans are about to hang them. Allnut uses it to ask the captain to marry them.
* MacGyvering: Allnut 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.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Rose is actually ''supposed'' to be a Briton (the sister of ''very'' British Robert Morley); for most Americans, at least, Hepburn's Bryn Mawr educated tones are a reasonable approximation. (Allnut is ''somewhat'' justified in the film [though not in the original novel] as a Canadian.)
** [[NotSoDifferent To North American ears]], he does not sound the least bit Canadian.
** In novel and original script Allnut was meant to be Cockney. Huston cast Bogart and changed his nationality because he knew Bogart wasn't going to pull off that accent.
* OppositesAttract
** And the related AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther.
* TheQuest
* UptightLovesWild
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It was based on the real-life sinking of a German gunboat in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that required hauling a boat through the wilderness. No, it was not done by a beautiful movie star and a plucky mechanic. It was done by the Royal Navy.
** In turn, Creator/ClintEastwood made a thinly veiled depiction of this film's production in ''White Hunter Black Heart''.
* WartimeWedding: Rose and Charlie.

* AdaptationalNationality: Charlie is a patriotic working-class Englishman in the original novel. Bogart couldn't do the English accent, so the character was made Canadian. His patriotism still applies to TheBritishEmpire, which sort of works.

* NonNudeBathing: Rose and Charlie go bathing on opposite sides of the boat, for the sake of decency. Then Rose can't climb back in on her own; there are several {{Fanservice}}-y shots of her stretching her legs out to try, with no visible clothing. Finally she asks for Charlie's help, but insists that he avert his eyes... and when he pulls her up onto the boat, it turns out she was wearing a short shift the entire time, and just has the nudity taboos appropriate to the post-Victorian missionary that she is.
* MacGyvering: Allnut 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.

** According to TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar as accepted at the time, civilians who attack soldiers were supposed to be executed, just like spies.

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 ''White Hunter Black Heart'' 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 came only 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.)

Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in British Colonial 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]].

* DuelingStarsMovie

''The African Queen'' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and Creator/HumphreyBogart.

Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in British Colonial Africa at the start of 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]].

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It was based on the real-life sinking of a German gunboat in WorldWarI that required hauling a boat through the wilderness. No, it was not done by a beautiful movie star and a plucky mechanic. It was done by the Royal Navy.

'''''The African Queen''''' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and Creator/HumphreyBogart.

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''. This film is notable for how damn long it took to come out on DVD despite widespread interest: it came only 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 John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and Creator/HumphreyBogart in the role that would win him his only Oscar.

Bogart, of course, would win his only [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]], while Hepburn would add yet another nomination to her impressive collection.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheAfricanQueen_2656.jpg

Bogart, of course, would win his only [[AcademyAward Oscar]], while Hepburn would add yet another nomination to her impressive collection.

Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in British Colonial Africa at the start of 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 ship and go back 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]].

'''''The African Queen''''' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and Creator/HumphreyBogart[[note]]who, as it turns out, were ranked by the AFI as the greatest actress and actor in Hollywood history, respectively[[/note]] in the role that would win him his only Oscar.

* TroubledProduction: Filming in Africa didn't help the cast and crew. Creator/KatharineHepburn actually wrote a book about it, aptly titled ''The Making of ''The African Queen'': Or How I Went to Africa With Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind''.
** Among the many stories she relates, she mentions that Bogart and Huston were the only two members of the crew who didn't come down with diarrhea -- they did this by drinking nothing but whiskey for the course of the filming. (Hepburn also revealed that she had to call frequent halts during her initial hymn-singing scenes so she could vomit into a bucket.)

** In turn, ClintEastwood made a thinly veiled depiction of this film's production in ''White Hunter Black Heart''.

* TroubledProduction: Filming in Africa didn't help the cast and crew.
** Among the many stories relayed by KatherineHepburn in her book, she mentions that Bogart and Huston were the only two members of the crew who didn't come down with diarrhea - they did this by drinking nothing but whiskey for the course of the filming. (Hepburn also revealed that she had to call frequent halts during her initial hymn-singing scenes so she could vomit into a bucket.)

'''''The African Queen''''' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring Creator/KatharineHepburn and HumphreyBogart[[note]]who, as it turns out, were ranked by the AFI as the greatest actress and actor in Hollywood history, respectively[[/note]] in the role that would win him his only Oscar.

* KickTheDog: The German army burning down a native village in act one. Not an example of MoralEventHorizon in that it is implied the villagers survived and captured, not slaughtered.

[[quoteright:245:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheAfricanQueen_2656.jpg]]

'''''The African Queen''''' is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, and starring KatharineHepburn and HumphreyBogart[[note]]who, as it turns out, were ranked by the AFI as the greatest actress and actor in Hollywood history, respectively[[/note]] in the role that would win him his only Oscar.