After her fellow missionary brother dies (Samuel Sayer - played by Robert Morley), after an attack by the Germans in German East Africa at the start of the First World War, Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) persuades Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) to take his steamboat down the treacherous Ulonga- Bora river to try and destroy a German gunboat with homemade torpedoes, as it is based in the lake at the end of the river, and preventing English counter attacks. Despite their differences, love blossoms (of course) as they overcome the dangers and obstacles in their way. The African Queen is a classic, and Bogart is superb, even if you can't watch him nowadays without imagining people imitating him. He won a well deserved Oscar for this in 1951, but l wasn't that keen on Hepburn's performance, and she looked too emaciated. In the past, l have been amongst the reeds shown in the film, as they are in Dalaman, Turkey, and they sure are plentiful. If l'd been aware that it had been filmed there at the time, l'd have leapt overboard and re-enacted some scenes, cigar and whisky in hand, leeches or no leeches, so it's probably a good job l didn't know. I have however, wrestled naked in the amphitheater there, so it's not all bad (apart from the poor sods who viewed it).
toodle pip
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