African Queen Aspect ratio: 4:3 Full Frame Sound: Dolby Digital Mono Year made: 1951 Country: UK / USA Duration: 100 mins. Print: Colour Genre: Classic Action Adventure / Romance / War / Drama NEW Directed by: John Huston Writing credits: C.S. Forester (novel) James Agee (adaptation) Humphrey Bogart .... Charlie Allnut Katharine Hepburn .... Rose Sayer Robert Morley .... Rev. Samuel Sayer Peter Bull .... Captain of Louisa Theodore Bikel .... First Officer Walter Gotell .... Second Officer Peter Swanwick .... First Officer of Shona The African Queen might the most well-rounded movie ever seen, or at least most well-rounded of the oldies. Staring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn 'The African Queen" touched on brilliance in action, adventure, comedy, and a nice little dose of drama and romance to create a package that anyone would love. This is the role that won Humphrey Bogart the only Oscar of his career. The Original first choices for the lead roles were John Mills and Bette Davis & offered to Bette Davis in 1938 to have co-starred with David Niven as Charlie. It was offered again to Bette Davis in 1947, this time to co-star James Mason, but she had to pull out of the project due to pregnancy. In 1949, Bette Davis tried again to make the film, but by that time plans were under way for Katharine Hepburn to star. This was to be Hepburns first colour film. Katharine Hepburn suffered a severe bout of dysentery during filming. This was due to her disgust with the amount of alcohol that John Huston and Humphrey Bogart consumed and in protest she drank only water. The leeches were first modeled in Plasticine before moulds were made, the leeches Humphrey Bogart pulls off in the film were made of rubber. The boat Known as the "LS Livingston", the "Queen of Africa" was a working steam boat for 40 years prior to it being used in the movie. It can be seen docked next to the Holiday Inn just off US Highway 1, in Key Largo, Florida. [a]
