Tuesday 21 August 2012

Not a royal yacht

The African Queen (1951)

Directed by John Huston this film based on the novel of the same name stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. A British spinster and a Canadian mechanic are caught up in the start of the First World war in German East Africa.

This is a pretty faithful adaptation with the only real departure being that Bogart's character is changed from a Cockney to a Canadian. As an adventure film this is not a bad film even if some of the action sequences are a little tame by modern standards. What the film really lacks is any greater depth, the main romance is not really enough to hang the whole picture on and unfortunately the film passes up the chance make comment on either the war or colonialism.

3/5

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