Movie Monday: The African Queen

Movie Monday: African Queen

While growing up one of my favorite things to do was watch old (1930s and 1940s) movies with my dad. He was (and still is) a huge fan of Humphrey Bogart, so I’ve seen every film he ever made, one of which I watched countless times: The African Queen. Yet, despite my knowledge of the film, I didn’t remember it was set in 1914 or that it was based on the novel of the same name by C.S. Forester, a British author who wrote mostly adventure stories about naval warfare.

For those who haven’t seen it, the premise is that Samuel (Robert Morely) and Rose (Katharine Hepburn) Saylor are brother and sister English Methodist missionaries in German East Africa. Their mail and supplies are regularly delivered by the steamboat African Queen, captained by the Canadian Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart). After war breaks out between Germany and Britain, the siblings decide to stay in Kungdu. Tragically, German troops burn the village and take the villagers away to be pressed into serve. Samuel protests the action and is struck by a soldier which ultimately kills him. Charlie and Rose escape in the African Queen. The rest of the movie is the thrills and chills of their journey to safety and love.

Hepburn does a great job of playing the strait-laced missionary against Bogart’s “gin-swilling” rogue, a

character for which he would win his only Academy Award. According to one source “although the screenplay was written with little humor in mind, the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn was so apparent that director John Huston advised his stars to improvise witty banter.”

The movie was filmed in the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and Turkey during which the rough conditions were difficult for the actors and the crew, many becoming ill over the course of the shooting. The same sight claims “Bogart later boasted that he was one of the few to stay healthy through the shoot, attributing the accomplishment to his drinking of whiskey instead of the local water.”

Here are few fun facts:

• The African Queen was actually the L.S. Livingston, which had been a working diesel boat for 40 years. The steam engine was a prop, and the real diesel engine was hidden under stacked crates of gin and other cargo. It is now docked next to the Holiday Inn in Key Largo, FL, just off US Highway 1.
• Lauren Bacall famously ventured along for the filming in Africa to be with husband Humphrey Bogar. She played den mother during the trip, making camp and cooking. This also marked the beginning of her life-long friendship with Katharine Hepburn.
• The movie was shot mostly on location in Africa, but the water scenes were shot in England - fearing it would be too dangerous to film those on location.
• John Huston wanted to put real leeches on Humphrey Bogart, but he refused. They compromised by using rubber leeches - with real ones on set with a breeder just to make him queasy. A shot using real leeches was filmed using a double.
• It has widely been believed that London's population of feral Ring-Necked Parakeets originated from birds who escaped the filming of this movie.

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYBDRAp4Or8

____________________

Love and Chocolate

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mdQerZ