Originally,
I was going to do this post about The Maltese Falcon,
which deserves a spot on anybody's Best Movies List. And for the
record, The Maltese Falcon
really is on my list. But since I'm limiting myself to ten (in no
particular order), I have to admit that I like Humphrey Bogart better
in The African Queen.
And it's not just because Charlie Allnut is a nicer guy. In a weird
sort of way, my choice between the two movies (and the two
characters) is like the difference between the dangerous kind of guy
and the good guy. You're attracted to the dangerous guy, but in the
end it's the good guy you end up marrying.
Both
movies have well-written stories and engaging plots. ButThe
African Queen has one other
bonus: Katherine Hepburn. While the Maltese Falcon is
about one guy, Sam Spade, and his search for the truth, The
African Queen is about two very
different people whose lives intertwine so successfully, they're able
to achieve the impossible (or at least the improbable).
Charlie
Allnut is a tugboat captain, an independent guy whose love of freedom
has taken him to Africa, a place most Americans will never see. The
political climate there is dangerous, so he has to be both smart and
courageous to pursue that freedom. But he's also a down
to-earth-guy, and when he meets Rose Sayer, he feels that they belong
to different classes.
And
he's right. She is the sister of a missionary, and her goal is to
help people find God. It's a goal that blows up right in her face,
leaving her with ashes, but Charlie rescues her in more ways than
one. Rose feels she has lost everything, but as she and Charlie get
into that boat and go crashing down the river rapids into an
uncertain future, she makes an observation that is my favorite quote
from the whole movie: “I never dreamed any mere physical
experience could be so
stimulating!” She loves that trip down the rapids. She begins to
develop an interest in the boat itself – and in the man who owns
it.
Katherine
Hepburn wrote a wonderful diary about the making of the movie, The Making Of The African Queen.
They filmed in Africa, and there were some issues with the water
which Humphrey Bogart and John Huston seemed to have neatly avoided
by spiking that water with a little whisky. The African
Queen is an essential John
Huston movie. Like the cast and crew, the characters are tested by
hardships. How they rise to those challenges defines their
character.
The
most charming moment in the film happens the morning after Charlie
and Rose have obviously been intimate with each other (a moment
handled with great sensitivity and discretion), and she says to him,
“Dear – what is your first name?” This romance
binds them together, but isn't the strongest thing doing so. That
would be their mission, which is to blow up a German warship that has
moored in the lake at the end of the tributary in which they are
struggling. They may be going through Hell, but it's not High Water
they're battling, it's low water,
which threatens to strand the boat. But they refuse to give up, even
when things look hopeless.
With
equal parts humor and tragedy, their struggle is engrossing. The
resolution of their story is both gratifying and believable. No
superheroes save the day, no wizards throw magic bolts of lightning
at each other. Instead, two people refuse to give up – and they
triumph. That's why The African Queen
makes the top ten, with no reservations whatsoever.
