Film News

Tripwire Reviews StudioCanal’s The African Queen 4K UHD

Published

2 years ago

November 2, 2024

Admin

The Odd Couple

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at StudioCanal’s The African Queen 4K UHD out now…

The African Queen 4K UHD
Director: John Huston
Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Morley

Released back in 1951, this is the first time that John Huston’s adaptation of CS Forester’s African-set adventure film has been released in 4K UHD from Studio Canal’s Classics line.

The story is a simple one here: Hepburn plays strait-laced missionary Rose Sayer in World War I East Africa who finds herself stuck in the continent after her brother, fellow missionary Rev Samuel Sayer (Morley), meets an untimely end. Her only unlikely saviour, the less than hygienic ship’s captain Charlie Allnutt (Bogart), is on hand to rescue her. So an odyssey through the rivers and lakes of East Africa begins, with the pair beset by leeches and the German navy. The African Queen is a classic odd couple film with Sayer and Allnutt initially at odds with each other but of course they eventually come to form a deep personal relationship.

CHARLIE ALLNUT (HUMPHREY BOGART) AND ROSE SAYER (KATHERINE HEPBURN) TRY TO GET SOME SLEEP ABOARD “THE AFRICAN QUEEN” *** Local Caption *** Feature Film

CHARLIE ALLNUT (HUMPHREY BOGART) OPENS THE DRINKS CRATE UP WITH A HAMMER *** Local Caption *** Feature Film

Shot by acclaimed British cinematographer Jack Cardiff, whose CV also included the likes of Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and A Matter Of Life And Death, The African Queen, despite its rather dated story, is lent a touch of class by Huston and Cardiff. Forester also wrote the Hornblower series of books and that explains the Boys Own adventure feel that this film possesses. There is a strange kind of chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart here too, even though it is very much towards the end of Bogart’s onscreen career. Shot partly in Africa but also at Isleworth Studios in London, there is a likeable amiability to this film. Like The Third Man, future James Bond director Guy Hamilton is on hand here as second unit director as is script supervisor Angela Allen. The 4K restoration offers an extra richness for viewers while the extras, which include a making of documentary and a video interview with the film’s second screenwriter Peter Viertel, offer a little extra background on its development and production.

The African Queen isn’t quite a classic film but there is much to recommend it for fans of Huston’s body of work and it is refreshing to see Bogart in a very different role from what we usually expect from him.

StudioCanal have created another very well-assembled restoration, which is an admirable addition to their burgeoning line of classic films.