Film Programme ● Saturday 28th June
BLACKPOOL COMMUNITY CENTRE
SATURDAY 28TH JUNE ● DOORS AT 6.30PM ● FREE ENTRY
THE AFRICAN QUEEN from 1951
African Queen screening
The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester, directed by John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor) and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marner and Theodore Bikel.
Set in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I, the film focuses on Charlie Allnut, a slovenly gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain, and Rose Sayer, a prim psalm-singing British missionary. After German troops burn Rose’s mission, which leads to the death of her clergyman-brother, Charlie comes to her rescue, helping her bury her brother and escape down the nearby river on his dilapidated boat, the African Queen.
Although the screenplay was written with little humour in mind, the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn was so apparent that director John Huston advised his stars to improvise witty banter. Huston’s insistence upon filming in the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and Turkey added immeasurably to the lush look of the production, even if the rough conditions in Africa were trying on the cast and crew.
Set in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I, the film focuses on Charlie Allnut, a slovenly gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain, and Rose Sayer, a prim psalm-singing British missionary. After German troops burn Rose’s mission, which leads to the death of her clergyman-brother, Charlie comes to her rescue, helping her bury her brother and escape down the nearby river on his dilapidated boat, the African Queen.
Although the screenplay was written with little humour in mind, the chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn was so apparent that director John Huston advised his stars to improvise witty banter. Huston’s insistence upon filming in the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and Turkey added immeasurably to the lush look of the production, even if the rough conditions in Africa were trying on the cast and crew.