The African Queen Rides Into Adventure with Bogart and Hepburn

Guest blogger Chris Cummins from MovieFanFare pays tribute to a Bogey-Hepburn classic:

Released on December 23, 1951, The African Queen (based on the C.S. Forester novel of the same name) is a cinematic masterpiece that is highlighted by unforgettable lead performances from Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Directed by John Huston, this classic blend of drama, action, and romance stars Humphrey Bogart (who won his only Oscar for this role) as a hard-drinking boat captain who takes aboard prim British missionary Katharine Hepburn in WWI-era Africa. Determined to travel down a treacherous river to sink a German gunboat, the unlikely couple is drawn together as they set their seemingly impossible plan in motion. 

The African Queen features romantic tension, a supporting cast that includes Robert Morley and Theodore Bikel, and a stunning third act. It regularly makes top ten lists of the best films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. We’ve included the film’s original theatrical trailer below. If you’ve somehow missed seeing this film event over the years, we encourage you taking a voyage aboard The African Queen. It’s a trip that is always worth taking.

Five Stars Blogathon: Cary Grant Tops My List of Favorite Stars

This is my contribution to the Five Stars Blogathon in support of National Classic Movie Day. I encourage you to check out all the posts to this wonderful blogathon. When my fellow contributor Rick asked me to write about my five favorite film stars, I came up with four of them quickly. It was a challenge, though, to determine who to place in that last slot!

1. Cary Grant - Debonair and dashingly handsome, I most admire Cary Grant for his versatility. He can play zany roles in comedies like Holiday, charming heroes in escapist fare such as To Catch a Thief, or serious roles like the bitter government agent in Notorious. My favorite Cary Grant movies: Bringing Up Baby, North By Northwest, and The Bishop's Wife.

2.  Deborah Kerr - This gracious, understated actress lights up the silver screen with her compelling presence. She can play a lonely woman whose passion erupts on a sandy beach (From Here to Eternity) or an elegant governess in which a dance is the only way to convey her feelings (The King and I). She can even convincingly play three women in the same film (the under-appreciated Life and Times of Colonel Blimp). My favorite Deborah Kerr films must include Black Narcissus and The Chalk Garden.

3.  David Niven - This classy performer has a unique gift: He makes any movie better when he's in it. Although he became a Hollywood star, it's surprising how many supporting roles he had throughout his career. He flew alongside Errol Flynn in The Dawn Patrol, eluded Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, and was one of the hotel residents in Separate Tables. He was also an entertaining writer, as evidenced by his delightful books Bring On the Empty Horses and The Moon's a Balloon. Some of my favorite films with this multifaceted actor: A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven), The Birds and the Bees, and The Guns of Navarone.

4.  Danny Kaye - I always thought this gifted actor/dancer/singer should have been a bigger star. He was an absolute master of comic timing, as evidenced by the hilarious "Chalice in the Palace" and "Get it? Got it. Good!" routines in The Court Jester. He was also incredibly graceful on the dance floor, as he wonderfully displayed with Vera-Ellen in the lovely White Christmas number "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing." These two also happen to be my favorite Danny Kaye movies.

5.  Katharine Hepburn - I am sure this strong-willed, intelligent actress will show up on many lists in this blogathon--and rightfully so. Like Cary Grant, she was equally at home in comedy and drama. She also managed to remain a star for an incredible five decades (six if you count a trio of made-for-TV movies and a small role in Love Affair). My favorite Katharine Hepburn films include Holiday, Desk Set, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Honorable Mentions:  Charles Laughton, Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim, Vincent Price, and Gene Tierney.

This Week's Poll: Who's Your Mommie Dearest?

This week we're taking a look at monstrous moms. While most of my blogs have featured good mothers - Emma Newton in Shadow of a Doubt, Anna Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis, Martha Hanson in I Remember Mama - it's time now to shine the spotlight on some of the nastier moms on film (with a nod to the great actresses who portrayed them). Which of these lethal ladies would you least like to tuck you in at night?

Mrs. Henry Vale (Gladys Cooper) in Now, Voyager (1942)

Tyrannical Mrs. Vale is matriarch of "the Boston Vales," an extremely wealthy, well-established WASP family. The granite-jawed dowager has her daughter, ugly-duckling Charlotte, firmly in her iron grip - treating her, by turns, as child or servant. Autocratic and manipulative, Mrs. Vale has all but devoured the young woman. Enter Dr. Jaquith, eminent psychiatrist, who meets with Charlotte and declares, "My dear Mrs. Vale, if you had deliberately and maliciously planned to destroy your daughter's life, you couldn't have done it more completely." Unruffled, she imperiously snaps back, "How, by having exercised a mother's rights?"

Later in the game, Mrs. Vale is not above faking a tumble down the stairs in a determined last-ditch effort to regain her hold over her daughter.

Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantin) in Notorious (1946)

Madame Sebastian and her son, Alex, are part of a post-war Nazi enclave in Brazil involved in a vague but fiendish plot. Thanks to the Madame, Alex is something of a movie anomaly - a Nazi mama's boy. Ice-cold and demeaning, Madame Sebastian verbally bludgeons Alex whenever he seems to be straying from her steely domination. When he asks that she at least smile occasionally at the woman he will marry, his mother retorts, "Wouldn't it be a little too much if we both grinned at her like idiots?"

Alex later discovers his new wife is a spy and tells his mother. She grimly lights a cigarette, inhales and takes charge: "Let me arrange this one." And she plots to slowly poison her daughter-in-law to death, something we suspect she's wanted to do all along.

Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

A mother written by Tennessee Williams is bound to be a piece of work, and Mrs. Venable is surely that. A wealthy New Orleans widow, she has recently lost her son Sebastian. He met his death while abroad with his cousin Cathy. Mrs. Venable is now seeking a lobotomy for Cathy who is talking too much about Sebastian and how he died. Though it becomes clear that Sebastian was gay, his mother seems to have been oblivious...she recalls a conversation with him when she was his travelling companion: "...what a lovely summer it's been. Sebastian and Violet. Violet and Sebastian. Just the two of us. Just the way it's always going to be. Oh, we are lucky, my darling, to have one another and need no one else ever." It's not surprising that Mrs. Venable has a Venus Flytrap in her garden.

Mrs. John Iselin (Angela Lansbury) in The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Mrs. Iselin, the brains behind her dim, rabble-rousing U.S. Senator husband, is also the mother of 'war hero'/assassin Raymond Shaw. A skilled demagogue, she easily controls others. But she inspires little love, as evidenced by her son's words: "My mother...is a terrible, terrible woman...You know... it's a terrible thing to hate your mother. But I didn't always hate her. When I was a child I only kind of disliked her." Mrs. Iselin's manipulations are part of a larger plan; she's out for world domination and has sacrificed Raymond's soul as well as the lives of his wife and others in her quest. She has stage-managed everything, from the sentence that will cue an assassination, to its desired aftermath. All she has schemed for is about to become hers...but Mrs. Iselin may have overplayed her hand at Solitaire...

Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) in The Graduate (1967)

Mrs. Robinson suffers from a bad case of Affluenza; her life is comfortable but unsatisfying. Though she and her husband are living the good life and their daughter is away at college, the marriage is dead and she's an alcoholic who habitually seduces young men - including Benjamin, son of her husband's law partner. While Mrs. Robinson's attitude toward Benjamin and their liaison has been cavalier, she comes unhinged when he succumbs to family pressure and takes her daughter, Elaine, on a date. Mrs. R instantly transforms into a vengeful virago and, when Ben and Elaine hit it off, she begins a vicious campaign to derail their romance, bring her daughter back in line and eviscerate Ben in doing so...coo coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson...

Cast your vote for one of these five nefarious nominees at the sidebar to the right...