8mm Forum: The African Queen!

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 13, 2009, 12:33 PM:

Some films are timeless from the very moment that they come out. This is one of them.

This film stars (for those who do not know), Humphrey Bogart, (he won a "Best Actor" oscar for his work in this), and Kathertine Hepburn and, once again, Bogart was teamed with John Huston, for who he had done numerous great films of the forties, (The Maltese falcon, Treasure of the Sierra madre, Key largo).

Bogart plays a booze hound of a captian of a skiff (boat) called the "African Queen". He was a miner who nows runs supplies back and forth to sites. he stops at the site of a Mission, run by Katherine Hepburn and her stubborn brother, (played by Robert Morley).

This takes place during World War 1, and troops come to the mission and forcibly haul off the men to become solders. The brother tries to object, but gets severely wounded on the head by a solder, and quickly loses his mind in fever and dies. When Mr Alnut (Bogart) makes his return trip, he finds no natives and only Kate (as I'll call her from now on). He buries her brother and takjes her on the boat with him.

While on the boat, shwe finds out that one of the things Bogart is carrying is the makings of explosives, and that there is a german ship that is terrorizing the area. She wants to take the "African Queen" and, with homemade explosives, blow it up.

At first, Alnut just humors her, but he is eventually won over to her position, (after sobering up, that is), Being a missionary, she is at first put off by the brash rude and drunken Alnut, but, (after pouring out the "offending liquid")
they start to slowly gel.

But in order to attack said ship, they have to get past a lot of rapids, waterfalls and a German lookout (castle), which they barely get by, as well as hideous swarms of malaria carrying mousquito's.

During all this, this odd couple slowly fall in love, (somewhat realistically done as well), much to both of thier surprise.

They're boat gets bogged down in the bogs. When they try to free it, (by actually getting out of the boat and pulling it)
they get covered in leeches, (ouch)!

They get stuck and expect to die. Alnut is stricken with the fever, and Kate prays to God for just one miracle.

The miracle happens. A monsoon rain hits and within hours, the water rises and frees them from the bogs. It turns out that they were but a few feet from the lake, (where the massive battleship has been all along.) They have made the bombs and head out to the lake by night, but a terrible storm hits and the African Queen is torn apart.

Alnut is rescued first, by the german boat and quickly tried for espionage and is to be hanged. Rosie (Kate) is also caught and to be hanged. Before they are killed, however, Alnut asks if the captian, (who's about to hang them) can mary them. The captian, surprised, goes along with it.

Meanwhile, what's left of the African Queens hull, with torpedo's still intact, is floating dangerously towards the boat.
The ship hits the torpedo's and the ship goes up in flames and sinks, allowing to Alnut and Rosie to escape and swim away!

The End

A great film by any measure. You can't help but love Bogarts booze hound Alnut, (and REALLY feel for him as all his precious liquor is poured out into the river). Katherine Hepburn was also very good. Most of the film was actually shot down there in Africa.

This was released, (unless I'm mistaken) by Ken films, but it was taken from a "Viacom" TV print. (By the way, at the end of the final reel, it has that old "Viacom" title and music on it, which was kind of nice to see once again.) This is probaly why the sharpnesss of the print isn't absolutely perfect. It's not terrible, but one wishes that it was better.

This is one film that looks great in Technicolor! My print hasn't faded a bit, and the colors are very well saturated. I have always kind of complained about Technicolor, but in this case, it's well worth seeing! The print is an Eastman print; it's not L.P.P. (I can't see any markings of such), but it's certianly the higher grade eastman. The film grain is certianly passable.

The sound, however, is slightly muddled. I plan on taking the restored DVD of this and re-recording it.

This was marketed on 6X400ft reels, but it easily and snuggly fits on 5X400ft, (or 4X600ft, if you should desire.)

When I had at first heard of this film, (a riverboat captian and a missionary), I was put off, thinking it wouldn't be all that great, but it tryly is great!

" I gave us up for dead when we first started out Miss!"

A magnificent film and one well worthy of being on your shelves!

Posted by Chip Gelmini (Member # 44) on February 15, 2009, 10:51 AM:

Osi

Did you know this was available in optical as well? I had a pink faded print that I sold before we met here through the forum. I also have the magnetic version now. It's a great film, and your review was right on target.

My print is also muddled for sound quality, and the optical print was too. So no doubt the master source material could have had the defect.

Your comment about the sound, as well as my different versions with the same problem, does this thought justice.

Keep up the great work, Osi. I always enjoy your posts here.

Chip Gelmini

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 15, 2009, 01:16 PM:

Thank you for your kind words Chip.

I look forward to re-recording this film. How has the color held up on your magnetic print? I need to look at the stock to verify the generation of Eastman, but I'm fairly sure that the Eastman isn't L.P.P., but the color is truly lovely.

Posted by Burton Sundquist (Member # 5813) on December 19, 2017, 11:31 PM:

In an odd reel private sale, I bought Parts 2, 3, and four. Mounted on 600' reels/spools in plain white boxes. It is Eastman stock, but LPP not indicated. I then purchased a faded copy of the feature quite cheap, just to edit out part one to complete my feature. The faded copy is also Eastman stock but look at the difference between the two prints:

From part one, Eastman Stock, with fade.

From part 2, Eastman Stock, nice color

I am aware That if a print is not LPP it will eventually fade, so even my parts 2-4 may wind up like part one. Was there ever an LPP or low fade print release of this title?

Posted by Daniel Macarone (Member # 5102) on December 20, 2017, 08:05 PM:

It's at the top of my want list, but so many African Queen prints have color fade, a good one is hard to find.

Posted by Del Phillipson (Member # 513) on December 21, 2017, 03:39 AM:

I have the Derann feature of this on LPP and it's a stunning colour print look like the second reel is from that feature as the colour looks good.

Posted by Burton Sundquist (Member # 5813) on December 21, 2017, 09:33 AM:

That's the answer I was after. So if there was an LPP release by Derann then I shall be on the lookout. Anyone have one for sale?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 21, 2017, 12:18 PM:

WOW! What stunning color on that L.P.P. section. My print, while not L.P.P., still, to this day, doesn't look bad at all but i must confess, not quite as good as that!

There is even an optical feature of this floating arounf out there somewhere and I'd LOVE to know how the color has held up on that.

Though now, I must confess, I'd LOVE to find an LPP of this!

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on December 21, 2017, 03:17 PM:

I have this on 16mm slite fade £75.00 inc postage

Posted by Robert Tucker (Member # 386) on December 21, 2017, 06:45 PM:

I have this on Super 8 on LPP stock.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 22, 2017, 11:29 AM:

Lucky man, Robert!! Would you be willing to sell?

Something kind of Ironic here, I just received in the mail a film, "All In A Nights Work" (shirley McClaine and Dean Martin and the rest of the cast is really good), for a bargain price of 20.00 dollars, so if it was beet red I wouldn't have been ticked off. Well, the non L.P.P. eastman stock isn't off by too much, but one reel of this feature is on AGFA stock and is completely unfaded, kind of funny when you get multiple film stocks.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on December 27, 2017, 09:20 AM:

Osi - I tracked down an optical copy of The African Queen earlier this year ( check........ yes, it's still 2017..... just....) and, if you see the 4 photo's on Burton's contribution to this thread, the colour is much better than the first two photo's, but not nearly as good as the last two. Very watchable.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 28, 2017, 12:22 PM:

Melvin ...

If possible, could you please put up some screenshots from you're optical sound print? Id love to see them!

My print isn't LPP, some other eastman film stock print but it varies. None of the reels have terrible color, but nothing compared to those two screenshotss to be sure! That Derann print MUST be fairly rare! I'd say the colors on my print (and they've thankfully remained this way) are about an 8 out of 10 (well, a "7.5 out of 10" compared to those low fade screenshots!), but until I find a low fade, I'm happy.

I believe that they used a Viacom print for this non low fade release. I wonder what the origination is of the Derann print.

Another thing of note, the whole opening credit sequence has a more faded quality, but that is just because of the original source material and the color is much better after the beginning credits.

Posted by David Watson (Member # 3614) on December 31, 2017, 03:52 PM:

Interesting chat from forum members concerning the feature 'The African Queen'. In the September 1988 issue of Derann's Film for the collector magazine in the news section they stated they had obtained 10 copies of the Viacom release of'The african queen' brand new and in their original viacom packaging and were priced at £179.99
About a year or so later Derann released their own prints of 'The african Queen' Printed on polyester LPP stock the prints being made from a new Technicolour negative. Keith Wilton reviewed it in his column in the August 1989 issue of 'Film for the Collector' stating that he had seen and reviewed all of the different Super 8 versions issued from various sources and the Derann release was the best print he had seen of this film and the sound track was also superior than the other releases.It came mounted on 4x600 reels at a cost at that time of £199.99 I have the Derann print and I agree it is good indeed.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on January 01, 2018, 10:27 AM:

Checking on the "Wayback machine" web archive it was still on the Derann site new films catalogue in October 2006. Price Code T.

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