Bogart and Hepburn

The African Queen is a 1951 film in which a devout missionary and a drunkard steamboat captain pilot a boat down a river in German East Africa as World War I begins. Englishwoman Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) and Canadian Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) make unlikely companions, but their quarreling turns into romance as they work toward their goal of sinking a German ship that patrols the lake into which the river feeds.

The film opened on December 23, 1951 in Los Angeles and February 20, 1952 at Capitol Theatre in New York City.

The film was adapted by James Agee, John Huston and Peter Viertel from the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester. It was directed by Huston. It starred Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley and Theodore Bikel.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.