The Grindhouse Podcast
The African Queen (1951)
Aah, yes, come in. Our featured presentation is about to start. You have entered into cult cinema with the dastardly evil, cheese film and my partner in crime, Heckubus, this is the grindhouse podcast. Welcome back to the grindhouse podcast. Join us as we adventure down a dangerous river hidden deep in the African Safari. This Heckubus is the African queen. Which is not anything like that intro, nothing, nothing like that. And I'm wondering why you were doing that because you keep saying that's not the movie you thought it was and it came out in 1951. Yeah, 1951, starring Mr. Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. Yes, it does, Mr. Ahmaud. And it's in Technicolor. And it's in Technicolor, Randy. I love Technicolor. I think it looks fake. I think it looks colorized, but it was filmed in Technicolor. Yeah. Well, you know, they had a lot of production issues. I wonder if, I wonder if camera got oversaturated or when they were developing it. Maybe. Because I get what you're saying because it is very like odd. Yeah, it does. It's, I thought the movie was in black and white, it's so long until I popped it on and it's not. And it was never in black and white, obviously, it was filmed in Technicolor. And I don't know. It's just something that looks. Wrong. Weird. Yeah. I don't know why. But I liked this movie. Yeah, I did. I love this movie. And I love it. I think I love this movie a lot because it played against my expectations of what it was going to be. I had no idea what it was going to be when I first saw it. I just know that Humphrey Bogart was in it and I was watching Humphrey Bogart movies. And like my grandpa liked it a lot. And so I was like, well, see why anybody would like it. I like it. It's a good movie. Did you watch this one, Randy? Ha ha. Yeah. You're such a liar. I liked this one more than I liked the Godfather and Citizen Kane and Star Wars. That's good. You know what's funny though, Humphrey Bogart want to got nominated for Academy Awards and he won best. It's his only best actor. When? Yeah. You know what's even cooler about that? What? He was the first person in the 19th century to win an Oscar. What do you mean? He just was his Oscar and he was the last person born in the 19th century. Oh, in the 1800s. Right. Humphrey Bogart. Okay. Wow. Hang on. Get this. Humphrey, you probably know. We're going to do it again. We got a schedule list of things. Ah. How we're going to do this? Go ahead. Oh my God. Because I was like, okay. So Humphrey Bogart died in 1957. Wow. That's like, what? He was born in like 1880, he's like, he's, who I looked it up to is the 25th president was around. Wow. He was born for the 25th president. I did not think of any of that stuff. That's as interesting as hell. Yeah. I mean, he died a little young, but because I mean, he was born in 1899, I think, and he died in 1957. Okay. So he lived his life, man. Oh, he did. In the rat pack, if you have ever heard of the rat pack was at his house. He was the leader of the rat pack. Everybody thinks Frank Sinatra's rat pack and stuff. It was a group of people that went drinking it. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren McCall's house because he was an alcoholic and, you know, and he spoke cigarettes. Yes, he did. And if you see any Humphrey Bogart movie, he's probably some washed up jerk who is a detective or an old screenwriter. So to get a movie where he's smiling through a lot of it, yeah, playing against trope and playing against character. Awesome. He does. Absolutely love that. He's very charming. Yes. He's great. He's cool. And if you pull up the photo, there's a, yeah, there's just him and he's got a five o'clock shadow. He looks like a cartoon character from the 40s. He does. He does look like a cartoon character. They probably based those cartoon characters on that. That's something I wrote down. This is like a live action cartoon, like it feels like a live action cartoon. I can hear what you're saying. But yeah, I thought this movie was great when I was, well, I was sucked in. I was like, Oh my God, it's very cool. It takes place. Here I'll run down. Our structure. Yeah. Okay. There's two Methodist missionaries in the heart of Africa, bringing Christianity, bringing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to African people. And it opens with them. It's just to them. Her rose Sawyer, Sawyer, and her brother and they're having a, they're singing a hymn and the people of Africa are singing too. They're just not, they're not really into it. They don't even probably know what the hell he's talking about and then Mr. Allnut comes up in the African Queen. What's the name of the boat? Yeah, the name of the boat is the African Queen and he's drinking gin. And they're all the, all the native Africans are like, they like him. Yeah. And the guy's playing that weird instrument and he says something to him and the guy he says it back to when he speaks their language. He is there amongst them, whereas Catherine and her brother are above everybody else. Yeah. So you kind of get that dynamic and it takes place right at the beginning of World War One. Yes. And the Germans are trying to take over Africa and they end up coming there, burning the village down, knocking the brother in the head with a gun, which ends up killing them. Yeah. So now she's got nothing to do. She's got to leave and Mr. Allnut comes back and picks her up and they go up a river in Africa and she gets the idea that if we're at war, England is at war with Germany, we've got to do something and he doesn't really want to do it. Yeah. And really care. Well, he's a Canadian. He's a Canadian. Well, that's part of the British Empire. And so a lot of patriotism, he said, he describes the river. They're going down. And in this part of the river, it's like this. Then there's a bunch of white water rapids and then it's like a whole nut. They didn't even know it was the same river. It's got a different name, goes into a lake that has a German boat in it that runs the lake. So she says, let's go blow up that boat and he's like, what are you crazy? Oh, okay. We'll do it. Yeah. Right on board. She's like, uh, like, like, later, later on, she's like, well, do you know how to build a tortilla? Yeah. So, oh, yeah, you know, you got to do this, this, this, that, right? Why do you ask? And that's what he said, but he goes along with it at first because he thinks by the time they go through the, the rapids, the first rapids that are okay, that she'll be freaked out and give up. Yeah. And she doesn't. She's exhilarated. She's got a sense of adventure because this is in 1914. And she's a Methodist woman. So she, they're all uptight in the not adrenaline junkie would not be the word for it. Right. She becomes an adrenaline junkie. Oh, yes. But, uh, so then that's what the whole movie is, is them going up the river and blowing up the boat. But German boat. Yeah. And so that's the movie and on the way, it's, it's not the destination, but the journey. Yeah. Cause they fall in love and, uh, and it's really, it's good. It's just they're dynamic throughout the whole thing. And it's believable. Totally. 100% believe they fall. They fell for each other. He's charming. And she's not like some uppity stuck up later, like she's got class, but like, she's got a glass. But she's not, uh, she doesn't look down on him. No. And she's not afraid to get her hands dirty either. No, not eventually. No. Like I was things broke. And she's like, well, why don't you get it fixed? He's like, yeah, I would. But as soon as he got gotten, I like to kick it, I like to kick it every once in all that. It feels off the cuff and honest and stuff like that. It's just so attracting. Like it's like, oh, yeah, let's kick it, you know, the only thing I find unbelievable is when she's dumping out his gin and he doesn't try, he doesn't save any of it. And I think nobody is that hung over to, they can't save their booze. I mean, if he's only drinking gin, I'm surprised. Yeah. Yeah. His body didn't go into some feral, like, save that. Yeah. Exactly. But yeah, it's, it's, I think it might be one of Humphrey Bogart's only like playing against type roles. Cause he got type of pretty hard. The movie you thought this was. Yeah. The treasure Sierra Madre. He totally is against his own type because he's basically the villain. I don't want to say the villain because there's not a bad guy in that movie, but he's not the good guy in the movie. And he's not, he's not the hero of the movie. The other guy, no, he's a, he's kind of a coward in a, a save ass and then yeah, he ends up dying in a, you didn't see the treasure to your mother. No, I have, I don't have it at McCay's every time I go. Okay. Well, let me tell you, have you ever heard this phrase badges? We don't need no stinking badges. That's where that's from. From Looney Tunes. Yeah. So the treasure Sierra Madre is definitely something you want to check out because it's really good. I thought this was it. And John Hughes who directed this movie directed that movie and the Maltese Falcon. Now the Maltese Falcon might be one of the greatest filming wars of all time. And it's great. And it was John Hughes's first movie. What is up with these first movies being like the greatest of ever. Yeah. But yeah. So the plot is just kind of go blow up this boat and we fall in love on the way. Something cool about it. It was filmed in Africa. Yeah, in Africa and in London, L. Street studios in London. Yeah. And they put that right there at the end, the film in Africa. Yeah. And it was really bold. Really? I was wondering that while I was watching it this time because like the part with the bugs, they go in, it looks terrible. And it does. Was that the sound stage or was that the? Yeah. No, I don't know which one was going to live by bugs while they were. Yeah. They were. Oh, so they. Okay. So a lot of like the fog behind the scenes facts about this was just how awful the filming was because anybody who drank any water there got terribly sick. I'm sure they did. Humphrey Bogart didn't drink any water. He and I wrote it down. They show him drinking water. He mixes it with his gin, but I'm like, man, John Hughes. John Hughes. Yeah. He didn't drink water. I'm sure they didn't. Humphrey Bogart didn't drink water. They drank whiskey instead. Yeah. He said, they had beans, whiskey, all they ate was beans and whiskey and the flies drop dead every time they've been. So everybody else is getting sick from like, I didn't, people started drinking more and more and more because like they're just in hell. Yeah. And what's your name? Heather. Heather and Hepburn was like disgusted by this. So in protest, she just started drinking the water and got severe dysentery. She also had a puke bucket off camera. Wow. There's a scene. Really? Church. Yeah. Where she's praying. Yeah. Cut. Yeah. Every time. She's a pro. Yeah. I know that a good sport and all that kind of stuff they were. She was getting. You did. None of that is on camera. No. She doesn't even look sick. Not at all. He got a good job. His alcoholic, but like, yeah, it's, it's, the filming on this is just horrible. I was impressed that they got it out at all. Yeah. Really? Because it's, it's all on the river. I didn't get impressed with the actor. Okay. Yeah. So once I got to trivia part number three, it was like, this guy also got sick. I was like, everybody's just getting sick. Yeah. A lot of the highlights on this, well, and there's something else because this movie also kind of has a legacy to it too. Because the boat they filmed on the Evergreen Queen is in Florida. Yep. And you can go right on it. Right. Not the, no, it's the keys. I think. Yeah, the keys. You go on a troll around the keys in the African, in the African Queen, which would be cool. And this movie was, and I was thinking about this because I've been to Disney. Oh, yeah. They have a jungle cruise. Yeah. Or they were inspired by the, it was a big, inspired inspiration. I want Disney. You're like, Oh, that's really good idea. Let's do that. And all of those like jungle adventure movies are kind of taking stuff from this. Yeah. A little bit. Like if you're on a boat going down a river, well, like, it's not hard of darkness by any stretch of the imagination, which is a boat ride down the river in Africa, which apocalypse now was based on. So apocalypse now is not like the African Queen, really. And, but yeah, the Disney thing, I thought was amazing. It's really cool. Yeah. Cause there's, what's adventurous about this? You wouldn't want to do. Do you know what I mean? You, do you really want to not get in the water? Cause there's a bunch of crocodiles. Yeah. A lot of live animals pull it through the, the muck, you know, blow welded when it. Yeah. Fakes it. The ship. She gets, she takes a beating. Yeah. It's like a near unsingable ship until it saves, because it could, big holes in the front of it. Why? Oh, why we're taking on water? What do you think? There's big holes in the front. Yeah. I got torpedo holding. Carving. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the thing too. They, they get finally through, uh, rapids and, uh, bad water and everything they find in the reeds, um, they get right to the edge of the lake and, uh, they stop and they can't go any further. And then Catherine Hepburn prays, uh, to open the doors to heaven, to let them in cause they figured they're dead now. And God does and it rains and lifts the boat up, which is, I thought it was really cool. Yeah. German. So the German ship, it's the torpedoes. Right. And it sings the ship. Yeah. And at the very end, they're bringing to be hung for, uh, first of all. Well, it's going to be hung for not telling them what the hell's going on. Free bull guard is going to be hung for lying and, uh, Catherine Hepburn is going to be hung for telling the truth. Yeah. Basically because they weren't trying to sink the ship. So, uh, Humphrey bull guard at the end, and there's a picture of this, uh, really, just there's a German captain, the German captain, he's like, can you marry us kept shipped? Yeah, you've got the authority and, uh, he's agrees to it. I don't know why, but it's our last switch. What? It's not going to hurt me. He says, uh, you take this man. Yes. Yes. I now pronounce your man and wife, carry on with the execution. Yeah. I just love that metal line. I love that. And then the ship blows up and they hit the torpedoes and the African queen sinks the ship and it saves the day. Yep. And that's the end of the movie. They swim off to, uh, the shore, but they really just show them swimming. Yeah. And that's kind of. John. Yeah. Yeah. Got a torpedo and a water sink and ship and I just kind of swim off. Well they made a TV movie later on. It might have been in the sixties. It might have been later than that, which was supposed to be, uh, what they do next. Oh, really? Yeah. And there was one TV movie and nobody picked it up, but you don't need it or not anything else. No, kind of like how it ends. It stands. It's kind of nice and you're not missing anything. I think it's like, it's like your fault. You don't need any dessert. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, I thought this was great. I mean, I'm giving a sum and a half up. I give it. Yeah. I'll give it to thumbs up. It's really good. If you, I don't know how you're doing with your thumb and a half, it's a, it's a good movie. Uh, as far as improving it, um, if you were going to remake this movie, I would, uh, just go back to the source material because it's ripped based on a book. Yeah. And, uh, kind of align it more with that. Not align it more with that. I wouldn't try to remake this movie. I would do a whole new movie because like we said before, the technicolor makes it look fake. Yeah. And, uh, and nowadays you just don't need a, the technicolor, it's going to look great. Yeah. And you can, any of the special effects, you film it in Africa again and, uh, just do it a little better. Maybe it'll be easier time with it because of, uh, technology, uh, I would, I would not use blue screen when I got a river behind me that's and the ship, the Louisiana or whatever it was called. It's not the less than Tania. Did you notice that when they're in the reeds and they see the boat and the boats coming towards them? Uh huh. Yeah. It don't look good. Yeah. It looks wrong. You know, it's, it's funny because like that is all you had to do, like you just, that's all you had, that's what I was standard, that's how it gets done, but like man, does it not age? Well, no, it doesn't. And like you said, but the, the blues, the, they do with the some optical effects on it. They don't, you can see the, the line around them with that kind of stuff. And, uh, yeah, I just filmed the whole thing there. Yeah. And look, I get why you don't want to do that. Right. But. And, you know, to the film's credit, I don't really know when it was a set, when it was a set. I don't either. And I was waiting to look, where did they film this? Mm hmm. And it was at a river in America, someplace, you know, yeah, or something like that. Yeah. No, it was in Africa. That filmed it right there. And then I was looking, cause it made, I was thought of that earlier when I noticed that blue screen kind of stuff and they were crocodiles. They were an alligators. They were crocodiles. Yeah. I was like, where did they? A whole bunch of animals. Yeah. And then, or did they just send another unit out to get stock footage, but no, that was that, they really did it. I kind of want to know why, like what, cause that wouldn't have been cheap, you know? No. Would have been pretty expensive. And you got Catherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Humphrey Bogart. Yeah. We're not cheap. No. Not at that point. These are really like the midpoints of their careers. Well, it's towards the end of his. Yeah. Slash life. So like, you're not doing this for new acts of kind of money, and it's really just those two for 90% of the movie. Yeah. Like, I wouldn't even say 99% of the movie. It's like you got your maybe 15 minutes of at the beginning, or 15 minutes of footer and then just this. Yeah. They're on the boat doing boat stuff. Right. And another thing I kind of want to bring up is that like she is pretty progressive when there's treatment of women. Like she's not. Yeah. Dainty. That's probably Catherine Hepburn. Probably. That's her experience on this movie, but he's not like, Oh, you're a woman, so you can't do this. Right. He's like, I'm being a gentleman. She said, well, I want to help. And he's like, all right. Well, then you're going to help. Yeah. Like when he says they're fixing the rudder or the, the propeller and stuff. And he's like, all right, I'm going to go back down there and try this. And she's like, well, here, I'll help you. And he's like, I don't want a dead wound, drowned woman on my hands. Yeah. And then they're underwater. And then she comes down and does it. She's very, she'd be precocious that way back in that time. And because it's 51, you know, so like, yeah, but she was wearing pants and stuff. Catherine Hepburn, she was a progressive woman. She wasn't. She wasn't letting the slide. Well, she, I got all open my own doors kind of woman. So, and you know, and he's not like, he's not over offended by it. Like when she's like, no, turn around. I'm going to take my shirt off. Right. It turns around. Yeah. When she's like, Hey, help me. He's like, yeah, I'm here. But, well, look, I mean, hopefully helps her like it. Don't look because I have been my underwear, which completely covers it. Yeah. Say, Oh, my God. It's like a jumper. Yeah. It goes from her shoulders to her knees, which is funny, but like, I was kind of surprised by that because it could have been very easy to have her be the fish out of water. Right. Prissy. Yeah. Well, she is kind of, but she gets over it real quick, real quick, she's getting her hands dirty. Yeah. And it's cool because I wrote this down too. So the world's mixed really well. So he's a drunk, dirty alcoholic. And he cleans up and becomes more of a more refined, refined man. And she kind of comes down and becomes a dirtier woman. Right. Yeah. She's because she's got her hat on at the beginning and everything. We're in that underwear plus stuff on top of that. So in Africa, and she'll, she's being very modest, a Methodist missionary, yeah, in the beginning of the movie. And by the end, she's like, no, she's just a, she's more down to earth. It seems like, yeah, like to him, like what you're saying. But there's one point there, oh, when he, like, I think methods don't drink at all. So when he's having a drink and she doesn't get on him about it, but she is so offended by him, Drake, the bottle and stuff, it looks like he's got his thing out or something. She's so disgusted in the alcohol. It looks like he's like naked or something. Yeah. How disgusted she is in it. And he also points out when she's, she has like green tea and she starts drinking. And she's like, well, you're, you're really going to do that. Like, well, I am too with the gym. Yeah. It calls her off. Well, there's no difference. Like you're doing that. I'm doing this. What's the difference? So there's another movie called it happened one night. I've never seen it. It's, it's great. I don't know if you'd like it though, because it's kind of a, I don't know if I'd call it a rom-com. Well, they didn't make those back then, but I know what you're saying. Yeah. But it's about a guy who went to go, he's a bounty hunter, really. Go get this woman, bring her back to her deck and she ran away. Okay. And on the trip, they end up falling in love. Right. And then it's very similar to that feel where you're not just like watching a movie from the 50s, 60s, be a movie from the 50s or 60s. Right. You're watching like a timeless story almost. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Like everybody's doing their part. Everybody's a unit and it's, it's got all the hit points you want. All the beats are perfectly on time and it's just a kind of a classic and it's really well done. Yeah, it is a classic. And if you want, you can watch this first and then in your head, they don't make it. He falls in love with a different woman and when they swim to Africa and he meets her in Paris and they have this wonderful time and then she leaves them and he opens up a bar in Casa Blanca, which happens during World War II. Right. This is kind of. That's kind of cool. I like that. I'm a fan of the dichotomy of that. Yeah. Yeah. The spiritual prequel. Right. It's one of my favorite movies. One of the greatest movies of all time. Yeah. It's better than this one. And this is a good movie, but that one is holy cow good. That movie. I have seen that one. Do you see Casa Blanca? I have. What? Yeah. With the iconic scene at the end, which is I don't remember, he owns a bar and the God, they escaped you were escaped. They escaped Casa Blanca. And it's good. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Yeah. Yeah. Which is awesome. This is the beginning. I watched it. It's all of that. It was nothing. Yeah. Not just redemption, but he's like reborn into that. Yeah. Exactly. And let's not talk about Casa Blanca. I love it. That's on your web show. We'll be doing that one. Yeah. Oh, we can't. We'll do that one. We'll be doing the Maltese Falcon. Yeah. I see. Have you seen the high Sierra? High Sierra. It's another Bogard. It's a film the war. It's he's a screenwriter, fall in love with a woman. No. And I think John Hughes did that one too. They have a shoot out in the mountains. It's real cool. And I'll shoot out in the mountains in the Trezi's share of Madre too. While we're on side topics, I think you two should do an episode where it is. It's like the episode is called Have You Seen This? Okay. You two back and forth. Well, that's not fair. Yeah. And then you two back and forth. Describe movies. It'd be like, Have you seen what movie might drive? Have you seen it? Oh, that'd be fun. And then you'd guess it. Yeah. We'll do that. Good. Good. Good. You should have put it in the comments. This is live. But yeah. Overall, I think this movie is solid. Yeah. It's a lot. It was very enjoyable. Definitely more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be and way, way more adventurous. That's the thing. Like, we're going to talk, all these movies we're talking about, except for when we get a suggestion and it's the first time we've seen it, is there's a reason why you've heard of these movies. Absolutely. So, stop kicking yourself in the tail and just watch them because it's worth it. It is totally worth it. Yeah. I definitely give the African Queen a thumbs up and if they were going to remake it, just go to read the book and get it. Do your own interpretation of the book. Yeah. I agree with that. I agree with that. Yeah. But yeah. That's really all I've got to say about this one. Yeah, it's good. Good movie. Check it out. It's on Tooby. Uh, but you know what else is out there? What's that shirt you wearing? Oh, you can buy our merch. That's right. Yeah. You go to the grindhousepodcast.com, get yourself a nice shirt, hoodie, sticker, magnet, cup, cug. Lots of stuff. Uh, desk plate. Uh, so yeah, go up there and get some stuff. Also, comment, like, share, follow, grindhouse podcasts on all platforms now. We have a Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, we are everywhere you are. Like us on Spotify, Apple, we're everywhere, everywhere. We're coming. We're coming to get you. We're already here. We didn't know it. We're in your walls. Uh, but yeah, this has been the grindhouse podcast. As always, I am Cheesefil. And Heckulous. We'll catch you next time. See you in the rest of the album. (laughing)