Mubi Monday: The African Queen (1951)

Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in a dramatic adventure classic with a great helping of romance, I knew I was in for a treat when I finally settled down to watch The African Queen, a film I had been wanting to get to for many years already. And a treat it was.

Bogart is Charlie Allnutt, the captain of a riverboat in Africa. When the country is affected by WWI, Charlie tries to get himself out of the way, but ends up assisting a missionary named Rose (Hepburn). Rose has other ideas, however, and tries to persuade Charlie to turn his boat into a vehicle that can launch a torpedo at an enemy ship. Both Charlie and Rose have to survive rapids, enemies who may get them in their sights, and one another.

Based on a novel by C. S. Forester, The African Queen is an ideal mix of two great characters plunged into a situation that will have you rooting for them from start to finish. The script, by James Agee and director John Huston, sets up the situation easily enough, whizzes from one big moment to the next (big in terms of action or character beats, not necessarily big in scale), and delivers a third act that manages to be bother rewarding and ever so slightly surprising. There are one or two big coincidences, especially during the very last scenes, but the film is so wonderful and enjoyable throughout that it feels earned.

Huston treats his stars well, even doing his best to try making them look glorious as the conditions wear them down and make them look the worse for wear. He knows that they are capable of selling everything they are supposed to be going through, even if the special effects around them vary from sequence to sequence.

What is there to say about Bogart and Hepburn? Thanks to the script and their status in cinema, they work together in one of the best onscreen pairings ever. None of their chemistry develops naturally from the unfolding events, although they're supposed to, but nothing is ever in doubt because it's Bogart and Hepburn. Of course they'd be attracted to one another, and that makes it much easier to believe that their characters would be attracted to one another. Robert Morley has a good few minutes onscreen, and there are others who take part in the second and third act, but the movie needs nothing more than the two leads.

Like so many other films that have been celebrated over the decades, The African Queen has retained the great reputation it has for one simple reason. It IS as good as everyone says it is. And I encourage everyone else to treat themselves to a viewing of it as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

9/10

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Yule Love It: Desk Set (1957)

If you don't already have Desk Set marked off your list of Christmas movies that you have seen and enjoyed then, take a cue from me, change that now. Admittedly, it's easy to look at it as nothing more than another excellent pairing of the wonderful Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy but all of the festive trimmings are on display, and the script includes both some fun references to common Christmas trivia questions and also some main gifts that prove to be very relevant to the plot.

Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, the head of a reference section in a television network building. She answers calls, as do her staff, and prides herself on the wealth of knowledge that they can get a hold of, often due to the fact that they have a head start with their experience and particular skills. Tracy plays Richard Sumner, a man who has been called in to get the measure of the place and install a computer. All of the women working in the department immediately start worrying about their jobs, yet Hepburn and Tracy start to enjoy each other's company, despite seeming to view the main job being evaluated from very different angles. Hepburn also has a boyfriend (Mike, played by Gig Young) who seems to have taken her a bit for granted for too long, but maybe he needs to make more of an effort now that someone else may be taking an interest in her wonderfulness (and was Hepburn anything less than utterly wonderful? I don't think so).

Written by the husband and wife team of Henry and Phoebe Ephron (yes, they also had children, including one named Nora, something I may mention every time I reference their work, apologies), Desk Set is a delight from start to finish. The opening scenes have Tracy being amusingly eccentric as he sizes up the building and workspace, introduces the female characters who make up the reference section, and then quickly set him up as being rather at odds with Hepburn, and everything moves on from there in a set of great exchanges and set-pieces (with highlights including Tracy and Hepburn having a dinner together that is interrupted by Mike, an exuberant Christmas party, and an inevitable finale that tests the computer against humans). It may be based on a play, written by William Marchant, but the fact that it feels just set-bound doesn't really matter when the dialogue and performances are as good as they are.

Director Walter Lang may not equal his personal best work here (and The King & I is a tough one to top) but he doesn't get in the way of that chemistry that made pretty much every Hepburn/Tracy movie so much fun to watch. Things are kept simple, so simple that I am surprised it runs for just over 100 minutes, and that was obviously the best choice for the material.

All of the cast do well, although it's easy to overlook them when being kept so mesmerised by the star central pairing (who are, it goes without saying, on great form). Young has the unsympathetic role of the unappreciative boyfriend, and he's perfectly misguided and cocky in his role, while Joan Blondell is also highly entertaining as the main staff member, Peg, who you feel could easily run the department during any times Hepburn has to be absent. Dina Merrill and Sue Randall are the other ladies who may soon find themselves out of work, and Neva Patterson does some great work in her small role as the woman coming in to give the computer a test run once it is in place.

Full of laughs, and with many moments that arguably resonate today even more than they did back in 1957, Desk Set is a sweet and sharp near-classic that should please fans of the leads.

8/10

You can buy a set for yourself here.
Americans can buy it here.

Filmstruck Friday: Adam's Rib (1949)

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are iconic when it comes to famous cinematic duos. And Adam's Rib is a perfect film to watch if you ever forget that. It has them on great form, and features some delightful supporting turns around them.

The story starts with a shooting. Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) has had enough of her philandering husband, Warren (Tom Ewell), and sees red when she interrupts his latest liaison with Beryl Caighn (Jean Hagen, who so many should recognise from Singin' In The Rain). The court case is going to be an interesting one, and Spencer Tracy finds himself heading up the prosecution. Spurred on by the thought of how differently things might play out if the accused was a male, Katharine Hepburn heads up the defence. This causes some tension at home, because Tracy and Hepburn are also married to one another.

Having worked together on a total of nine movies, Adam's Rib can be viewed as the quintessential Tracy and Hepburn movie. The two have a difficult relationship, strained to breaking point by their differences of opinion, but there's obvious affection for one another in almost every scene. The script, by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, may not be as full of zingers as some other films from this era of Hollywood but it has a lot of laughs throughout, elevated by the cast. It is, however, more interesting than many other comedies you could give your time to, making a number of salient and interesting points about gender bias that, sadly, still exist today.

Director George Cukor doesn't do anything wrong. He simply gets the camera in the best position to showcase Tracy and Hepburn doing their thing, which is all that is required, and he works with the script to take the central couple on a journey that will push them towards a couple of real low points without viewers every really worrying that everything won't be sorted by the time we get to the end credits. Tonally, things get dark (especially in a scene that has someone else being threatened with a gun in the third act) but there's always a reprieve coming along to make up for those moments.

It feels redundant to spend more time praising the leads, they've been two favourite actors of mine for many years and watching them work together onscreen is always a delight. Holliday is wonderful as the wife who has been pushed beyond breaking point, Ewell is amusingly arrogant as the bad husband who doesn't think he's done too much wrong, and Hagen steals a scene or two, making me wish that she was in it a bit more. David Wayne is also enjoyable, playing a friend and neighbour who obviously has great affection for Hepburn.

Fans of the two main stars of this film will probably have already seen this. And they'll already know that it's a very enjoyable film to revisit at any time. Newcomers? Well, this is as good a place to start as any. You get some fun dialogue, memorable characters, and two people going through a range of emotions while making it all look completely effortless.

8/10

Here's a set containing the movie.
Americans can get it here.