So apparently I just watched a classic movie…I was unaware until right before I viewed The African Queen (1951). This film won an Oscar (for Humphrey Bogart, best actor).

With today’s standards, this film is nothing special. The dialogue has its moments, but also can be a little “eh”. (The “eh” happens mostly at the beginning.) For its time the special effects were probably great, but now they can be a little painful. I could see the green screen quite well. I’m not going to knock this film for its effects, because the technology wasn’t developed yet.

Humphrey Bogart’s Charlie was the highlight of this film. His Oscar winning performance livened this film, gave it some character, and in my opinion, made this film enjoyable. Without him, I would probably have hated it.

With a little research by my fiance, I’ve figured out why this was a classic. There were 2 factors: (1) It was the first film truly filmed in Africa (the Congo to be exact) and (2) It is widely available throughout the world (the copy I watched had Chinese subtitles).

I wasn’t really impressed with the music, all in all it was over-the-top, which made the movie funny when it wasn’t supposed to be.

Although this is considered a classic, I hadn’t heard of it before I watched it. That may or may not be my fault. I don’t think it stands up to other classics that I’ve seen though…it is not really the most memorable film.

Eh… it is kind of hard to judge…

The African Queen runs 105 minutes and is was too old to be rated in the US (it was only “approved”). I give it 7 ramheads out of 10.