[9]

Charm can take a movie a long, long way. With Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in their only film together, The African Queen goes the distance. She's Rosie, the prudish widow of a missionary, and he's Charlie, the rough-around-the-edges steamboat captain. Director John Huston puts them in a small boat together and lets the sparks fly. We need only a simple plot to drive this movie forward -- Charlie and Rosie are determined to sink a German gunship that blocks the mouth of the river, so they make their own torpedoes and head straight into danger. The story gives ample room for the characters to quarrel and, yes, fall in love.

Someone else might be able to analyze The African Queen and find a more compelling argument for its greatness, but for me, it’s just good, clean storytelling with magical chemistry between two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. It’s one of the sweetest, most charming motion pictures ever made. Bogart won his only Oscar for the film, while the film picked up nominations for Hepburn, Huston, and the adapted script.