On This Day

The African Queen released

February 20th 1952

12:51 20 February 2024

Following it's premiere in Beverly Hills the previous month, 'The African Queen' opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York on this day in 1952. John Huston's film, based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester, is set in East Africa during World War I and stars Humphrey Bogart as rough-and-ready riverboat captain Charlie Allnut and Katharine Hepburn as straight-laced English missionary Rose Sayer.

Determined to avenge the death of her brother and do her bit for the British War effort, Rose persuades Charlie to undertake a treacherous trip upriver and use his boat, the African Queen, to attack a German gunship. The movie opened to positive reviews and Bogart won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his only Oscar.