The African Queen is a 1951 film in which a deeply religious spinster and a drunkard steamboat captain pilot a boat down a river in Africa during World War I. The two spend as much time fighting each other as making progress towards their goal. The film opened on February 20, 1952 at Capitol Theatre in New York City.
The film was adapted by James Agee, John Huston and Peter Viertel from the novel by C.S. Forester. It was directed by Huston. It starred Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley and Theodore Bikel.
The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Critics have pointed out certain parallels between Bogart and Hepburn and the couple portrayed by Harrison Ford and Anne Heche in the 1998 movie Six Days Seven Nights.