'African Queen' Makes Its Restored Debut, at Long Last

March, 17, 2010 12:35 pm | On #documentary, DVD, Embracing Chaos, Eric Young, film restoration, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Cardiff, John Huston, Katharine Hepburn, Movies, Nicholas Meyer, Paramount Pictures, Ron Smith, Sam Spiegel, Technicolor, The African Queen, Universal Studios

"The African Queen" was a childhood favorite from the day I first saw it. Stunned by its intertwined action, pyrotechnics and the comic romance of two mismatched eccentrics, I longed for the day I could add it to my DVD collection.

African Queen Katharine Hepburn Humphrey BogartBut this satisfaction was a long time coming. Long embroiled in legal complications and previously available only in an unsatisfactory VHS version, John Huston’s enthralling tale of a Mission Impossible, conducted by a ratty river boatman (Bogart in his only Best Actor performance) and a prim spinster (Katharine Hepburn as Eleonor Roosevelt!) remained the only film on the AFI’s list of 100 great movies NOT on DVD.

But now, 60 years after its initial sensational...

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Nicholas Meyer wrote and/or directed "Star Treks" II, IV and VI. He wrote the best-selling Sherlock Holmes novel "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" and his screenplay for the film was nominated for an Oscar. He directed the most watched made-for-television movie, "The Day After," about nuclear war, and wrote the screenplays for Philip Roth's novels "The Human Stain" and "The Dying Animal" (filmed as "Elegy").

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'African Queen' Makes Its Restored Debut, at Long Last
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