Movies at Mechanics' Presents: The African Queen (1951)

The members voted on The African Queen (1951) for the first week of June!

You asked…and we’ve delivered! The month of June is dedicated to you, the members, who took the time to tell us which films should close out our 2025-2026 season. The results are in, and our first Members’ Choice film is John Huston’s magnificent The African Queen (1951).

At the outset of World War I, a proper British church leader (Katharine Hepburn) and a drunken Canadian sailor (Humphrey Bogart) flee German soldiers in East Africa, using the sailor’s small riverboat to battle German gunners and the perils of the jungle. Shot in the rugged rainforests of Congo and Uganda, The African Queen is director John Huston’s masterpiece, and among the most captivating and visually stunning films of the 1950s. 

The African Queen had intrigued Katharine Hepburn from the moment she finished the novel by C.S. Forester. She needed no convincing to take the role, though she had never met John Huston nor Humphrey Bogart. For his part, Huston was eager to work with Bogart again, following their collaborations on The Maltese Falcon and High Sierra. Bogart, however, was unable to master Charlie Allnut’s Cockney accent. To tailor the role to Bogart, the character of Charlie Allnut was changed from a Cockney to a Canadian. 

Though Huston could have easily replicated the story’s backdrop on a studio lot, he insisted on an authentic location shoot on the African continent, with the illustrious Jack Cardiff (known for his work on The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus) as cinematographer. The filming was famously difficult, as most of the cast and crew became ill with dysentery due to contaminated drinking water. At one point, Katharine Hepburn required a bucket at her feet so she could throw up between takes. But the production continued, and the results paid off. The African Queen was nominated for four Academy Awards, earning Humphrey Bogart his only Oscar for Best Actor. The high esteem in which the public holds The African Queen continues today, as evidenced by the film’s near-100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and its spot on both editions of the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list.

Join us for an evening of thrills and excitement, as we venture to Congo and Uganda with Huston, Hepburn, and Bogart. As always, come 15 minutes early for the pre-show presentation of film clips, musical numbers, newsreels, and vintage commercials!

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Movies at Mechanics’ has welcomed film enthusiasts for classic cinema screenings and salons on Friday evenings for over 20 years. This June, our tradition gets a special twist—Mechanics’ Institute members choose the films. Movies at Mechanics' Members choice is sponsored by Sheila Cunningham, MI Trustee.

Join us for fresh popcorn, lively discourse, and member-selected favorites the first three Fridays of the month. Hosted by Lara Gabrielle, film writer and author of Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies.

“Author Gabrielle has given us a gift: an honest biography of a woman whose life and career have long been misunderstood. . . . In short, this is the book Marion Davies has always deserved.”-Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian