Arguably one of John Huston's finest films ever made and until The Last King of Scotland was released (several years ago), it was the last movie filmed in Uganda. Despite not being rated by the MPAA, I suggest that children under 10 not watch this movie but not because I find anything in it potentially offensive, but rather because the movie is very dated and very much a product of it's time. Younger children will have no idea what it's about, what's going on in world history at the time, who the Germans are (and why they're the bad guys), etc. Charlie Alnut may be a good-old-boy, but he is a drunk and chain smoker (Bogie always smoked in his films and frankly never made it look so cool). Katherine Hepburn's character (Rosie), being a missionary in Uganda (1917, I believe), tries to change Charlie's behavior throughout the course of the movie and arguably succeeds. If you're a Christian, you'll like her strict morals and how while she's determined to destroy the Germans' boat ("The Louisa"), she still has strong moral principles that can be applied to everyday life. Ex. Drunkenness is bad, prayer is powerful, being a missionary is dangerous but very rewarding, etc. I first saw this movie when I was probably 10 and didn't really get it until I was probably high school age, but that's only because I didn't have the historical background to fully understand the movie. At any rate, it's one of the great films to come out of the 1950s. I'm sorry it took Fox and Paramount so long to come to an agreement in order to get it out on Blu-Ray and DVD. The latest restored version is breath-taking and looks and sounds better than what I imagine it did in 1951.

I love it! It has adventure, romance, comedy , and it stars two of the greatest stars of all time, Hepburn, and Bogart. Overall, I'd say that this movie is awesome!

THE AFRICAN QUEEN really has nothing that bad in it, as much as I recall. I saw it for the first time about three weeks ago and was interested in what COMMONSENSE had to say. I don't know where the 14+ rating came from; there's no language, sex, or violence (only some tense scenes). I liked the film and Katherine Hepburn was excellent, but the pacing was bad and it ran about 20 minutes too long.