Hepburn was often accused of playing herself, an accusation made against most stars who had developed recognizable personae under the studio system. Her range was greater than she was given credit for, but she couldn’t do everything. She was perhaps the least likely of the 12 or so stars who wanted to play Scarlett O’Hara, and couldn’t understand why David Selznick said he didn’t think Clark Gable would go for her.

The missionary in John Huston’s The African Queen was perhaps her most difficult and she brought it off beauti­fully. She was reportedly having trouble with it and asked Huston for help. “Just think of Eleanor Roosevelt,” he is report­ed to have said. She and her soon-to-con­veniently-die missionary brother are in German East Africa at the outbreak of World War I, where they meet up with boorish mechanic Humphrey Bogart. The two are thrown together literally when their boat hits the rapids, forming an odd but charismatic couple. As with Spencer Tracy in Pat and Mike, he’s her mentor in physical confidence.

Molly Haskell

C.S. Forester’s book about an odd couple – an uncouth gin-steeped boat captain and a prim missionary in the Congo during the World War I – changed hands from Columbia (where it was meant to star Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester) to Warner (a ve­hicle for Bette Davis) before it final­ly landed with Sam Spiegel and John Huston’s Horizon Pictures. The cash for acquiring the exorbitantly priced story rights to The African Queen was hus­tled through a sound equipment-renting company. When Hepburn and Bogart agreed to star, further financial support came from Romulus in London.

The script was written in collaboration with one of America’s finest writers and film critics, James Agee, who had recent­ly profiled Huston for “Life”, leading to a close friendship between the two. Agee suffered a heart attack during the in­tense writing period (a second one would claim his life four years later). Since the script still lacked an ending, Peter Viertel stepped in to complete it for Huston.

During an adventurous and often mystified shoot in Africa – Huston’s first time on the continent –Hepburn endured a serious illness, in addition to being subjected to pranks from both her co-star and the film’s director, leading her to describe the experience as being “stuck with two over-male men”. Despite the challenges, she emerged triumphant­ly. Hepburn’s evident contrast with Bog­art enlivens the film. The efforts on both sides were effectively against type, though their salaries were not. (Hepburn’s salary and profit percentage were exactly half of Bogart’s.) Her fastidiousness, integrity, and idealism clash on screen with Hus­ton’s self-indulgent, fun-loving attitude, which sometimes could teeter on the edge of rambling. Huston’s direction tough­ened Hepburn’s performance, while her presence softened his typically overem­phasised masculine edges. With the ex­ception of In This Our Life (1941), this was the first Huston film with a leading woman of true significance.

Ehsan Khoshbakht