#perturbation in technicolor

[girlintheflesh]

i SWEAR by tombow markers at this point... anyways I drew some Guys!! hoping to get more into physical drawing again and finish this sketchbook with good drawings

(1st page is core cast of the magnus protocol podcast at this time, 2nd page are the main characters for the ij x tdm au i have with laika)

[dweemeister]

Movie Odyssey Retrospective

Mary Poppins (1964)

After the animators’ strike in 1941 saw many of his talented artists depart for cross-Hollywood rivals or create their own studios, Walt Disney bristled with bitterness. Disney – an artistic visionary, an anti-unionist, and fervent anti-communist (he believed the strike was ignited by communist agitators) – had felt betrayed by the striking animators he considered his family, and would no longer be as emotionally or personally involved in any of the studio’s post-Bambi (1942) animated features. His attention turned to supporting America’s World War II efforts; the studio’s entrance into live-action films in the 1950s; television; and the construction of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. As one of the most honored individuals in Hollywood, one accolade eluded him: a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. His best chance by that point came with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – which was instead honored with a novel honorary Oscar presented to him by Shirley Temple. Disney had poured his soul into the innovative Snow White and, privately, he was perturbed by the Academy’s (and the public’s) belief that animation was subordinate to live-action cinema.

By the early 1960s, Disney was reflecting on Snow White, the then-critical (not commercial) disapproval of Song of the South (1946), and how his daughters in the late 1930s asked him to make a film about P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins. After on-and-off negotiations with Travers beginning in 1938, Disney finally secured the rights to the Mary Poppins books, and Travers was brought on as a consultant on the film. Directed by Robert Stevenson, this would be the final film that Walt Disney truly felt passionate about. Though Travers instantly disliked (but made some peace with) this adaptation of Mary Poppins, the cinematic heavens broke loose. Mary Poppins is the greatest live-action Disney film ever made; there is, as of the publication of this write-up, no serious competition.

The film begins with a chimney sweep/one-man-band/screever named Bert (Dick Van Dyke) breaking the fourth wall to introduce a corner of London on the cusp of dramatic change. It's grand to be an Englishman in 1910; King Edward's on the throne and it's the age of men. At least that is what George Banks (David Tomlinson) thinks. George is married to the constantly out-of-the-house suffragette Winifred (Glynis Johns) and their children, Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) have just driven out their latest nanny. George, a high-ranking banker, is consumed with work – making him emotionally distant from his children. One day, Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) floats into 17 Cherry Tree Lane, essentially hires herself (to explain this in words to those who have not seen the movie will make little sense), and meets with Jane and Michael for the first time. With Mary Poppins, Jane and Michael and Bert – who is platonically familiar with Mary – have their share of fantastical adventures in London. Though it may appear at first Mary Poppins has arrived for the children, that is only the secondary reason for her arrival at the Banks household.

Mary Poppins also features the maid Ellen (Hermione Baddeley); next-door neighbors Admiral Boom (Reginald Owen) and first mate Mr. Binnacle (Don Barclay); the gleeful Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn); and Banks’ boss Mr. Dawes, Sr. There are also brief cameos for two of the best actresses of Old Hollywood: Elsa Lanchester (the title role in 1935′s Bride of Frankenstein, 1957′s Witness for the Prosecution) plays Katie Nanna and, in her final film appearance upon the personal request of Walt Disney, Jane Darwell (Ma Joad in 1940′s The Grapes of Wrath, 1943′s The Ox-Bow Incident) as the “Bird Woman”.

Upon her arrival at 17 Cherry Tree Lane, the Banks family is obviously dysfunctional. From the initial parental perspective, Jane and Michael are undisciplined, too often indulging in play, and not following the regimented lifestyle of their father. Through Mr. Banks, their childhoods are being wasted on trivial pursuits. Mrs. Banks is well-meaning, but absent – despite being the impassioned suffragette, she is reluctant to speak out against her husband (this is never explored, but is her activism a way to express herself outside a stifling household?). Jane and Michael’s parents are often unavailable, leaving their small gestures of compassion ignored or shrugged off. This is not a familial situation to be wished on anyone. Enter Mary Poppins. The idea that she arrives at the Banks household primarily to correct the behavior of the children has been resilient since the film’s initial release. While with the Banks family, she advocates for cleanliness and manners – something that Jane and Michael sometimes lack, yet their cases are not extraordinary compared to what one might expect from children. Mary Poppins, the character, almost never explains her intentions, does not explicitly attempt to “fix” the children, and will act in ways reminding Jane and Michael that their parents are important than she. Mary Poppins retains a mysterious, unknowable distance from most everyone in the film – a feature respectful of Travers’ literary characterization of the flying nanny, and fully dependent on a magnificent performance from Julie Andrews.

Mary Poppins is ostensibly about the title character or her attempts to “save” the children. Mary, Jane, and Michael are the concentration for most of the film. It is when we see the less visible source of the Banks’ troubles that the film shifts its focus to its inner heart. Mary Poppins, through the children, reminds their father of what being a caring, supportive parent means. Mr. Banks – as Bert tells the children late in the film (“they makes cages from all sizes and shapes, you know – bank-shaped some of them, carpets and all”) – has no one to look after him at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. Mr. Banks’ cutthroat working environment is predicated on making as much money as possible. His workplace is impersonal, without regard to any of the employees’ unspoken desolation. When Mr. Banks comes home, he is unable to unwind, to appreciate his children enjoying their childhood – a lot of earned praised comes Dick Van Dyke’s way, but save a thought for David Tomlinson, who delivers a heartrending performance as the film finally centers on his character in its final act. He does not talk about the previous day, proceeding to chastise Jane and Michael for not being as uptight as him. Mr. Banks nor the bank are antagonists; this is a rare Disney live-action film without a villain. In their cloistered, specific culture, Banks’ fellow bankers have eroded his ability to remember what is important – that kindness and mindfulness for their own sake are never for naught. Life is too fleeting for anything else.

Jane and Michael learn that the difficulty of their father’s work impacts how he acts around them. More subtly, they also learn how to care for him. This is not easy for children watching for the first or even the tenth time to fully comprehend. Mary Poppins may seem – to those who have not seen it recently or at all – to be a sugary children’s musical. It is anything but. The Walt Disney Studios filmography, as far back as Snow White, is too often painted with such generalizations.

Despite being a bit overlong and Robert Stevenson’s typical uninspired direction, this is a film of incredible technical achievement. With Song of the South’s echoes still reverberating in Disney’s imagination, there is a lengthy animation sequence melded with live-action – the first Disney film to do so since So Dear to My Heart (1948). And like Song of the South, Mary Poppins’ animation/live-action segment has a showstopping musical number based on a fictional word. The seamless use of animation – opposed by Travers – is mostly thanks to animator/special effects technician Ub Iwerks (who had worked with Disney since the silent era) adjusting the Technicolor camera and process that were previously used for So Dear to My Heart. Even with the advent of computerized animation today, Mary Poppins’ animation – steeped in the post-One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) limited animation aesthetic that would dominate Disney animation for the next few decades – is as flawlessly integrated as it appeared on its premiere.

The Sherman Brothers – Richard M. Sherman and the late Robert B. Sherman – wrote more film musical scores than any other duo. Robert was the melancholic half who mostly did the lyrics; Richard remains the jocular one who usually composed melodies (their duties were interchangeable, so it is rare to delineate each Sherman brother’s contributions). Near the start of their songwriting careers, they became staff composers at Walt Disney Studios after charting with a single sung by Mouseketeer Judy Harriet and, later, her fellow Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. 1964 would be a banner year for the Shermans, beginning with “It’s a Small World (After All)” for the 1964 New York World’s Fair (the attraction from the World’s Fair would reopen at Disneyland in 1966, where it remains). Their score and soundtrack to Mary Poppins came next. The final product is in the conversation for the strongest collection of original songs composed for a movie musical.

Those who have never seen Mary Poppins should skip the next four paragraphs and the two lyrical passages that follow.

Two of the early songs will be reprised multiple times during the film: “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “The Life I Lead”. The former is Bert’s primary song, like a working-class waltz, with the verses changing depending on when the reprise appears in the narrative.  It is meant to expedite exposition, revealing plot points and locations through the only character who breaks the fourth wall. “The Life I Lead” will be used as George Banks’ primary song and leitmotif in the score – reprised and retitled as “A British Bank” and “A Man Has Dreams” (this latter reprise is sung with Bert, who sends Mr. Banks into deep thought without confrontation or humiliation) – and is composed like a march. With a set of lyrics like these, Mr. Banks’ character is outlined in a brisk couple of minutes:

A British bank is run with precision A British home requires nothing less! Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools Without them – Disorder! Catastrophe! Anarchy! – In short, we have a ghastly mess!

Moving into the middle third of the score, one encounters musical numbers that are known even to those who have never seen a clip of Mary Poppins: “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. “A Spoonful of Sugar” will be Mary Poppins’ motif in the film’s score and is used to teach Jane and Michael to see busy work through a different lens: that, with the correct attitude, it can be productive and fun. Mary Poppins does not remark on Jane and Michael’s cleanliness much, but recall this is not the foremost problem that the children face, and this is largely resolved through this song. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is the greatest song with a fourteen-syllable word title ever composed – a lyricists’ nightmare to craft, yet impeccably performed and constructed. Both songs’ reputations are earned, but the best is yet to come.

Not all songs can be stunners, as seen with the nevertheless-incredible “Stay Awake”, “I Love to Laugh” (an entertaining diversion and nothing more), “Fidelity Fiduciary Bank” (its humor underrated), and “Step in Time” (which I admire for its choreography, not the music). “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” is a valedictory musical hurrah basking in unbridled joy. The song’s lyrics may seem simple, but given that it appears in the final minutes and considering what has just occurred, it is a musical and contextual triumph. Mary Poppins’ most resonant song is the one that does not trumpet uptempo energy. “Feed the Birds” is a masterpiece musically and thematically. The lyrics, shifting from E minor to G Major, on paper, do not initially appear singable. But the melody is perfect (the score’s best cue is “Mr. Banks is Discharged”, which combines “Feed the Birds” with “The Life I Lead”), allowing lyrics like these to appeal to the audience’s hearts:

All around the cathedral, the saints and apostles Look down as she sells her wares. Although you can't see it, you know they are smiling Each time someone shows that he cares.

To see the world through another’s eyes – especially those most in need (in which “need” is relative and appearing in various forms) – is worthwhile. It lessens the suffering of others, inspiring them to act in goodwill when they can. "Feed the Birds” and “Stay Awake” would be the only two songs that P.L. Travers approved of. The former encapsulates what Mary Poppins has to say.

The Shermans never wrote a better musical. Their work on Mary Poppins flows with the plot, incorporating the film’s central ideas without being pedantic or repetitive. Just a glance at what films they composed for afterwards will inspire awe: the Winnie the Pooh films (1966-2018), The Jungle Book (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Slipper and the Rose (1976), and beyond. This is not even diving into their works for the Disney parks!

Originally not invited to the film premiere because of her outspoken opposition to many of the cinematic decisions, P.L. Travers shamed a Disney executive into letting her attend. Travers appreciated Mary Poppins as a film, but not as an adaptation of her books – forbidding anyone involved in the Disney adaptation except Julie Andrews from starring in any other Mary Poppins-related adaptations (Travers specifically singled out the Sherman Brothers by name). Disney’s intransigence, recalling his conduct during the animator’s strike, strained relations between Travers and the studio. Recently, Saving Mr. Banks (2013) told the story of the making of Mary Poppins from Travers’ perspective, taking numerous historical liberties. Travers’ estate approved the production of Mary Poppins Returns (2018) – a sequel to this film.

Disney received that Academy Award nomination for Best Picture – the nomination itself was the validation he wanted from his Hollywood colleagues. In the years after the film’s release, years of heavy smoking were catching up with Disney. With no close friends at the studio, he told almost no one about his health. After Mary Poppins’ release, Disney would request the Shermans to come into his office on Fridays to talk about the workweek, and ask the Shermans to play “Feed the Birds” at the meeting’s end. "Feed the Birds” became Walt Disney’s favorite song from any film he ever made. According to Richard M. Sherman, following one meeting, with the final notes of “Feed the Birds” fading to silence, he remarked, “That’s what it’s all about, everything we do at Disney.”

Mary Poppins debuted to an America and a world soon to plunge into turmoil – most of which Disney himself would never see. Traditional, big-budget musicals like Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965) became cinematic refuges. Those three films had dominated American filmmaking in a two-year span and the major studios – taking a page from Fidelity Fiduciary Bank – wanted to make head-spinning profits. Many of these post-Sound of Music musicals could not match the standards set by those three musicals, and the widely-covered failures of these musicals would make the genre anathema to Hollywood by the next decade. Maybe it is because of this timing that Mary Poppins is so often described as a children’s movie. However one describes Mary Poppins, it is one of the final statements by a Walt Disney Studios still helmed by its namesake. Its production was turbulent in an era where changing tastes should have worked against it, but Mary Poppins rivals the best Hollywood musical movies.

My rating: 10/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Mary Poppins was upgraded from an initial score of 9/10. Mary Poppins is the one hundred and forty-eighth feature-length or short film I have rated a ten on imdb (this write-up was expedited before the write-ups on the films that will be the 149th and 150th).

This is the thirteenth Movie Odyssey Retrospective. Movie Odyssey Retrospectives are write-ups on films I had seen in their entirety before this blog’s creation or films I failed to give a full-length write-up to following the blog’s creation. Previous Retrospectives include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Dumbo (1941), and Godzilla (1954, Japan)

[postpunkindustrial]

(cutups)

ILLUSIONS XV "Last Chance!"

Fifteenth mix in the #ILLUSIONS mix series, Recorded as autumn fell in 2017 mixed by cutups

dark synth-wave

More info: www.facebook.com/illvsions hauntedshit.com/events/illusions/ blog.cutupsmethod.com

tracklist sidewalks and skeletons - beauty in destruction alex - demons tokyo rose - the wraith lazerhawk - skull and shark waveshaper - crystal protocol pye corner audio - autonization steve jablonsky - nightmare on elm street (DWTD remix) cluster buster - the body count continues com truise - iteration christine - howling wave raydar - trick r treat forces - ice (fleisch edit) ministry - we believe gatekeeper - giza yedgar - meteo sorsari - be peace fyoomz & mingo - rebirth vercetti technicolor - she does schwefelgelb - es zieht mich sekunde - andacht perturbator - corrupted by design garth knight - cyber war dance with the dead - blind gost - unum infernum kloaks - dreams are gone

[stampington]

Editor’s Roundup: Devon Warren’s Favorite Things

Greetings and salutations, Friends! I’m Devon, the managing editor for the Stampington & Company publications Prims, Take Ten, A Somerset Holiday, Somerset Home, and Art Journaling. Once deemed the quirkiest Stampington & Company editor by a former colleague, I embrace the world of wonder, magic, and extravagance as many artists in our community do. Here is a list of just a few of my favorite things:

  1.       Clowns

~Artwork by Renee Tousignant, Prims Summer 2017

Even though they are one of the number one fears across the country, inspiring nightmares and terror to many, clowns are one of my very favorite collectible items. From porcelain clowns to velvet clown portraits, I find them completely fascinating and am absolutely infatuated with their sweet, happy (possibly eerily happy) appearance! After having an email conversation with one of the artists who regularly submits to Prims, Renee Tousignant, I let it slip that I absolutely love clowns. From there, she created these loveable (and vaguely creepy) primitive clown dolls. I’m not picky when it comes to clowns, being a fan of more contemporary clowns like Bozo (or Stephen King’s Pennywise!), the hobo clowns of the earlier 20th century, and pantomime clowns like Pierrot equally.

~Artwork by Cheryl Foster, Prims Summer 2017

2.     The Wonders of the West Coast

~Artwork by Kaitlin Mendoza, Somerset Home Spring 2016

Be it rolling hills, the ocean, the desert, or woods, I love the wild wilderness. I have an especially strong connection with the beaches of Big Sur, which follows a path out of an enchanted forest to spectacular tide pools, and having grown up in Huntington Beach, I spent many days lounging on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean. My mother owns a flower shop in Laguna Beach and beautiful air ferns are a small reminder of being out in nature. When my day begins to get stressful, I meditate upon my favorite places, which are usually beaches along the coast of California. Some might not agree, but you know how the saying goes: The West Coast is the best coast!

3.       The Victorian Age

~Artwork by Devon Warren, A Somerset Holiday

While editing articles for Stampington & Company magazines, I’ve come across several artists who have mentioned feeling like she must have lived a past life as a Victorian — I’m right there with those artists! I have such a fascination with Victorians, from their style of dress and architecture to some of their more perturbing and macabre interests such as oddity shops and séances. Queen Victoria, who I have read countless books about, is one of my favorite historical figures, but I also have a bit of a crush on her royal consort, Prince Albert. I once read a book called “We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals” (Ballantine Books, 2009) suggesting the Victorian Age should have really been called the Albertian Age for all the influence Prince Albert had over Queen Victoria’s reign. After all, he did introduce so many amazing traditions to the Western World: white wedding dresses, Christmas trees, and being present at the birth of your child being just a few! Some of my other favorite Victorians are Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde. In the words of Freddy Mercury, “I want to live the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter!”

~Artwork by Bonnie Dula, Art Doll Quarterly Spring 2017

4.       Rainbows

~Artwork by Dina Wakley, Art Journaling Spring 2017

George Gordon, Lord Byron once said, “Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” Some folks prefer neutral palettes, but I’m all about colors of the rainbow! Some of my favorite artwork is bold and bright, like Dyan Reaveley’s or Dina Wakley’s. Off-white, beige, and other neutrals may be soothing, but at the end of the day I really just long for a world full of vivid Technicolor, unicorn-esque color. Color brings daily reminders that life is full of magic!

5.       The Artist’s Journey

~Photograph by RhondaK, Unsplash

The road to making art can sometimes be a trying one, so I like uplifting articles and stories that reflect the struggle it can take to follow your dreams. There have been countless days where I felt like giving up, similar to many of the artists I read about, but then I encounter an inspirational article that gives me the drive to persevere. Life is not always kind; however, so many artists who contribute to our publications have been influenced by the most difficult times in their lives and have created from it. Some of them even go on to start their own businesses or more.

6.       Halloween

~Artwork by Ginny Lettorale, Prims Autumn 2017

I always love a reason to celebrate or have a party, but Halloween has a special place in my heart. When my sister and I were kids, our dad hand-cut a very wonderful set of tombstones and mummies (my sister and I were the models!) from wood and we spent the afternoon painting it. Dad was an engineer and he had a knack for coming up with amazing projects, but he loved decorating the yard for Halloween most. Of all the holidays, I find it the most exciting because it gives adults an excuse to dress up, eat pillowcases full of candy, and get into the spirit of the season — we definitely see a spirit or two in our publications when we are preparing for the Autumn releases of Stampington & Company magazines.

~Artwork by P.K. Gracia, Prims Autumn 2017

~Artwork by Sarah Donawerth, Take Ten Autumn 2017

~Artwork by Ginny Lettorale, Prims Autumn 2017

7.       Retro-Inspired Gadgetry , Whatchamacallits & Decor

~Artwork by Elaine G. Chu, GreenCraft Magazine Spring 2016

As a child of the 80s, I remember the final transition from record players to CD players. My parents played their records until they were out of date and sometime in the late 80s, they packed up their record player and box of records for good. I was so surprised when my sister bought me one of those teal Crowley record players for my past birthday. One of my favorite artist blogs to browse is Ashlee Park’s. She takes the vintage feeling of a freshly baked apple pie handmade by Grandma and repurposes it into a contemporary, cool, functional piece. In Somerset Home, she has shared many of her lovely pieces! GreenCraft Magazine has also always been one of my favorite publications because it focuses on taking old pieces and breathing new life into them.

8.       Stationery & Paper Art

~Artwork by L. Katherine Roberts, GreenCraft Magazine Spring 2016

I was lucky enough to have several especially memorable Christmases, but one of the best gifts I ever received was dad’s family bought me a brand new wooden desk and filled it to the brim with pens, notepads, markers, and more. Stationery is so much fun and possibly why Take Ten is so close to my heart — I have spent an arm and a leg purchasing pretty cards from all over, but it’s never as beautiful as the artwork sent in by our artists. Currently, I have boxes of “thank you” cards stored in my room, so now I just need to find a way to use it. Cavillini & Co. is one of my favorite companies for sticky notes, postcards, and other practical pieces.

  The post Editor’s Roundup: Devon Warren’s Favorite Things appeared first on Somerset Place: The Official Blog of Stampington & Company.

from Somerset Place: The Official Blog of Stampington & Company http://ift.tt/2wUZbgt via IFTTT

[lesinfosdufight-blog]

Crédit photo : Ligue Rhône – Alpes Auvergne

Jour 2 pour ce On the road avec la Team Rhône – Alpes Auvergne. Après un long voyage qui s’est bien passé, les troupes françaises sont entrées dans le vif du sujet avec les premiers entrainement.

Un très bel accueil au camp Venum Gym encadré par Mehdi Zatout (manager du camp situé dans la banlieue de Pattaya). L’équipe Auvergne Rhône-Alpes a participé à deux entraînements : le matin de 7h à 10h et l’après-midi de 16h à 18h. Les conditions climatiques ainsi que le décalage horaire ont mis a rude épreuve les nakmuays de la team. Lors de ce premier jour, le volume d’entraînement proposé a été un élément perturbant mais a permis à nos nakmuays de trouver une source de motivation. Cela a aussi permis à l’équipe Auvergne Rhône-Alpes de s’approprier la culture Thaïlandaise dans sa diversité, sportive mais aussi locale… Le matin l’entraînement a débuté par un footing pour se terminer par un travail technique au camp. L’après midi un travail technicolor tactique avec des partenaires aux paos comme Yak le père de Nakayama Sudsakorn qui a leur a dispensé de précieux conseils techniques. Nous retiendrons pour cette première journée la richesse de la rencontre humaine à travers une discipline commune qui est le Muay Thai.

Pour l’équipe encadrante : Nasser Soufi, Mohamed Salmi, Larbi Moumen

On the road avec la Team Rhône – Alpes Auvergne (partie 2) Crédit photo : Ligue Rhône – Alpes Auvergne Jour 2 pour ce On the road avec la Team Rhône – Alpes Auvergne.

[girlintheflesh]

‘My father is the worst man in the world, and I’m his favorite daughter test subject’

hey guys perturbation in technicolor plug... I’ve been drawing this au a lot lately... anyways if you didn’t know Rand canonically experimented on Reagan in this AU too 👍👍 no wonder she ran off

this is for an inside job x the darkest minds au I’m writing with @fiuworks ! if you want to read it here’s the link!

[girlintheflesh]

ig this is technically an au of an au but omg look perturbation in technicolor redraws aren’t they so silly (i will 100% be doing more of these at some point you all will be sick of me)

[girlintheflesh]

dear perturbation in technicolor readers (if there are any on tumblr),

sorry if you are a Rand fan he’s going to get a LOT worse soon

:)))

[girlintheflesh]

the word pit is now forever ruined for me i fear

[girlintheflesh]

oh to be a teenaged girl in post-apocalyptic america

[dweemeister]

The African Queen (1951)

Nobody in Hollywood seemed to want to adapt The African Queen in the late 1940s. The Hemingwayesque production, based on a novel by C.S. Forester, has elements considered unmarketable then and now: a slovenly male lead playing off a prim and proper female lead, middle-aged romance among two people who are not married nor know each other intimately, locales that might require on-location shooting in Africa. Warner Bros. carried the rights to a possible adaptation, looking for a buyer by 1947. Director John Huston – a year before directing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and fresh off his service directing films for the United States Army’s Signal Corps – and writer James Agee were fans of the novel, becoming acquainted after the latter wrote a glowing piece on Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro (1945), an Army documentary.

Agee and Huston convinced Sound Services, Inc., an audio equipment company loaning out equipment to film productions, to finance the project. In return, Huston and Agee promised to pay back the cost of the production and to exclusively use Sound Services’ material. United Artists would distribute The African Queen in the U.S., with most of the film to be shot on location in present-day Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then the Belgian Congo). The shoot demanded spartan living conditions and almost everyone became ill; you know that a production’s history is the stuff of legend when your principal actress writes a book entitled The Making of The African Queen or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind. I think you get the idea. For the interests of time, let’s get to the film.

In German East Africa (present-day Tanzania), two British Methodist missionaries are tending to their local flock. Rev. Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) are holding services when Canadian sailor-mechanic Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart; whose character delivers supplies to riverside villages) brings his steamboat into town, warning that Germany and Britain are at war for reasons that are unclear to him. The Sayers dismiss Charlie’s warnings, but soon witness the Kaiser’s colonial troops burn the village and impress the locals to serve in the German military. Samuel is beaten by a German soldier, succumbing a few days later. Charlie returns, finding only Rose amid the charred wreckage. They must travel down the Ulanga River to a lake guarded by a gunboat, the Königin Luise, which is preventing any British advances. Charlie, prone to drinking more than anyone would prefer their savior in such a situation, is an able skipper. His conversations with Rose are filled with good humor and, despite their differences in temperament and character, they become much closer to each other.

Though filming in the middle of the Ugandan and Congolese wilderness may have infected the cast and crew with life-threatening diseases, The African Queen is never anything but a joy to watch – as long as the viewer notes that this film solely focuses on its two protagonists and their harrowing adventure to escape the clutches of faceless German soldiers with the shooting accuracy of SPECTRE henchpersons or Imperial stormtroopers (of the Star Wars type). Once Samuel dies in the opening minutes of the movie, the banter between Bogart and Hepburn becomes not the battle of the sexes one might expect from a 1930s screwball comedy, but a clash of deportment and sobriety. Bogart, adapting his rough-edged persona from Warner Bros.’ gangster and noir films for the African wilderness, plays off Hepburn – and her character’s behavioral rigidity, one that is perturbed by washing her bloomers in the presence of a man – splendidly (and vice versa).

What appears to be a simple adventure film partly becomes a comedy soon after they sail downriver in The African Queen (the name of Charlie’s boat). Not that The African Queen becomes farce, but its humorous lines are borne out of Charlie and Rose’s realization that to despair about their unlikely situation will not be of any help. They accept each other’s personal differences soon after setting sail, intuiting the absurdity of their predicament, and making wry observations of the other. This is where the film’s humor comes from: behavioral observations and their personal experiences – one borne from bottles and tins, the other from Bibles and psalm sheet music. The screenplay takes no sides and does not advocate for Charlie or Rose’s lifestyle over the other. It refuses to condemn Charlie for his drunkenness or the reasons for his perpetual inebriation; nor, too, does it make a mockery of Rose’s faith and uptightness. Credit screenwriters Peter Viertel (1942’s Saboteur, 1957’s The Sun Also Rises); John Collier (a short story writer for The New Yorker); Huston; and Agee for the balancing act they deftly navigate here.

Cinematographer Jack Cardiff (a regular of Powell and Pressburger’s, including 1947’s Black Narcissus and 1948’s The Red Shoes) is a lighting master, with his finest work emerging in the late 1940s and early ‘50s. The foliage-filled frames of The African Queen posed a difficult environment for Cardiff – who, like any mid-century cinematographer, was used to shooting in a soundstage. Now liberated by the stage-bound confines but hampered by the geography and biological density of his surroundings, Cardiff enlivens the jungle with his photography. The river – which Cardiff described in his memoir as, “incredibly black–like squid ink” – gurgles and laps against the banks, creasing into white water only when the ship sails faster than usual. The river in The African Queen can be narrow at times, and it is a wonder how Cardiff is able to fit so much into the frame (as well as demonstrating that it requires some skill to drive the boat).

The African Queen is technically a World War I film. The WWI films released in the early twentieth century are acclaimed for their depictions of a conflict defined by nonsensical destruction and the respective traumas that soldiers carried home with them, that civilians suffered while maintaining nationalistic, patriotic visages. The best WWI films almost always comment about the hideous losses incurred during that war, decrying the loss of lives by piling responsibility on those who decided to wage it – the recent release of Sam Mendes’ 1917 (2019) is a technical masterpiece of production design, cinematography, and invisible editing, but its near-absence of commentary prevents it from consideration when judging the best films about the Great War. Note when The African Queen is set. It is the opening days and weeks of World War I, and Charlie and Rose do not know anything about the particular of why war has been declared. It seems fair that, given the situation, The African Queen does not contain any such commentary often associated with World War I films.

When reading about World War I, we often learn about the Western and Eastern European fronts, as well as the Middle Eastern theater. What about Sub-Saharan Africa? The film, although not based on an actual event, seems to adhere to certain realities: Imperial Germany waged guerrilla warfare against British colonial troops with the intention of keeping them there, disallowing the British from redeploying those troops to other theaters of war. The Germans also forcibly conscripted thousands of locals as their civilian police or as irregular armed forces, but this probably was not a systematic program in the opening days of the war. The film does not dwell on the fate of these locals; I am not sure that doing so might serve any narrative benefit to The African Queen if it did.

Constant heat and humidity, as well as animals such as tsetse flies, crocodiles, scorpions, snakes, and biting black ants plagued the cast and crew. Washing dishes in unsanitary river water contributed to the dysentery. As mentioned previously, the near-death stories of anyone who flew out to present-day Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are too many to mention, but it appears that the principals – Huston, Bogart, and Hepburn – generally viewed their unusual adventures in the wilderness with some affection. The most recent print of The African Queen, released in 2010 by Paramount (the current holder of the film’s rights in the United States), is a marked improvement from the legally murky DVD release in the 2000s.

The African Queen is not going to have a film academic’s tongue wagging for any innovations or Grand Statements of Human Existence, but it is an entertaining, rollicking ride of an adventure movie. The dynamic of its two leads, stunning Technicolor cinematography, and incredible use of the on-location environs make it an effortless watch (I am not saying the film is mindless), and something that can be easily recommended.

My rating: 10/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. The African Queen is the one hundred and fifty-seventh feature-length or short film I have rated a ten on imdb.