Classic Hollywood: Humphrey Bogart and The Performance of a Lifetime
A Look at Humphrey Bogart in John Huston’s “The African Queen”
In what would be his only Oscar-winning performance, Humphrey Bogart brought to life one of his most memorable roles; Charlie Allnut in the 1951 adventure film The African Queen. By combining specific aspects of his star image and his performance of the character, it is clear why the film garnered him so much critical acclaim. One must be sure to look at Bogart’s “signs of character,” “signs of performance,” and their relationship to his “star image” to fully understand what made his role in The African Queen so memorable.
What is “star image?” In his book, (appropriately titled) Stars, Richard Dyer defines it as how the public views and perceives a particular star, as it is impossible to know them personally. This public image is made through the combined influences of different media texts, which themselves are further broken down into several groups. These groups include promotion, publicity, the star’s previous film roles, and the criticism of those roles. Every single one of these groups helps to build what Dyer would consider Bogart’s polysemy.
When looking at the polysemy of Humphrey Bogart, it is particularly interesting to see how much the promotion for his earlier films resembles the promotion for his role as Charlie Allnut in The African Queen. As seen in the promotional trailer, the studio wanted to draw heavily on the “tough guy” aspect of Bogart’s “star image.”
The studio’s choice to promote Bogart’s character this way is not surprising. Though much younger, this same unshaven and dirty look was also used to promote his earlier films, including his debut film, The Petrified Forest, in 1936.
It was, in fact, The Petrified Forest that helped put Bogart “on the map,” so to speak. His portrayal of the fugitive murderer Duke Mantee, though propelling his career, helped to springboard Humphrey into what would account to over a decade of being unfortunately type-casted. This drawn-out period of all-to-similar “tough guy” roles did, however, help to build his “star image” into that which helped bring Charlie Allnut to life on the screen.
This “tough guy” type that Bogart had fallen into, as well as his “star image,” was further supported by his off-screen publicity. Resulting in a failed marriage, Bogart went through a terrible and very public relationship with actress Mayo Methot a few years before the release of The African Queen. Throughout his marriage to Methot, Bogart turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism, so much so that it delayed the shooting schedule of his 1944 film The Big Sleep. This temporary fall into domestic turmoil is well documented in Robert Sklar’s book, City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield.
But Sklar also discusses just how quickly things began to change for Bogart once he officially married young actress Lauren Bacall. Quickly turning his act around, Sklar notes that in The Big Sleep, Bogart somehow managed to succeed in creating “his most complete screen persona to date: a man that was funny and tough, committed and vulnerable, sexy and loyal.” These same characteristics can be found in Charlie Allnut as well.
The role of Charlie Allnut fits Bogart’s “star image” rather perfectly. While originally derailed and with a wanton thirst for alcohol, he quickly cleans himself up with the help of a beautiful woman. It is almost impossible to see where the line falls between Bogart’s personal life story and the fictional narrative of The African Queen. At their core, they are the same.
Add to this, the values that Bogart himself embodied. The ethos of anarchy and extreme masculinity were very much a part of Bogart’s persona that The African Queen incorporated into the Allnut character. From the very first scene where the audience meets him, nonchalantly causing chaos outside of the African village’s missionary church, there is a very “Bogart” sense of anti-establishment. His “star image” and presence is definitely at work.
There are aspects of Bogart’s personal life that are found heavily in the Allnut character. Most notably, Bogart’s affinity and adept skill onboard a boat is a central part of the narrative itself. Allnut moves across the boat with the swiftness and expert prowess of a seasoned seaman. Bogart had a lifelong love of boating, and in The African Queen, he was able to showcase his knowledge of it. This sign of character is just one amongst many at play within the film. But where does one separate a sign of character from a sign of performance? It is not so easy to determine in The African Queen.
With a role that feels so naturally “Bogart,” it is easy to dismiss his performance ability with the assumption he is simply playing himself. The line between actor and Allnut can be a bit blurred. Dyer’s Stars correlates this to the similar circumstances of John Wayne’s role in the 1948 western Fort Apache. The particular scene that he focuses on involves Wayne’s Captain Kirby York as arrives on his horse and talking to Henry Fonda’s Colonel Thursday before a Native American attack.
Dyer states that John Wayne is an actor who is “commonly credited without any acting ability. The assumption is that he is just there, and just by being there a statement is made.” He claims that his specific interest is not in vindicating that Wayne is a good actor, but rather if what Wayne does in the scene contributes to the construction of his overall character.
Dyer sees the strong performance ability in Wayne’s portrayal of Captain York, based on his “natural” posture in the saddle, ease of movement, and relaxed “at-home” manner with which he brings to the character. The importance of these performance signs lies in the fact that they signify something more than just the character. They play into one of the film’s central themes: class conflict between populists and aristocrats.
When compared to Charlie Allnut’s character in The African Queen, one can better differentiate that while Bogart brings many of his familiar mannerisms into play, they take on a larger meaning. Contrasted to Katharine Hepburn playing Rose Sayers with an uptight and timid demeanor, Allnut’s socially awkwardness, impeded speech, and brutish arm movements come to signify a deeper relationship and unlikely bond between them. It is the slow removal and ease of these opposing mannerisms that bring them closer together. The two characters gradually become more alike, increasingly becoming free of themselves and their inhibitions. Opposites slowly attract in the face of near-death.
The signs of performance and character that Humphrey Bogart brings to the role of Charlie Allnut are due in large part to his seemingly well-matched “star image.” However, this is not to say that Bogart does not do an outstanding job with his performance. While it is seldom intended for actors and characters to be so closely aligned, in the case of The African Queen, it is so. To the audience, Humphrey Bogart and Charlie Allnut are the same.
