Mythology of the Studio Era: The African Queen

The filming of the 1951 film "The African Queen"--starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn--took place mostly in the African countries of Uganda and the Congo, in addition to stage work in London and a little bit of location work in Turkey.

While in the African countries, the following happened:

-Much of the cast and crew suffered from a great deal of illnesses, including malaria and dysentery. Ms. Hepburn herself suffered from the latter, as she drank much of the bacteria-infested water to spite the drinking habits of admitted alcoholics Bogart and director John Huston. Those two men were the only two who didn't fall ill. "Whenever a fly bit Huston or me," exclaimed Bogart, "it dropped dead."

-Huston had an obsession with hunting wild game in the jungles of the continent, often putting his accompanying actors in near-fatal situations. The co-writer of the film committed a fictionalized account of this into his book "White Hunter, Black Heart" which was later turned into a movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, playing the obviously named character John Wilson.

-Although much of the crew was local, many allegedly did not show up fearing the filmmakers to be cannibals.

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These facts are brought to you by IMDb.com, Hepburn's memoir "The Making of 'The African Queen,' or How I Went to Africa with Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind" and random tidbits by Robert Osbourne accompanying the film's airing on Turner Classic Movies a couple days ago.