African Queen MIA? (1 Viewer)

[Joel Vardy]

I have asked this question in the past and it seems like the time is ripe for another try. I know it has been released in Region 2 but it is an american film and region 1 is the largest market...

Many classics have either been released or are rumored to be in development. African Queen continues to be MIA or am I just anaware of where this sits. This appears to be one of the most significant (top 10 AFI list) classics that has no specific release schedule or even a rumor of a release.

Maybe this time someone has heard of some signs.

- Joel

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

There was a big discussion about who owns the rights to this one a few months back. I think it was determined that the answer was Carlton. It was apparently released last summer in Region 2, but noone seems to know anything about any other Regions at this point.

Regards,

 

[JohnJB]

Not that there is anything wrong with being an American picture but what makes you thing that it was, would you define Lawrence of Arabia an American picture ?

PS to keep it constructive, the UK disk is fabulous with great English DOP Jack Cardiff commentary.

 

[Joel Vardy]

Ken,
Who exactly is 'Carlton'? I'm not aware of a studio by that name.
John, the reason I believe that the African Queen is an American picture (outside of the fact that the two primary stars are clearly American) is that to qualify for the AFI 100 list (American Film Institute) the film needs to be a US film. I know that LOA was borderline, but I believe it was US financed, which is why it made the list.
- Joel

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Link Removed
Regards,

 

[Douglas R]

The African Queen is certainly not an American film. It was a Romulus production, which was a British company and is credited as a UK film by Variety. I believe money came from a variety of sources, including America as the film was produced by Sam Spiegel. The fact that it had American star is irrelevant. Numerous British films have used American stars to capure a wider market. Carlton only hold the UK rights. USA rights are (or were) held by Fox.

 

[Jim Douglas]

Has anybody heard anything about the region 0 dvd's showing up on e-bay. I wonder which transfer this is? The restored version that's in the LD box set or the older version. I've been trying to get a LD version but the bidding gets way to high on e-bay for the box set.

Later

Jim

 

[Mike_S]

Jim, I've got the LD Box set of African Queen and it does indeed boast a fine transfer. It's hard to imagine a DVD version besting it in image quality.

 

[Scott Leopold]

While I don't know anyone directly who owns one of the R0 African Queens, I did read the feedback of one of the people selling them (or a bootleg of them), and the feedback for this disc was mostly negative, citing poor quality. Five of five feedbacks I read were negative, and all were because the disc and not anything the seller did. I'm personally waiting on a good R1 release (which I thought, based on an old rumor, was supposed to come early this year as part of a Bogart promotion, along with 2-4 other movies).

 

[Robert Harris]

Lawrence is most decidedly a British production.

I believe African Queen, produced by the venerable Mr. Eagle,

is now owned by Paramount via Viacom.

RAH

 

[Robert Crawford]

Since "The African Queen" was financed by both American and British concerns, I still considered it an American film with both lead actors being American, an American director and screenwriting credits to two Americans.

Crawdaddy

 

[Douglas R]

My assertion that the African Queen is essentially a British film is supported by the following quote from John Woolf's son (from the web site www.netribution.co.uk). Sir John Woolf who died a couple of years ago founded Romulus Films and put up the bulk of the money for the film. Much of the film was also shot in the then British protectorate of Uganda.
"Well Romulus films was started by my father back in the 1950 or '49, I think, with his brother James Woolf. He had left the Rank organisation, which his father had co founded with Arthur J Rank originally, he decided to go independent to make his own films and his very first film was Pandora and the Flying Dutchman with James Mason and Eva Gardner, it did relatively well. In those days it was not easy to get a British film together, and certainly not with major stars. What he used to do was go to America and get the big names over to England, including big directors as well as big actors and he made a name for himself for being able to do that. His big start was The African Queen which he funded himself partially - if that had gone badly then he would have been bankrupt. But it was a big success, with Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, directed by John Huston and that really set him going on his career and he and his brother, my uncle, made a number of major films in the 50s and 60s"