In his novel White Hunter, Black Heart, Peter Viertel claims that John Huston insisted on filming The African Queen on location in the Congo rather than on the back lot of some studio simply because he wanted to go on safari and, he hoped, shoot an elephant. Knowledge of Huston's character suggests that this is very probably true.

Whether it is or not, to film on location was an inspired decision which, with the unconventional but equally inspired casting of Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, made The African Queen an exceptional movie. Bogart as an ignorant, gin-soaked riverboat captain; Hepburn as a dried-up spinster, a prim, forbidding English missionary? No, no, you think, only Hollywood could have come up with anything so preposterous. And yet it works. As we watch this unlikely couple fleeing from the German forces in the First World War, making their hazardous way down a barely navigable river, taking Bogart's boat, The African Queen, through perilous rapids while at first despising each other, then gradually, reluctantly, falling in love, disbelief virtually suspends itself. No effort is required because the splendour - and obvious discomfort - of the locations is clearly genuine and because these people, changing and growing, discovering within themselves and each other qualities of strength and resourcefulness that neither had suspected, are eminently credible.

There is romance here, danger, excitement and a leavening humour that springs naturally from the characters and the situations. Admittedly the climax, the daring assault on the German cruiser, is sentimental, glib and - let's be honest - highly implausible. But above all it is right. Nothing less than a triumphant ending would have been remotely acceptable.

Incidentally, Peter Viertel worked, uncredited, on the script. His book, one of the best novels about the movie industry, was filmed in 1990 with Clint Eastwood as the thinly disguised Huston. Both on page and on screen it makes an interesting companion piece to The African Queen itself.

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Take two legendary co-stars, a rip-roaring boys own story, a fearless director and an eventful location shoot in Zaire and Uganda and you get The African Queen - the best loved of all adventure movies.

During World War One, a hard drinking river trader (BOGART) and a prim missionary (HEPBURN) are forced to take a hazardous river expedition together, encountering tropical hazards, nefarious German officers and a surprising romance.

Bogart's role won him his only Oscar. Hepburn puts in a characteristically sharp performance. With masterful direction from John Huston and a wonderful script from the classic C. S. Forester novel, The African Queen is a rare treat.