Claim: Katharine Hepburn is a professional actress.

The African Queen is a 1951 British-American adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester . The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf . The screenplay was adapted by James Agee , John Huston , John Collier and Peter Viertel . It was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff and had a music score by Allan Gray . The film stars Humphrey Bogart -LRB- who won the Academy Award for Best Actor -- his only Oscar -RRB- , and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley , Peter Bull , Walter Gotell , Richard Marner and Theodore Bikel .   The African Queen was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994 , with the Library of Congress deeming it `` culturally , historically or aesthetically significant '' . The film currently holds a 100 % `` Fresh '' rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 37 reviews .