Bomba and the Jungle Girl

This little feature is not better or worse than the other Bomba movies. I think they were made for sunny - or rainy - Sunday afternoons. All directed by Ford Beebe, they are all the same. When you have seen one, you have seen all of them. But they are not charmless.

I won't explain the topic of this one, it is already exposed in the tag line. I only write this comment because this film has not been commented yet. That's all.

If you watch all Bomba features in a row, you'll forget this one. For sure. I recommend to see the Bomba films one each week. That's the best to appreciate them.

This could be called the origin of Bomba (Johnny Sheffield). As such, the story is more interesting than usual. Presently, in picturesque Africa, the jungle boy watches different animals with their children. Bomba is sad because every animal in the jungle has father and mother but him. This leads Bomba on a journey of self-discovery. We will finally see the fate of Bomba's parents, John and Laura Hastings. An entertaining "native" Suzette Harbin (as Baru) plays a large part. She's silly, but fun to watch. The pretty girl role is filled exceptionally well by Karen Sharpe (as Linda Ward). Of course, she has a swimming scene. Cast wisely, Ms. Sharpe beautifully fills her one-piece bathing suit. Also lifting this entry is a nicely edited fire sequence. The smoke, controlled background fires and added foreground effects are quite effective. Some acting rehearsals and flashback scenes might have improved this story, along with a more appropriate title.

***** Bomba and the Jungle Girl (12/7/52) Ford Beebe ~ Johnny Sheffield, Karen Sharpe, Walter Sande, Suzette Harbin

Bomba and the Jungle Girl (1952)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The eighth film in Monogram's series once again has Johnny Sheffield playing Bomba, the jungle boy who in this adventure meets a jungle girl (Karen Sharpe) and the two try to figure out who his parents were. With the help of a partial diary, the two set out to learn the truth yet you know there are going to be complications. Having been watching the Bomba series in the order that they were made, I have no idea what the last four films will hold but there's no question that it appears everyone involved were running out of ideas. There's really not too much to say about this film that I haven't said about previous entries. This one here features a pretty boring story where not much happens except that our hero has a new female lead and we get countless scenes where they talk about things that they're going to do. Every ten minutes or so we get an action scene that is full of silly gunshots and every once in a while we get stock footage to go with it. The start of the film has our female swimming in a river for no reason other than a crocodile to show up and she of course will need Bomba to save her. I think the croc used here is different than the previous couple films as was the stock footage showing the real one. The story itself is pretty bland because after the first few minutes you realize that you really don't care what happened to Bomba's parents and your only main goal is getting through all the madness.

"Bomba" (Johnny Sheffield) makes quite an horrific discovery one morning when his visit to a cave reveals some long-dead corpses. He decides that a decent burial ought to be in order and so sets out to discover a little more about them. The local village seems a good place to start, but he comes up against a bit of a bamboo-wall of silence. Meantime, the visiting "Ward" family - dad and daughter (as usual) - might be able to help and rue to form he and the young "Linda" (Karen Sharpe) start to get along nicely. It's only when he finds a tribesman who confides the real reason for the obfuscation that the young man and his new friends must face a difficult truth. Insofar as it goes, this is quite a menacing little tale that quite effectively uses the (studio) jungle scenario to tell a story of wickedness, murder and duplicity - and in his usually flighty fashion, the young Sheffield carries it off fine. Sure, just about every expense has been spared with the production but he works well with the visiting Sharpe and though it takes a long-outdated perspective of tribal and superstitious life in Africa, it has just about enough action to pass an hour effortlessly enough.

Bomba feels bad about being an orphan so he decides to find out who his parents are and what happened to them. The trail leads him to a village ruled by a corrupt chief and his ruthless daughter. Needless to say, the two don't like Bomba poking around and asking questions. This is a nice change of pace plot for the series, which usually had the standard 'evil white men come to the jungle to kill or steal and Bomba must stop them' formula. It only took seven sequels for them to think about following up on this plot thread from the first movie but I'm glad they finally did.

The Bomba series had its fair share of pretty ladies and here we have two. Karen Sharpe is the daughter of a government official and Suzette Harbin is the daughter of the village chief. I'm not sure which girl is the jungle girl of the title. I mean, Harbin is the only one of the two who actually lives in the jungle but Sharpe is the heroine. Neither is a 'jungle girl' in the same sense that Bomba is a 'jungle boy.' Both are attractive and well-written for young female roles at the time. When Bomba swims out to rescue her from a crocodile, Sharpe takes matters into her own hands and swims to shore, gets a gun, and kills the croc herself! Harbin is her father's right-hand and heir to the throne. She's in charge of the village guard and killing her father's enemies. It's one of the best Bomba movies, which isn't saying a whole lot I know. It's a juvenile adventure movie with a little more plot than most in the series and some strong female characters which deserves mentioning. The movie makes use of stock footage, as it always did. Maybe a little less than usual, though. There are some humorous moments with the chimps that I enjoyed. It does go on too long, as most of the Bomba sequels did for some reason. Nothing you can't live without seeing but a good way to pass the time if you're so inclined.