The Hidden City

THE HIDDEN CITY, a/k/a BOMBA AND THE HIDDEN CITY (Monogram, 1950), directed by Ford Beebe, marks the fourth installment to the "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" movie series starring Johnny Sheffield. In one of the better entries in the series, with screenplay by Carroll Young, this edition promises more fast-pace adventure, especially after Bomba finds himself being hunted by someone unknown to him.

Following some jungle camera tracking along wildlife doing their daily routine, the story begins in a jeep where Hadji (Smoki Whitfield), a tour guide, drives museum photographer, Dennis Johnson (Damian O'Flynn), through the jungle as he uses his movie camera to capture images of animal life. Along the way, Johnson notices a white boy vine swinging from tree to tree. Wanting to take further pictures of the legend of Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), the jungle boy soon disappears from a distance. Later, while in what is described as The Hidden City, the story develops with the introduction of Emir Hassen (Paul Guilfoyle), a corrupt leader of the city who had earlier replaced a good governor who was killed, with Emir next in line to take his place. Hoping to improve his life of poor living, Raschid (Leon Belasco), from the neighboring village of Kampini, offers to sell his foster daughter, Zita (Sue England) as part of Emir's household harem girls. Learning about the jungle boy from Johnson, Emir arranges for Abdullah (Charles La Torre) to hunt Bomba and have him killed. Later injured from a knife thrown to his back, Bomba escapes Abdullah and is later found and rescued by Zita, who treats his knife wound. When Bomba notices one of the visitors of Zita's village to be one of the men who knifed him, he escapes into the jungle. As for Zita, who, after meeting the fearful Emir only to learn she is to go with him to become one of his maidens, she, too, escapes into the jungle for Bomba's assistance. Realizing Zita, who has no recollection of her true identity, might be in as much great danger as himself, Bomba allows Zita to be taken back to the hidden city under Emir's corrupt ruling while Bomba, at the risk of being captured himself, watches for her safety from afar and learn the reason for Emir's evil doings.

Johnny Sheffield is fine as the teenage spear carrying jungle boy image taken from the character created by Rock Rockwood's "Bomba" books, while Sue England's is agreeable as Bomba's latest female characters out for his help. As with many jungle adventures such as this, there is a villain, here played by Paul Guilfoyle, who gets the most attention here, with Damian O'Flynn as the good guy out to assist Bomba from his dangerous captures. Smoki Whitfield, who earlier played Eli in the first two "Bomba" installments, assumes a different character name here as Hadji,

Not as well known as the "Tarzan" series of years past, by which Sheffield also participated opposite Johnny Weissmuller through much of the 1940s, THE HIDDEN CITY is a worthy offering in the Bomba series, especially for the Saturday matinee crowd. No known video tape distributions but availability on DVD and cable television exposure over the years, including Turner Network Television (1992), and Turner Classic Movies since 2011. Next installment: THE LION HUNTERS (1951) (**)

"Bomba and the Hidden City" is a slipshod chapter of a very cut rate series of adventure sagas. It was directed, however, by a master of the serial form, Forde Beebe. This kiddie clunker was the kind of thing Beebe could direct in his sleep and judging from what follows the title, that's where he spent most of his time, jungle hammock style, collecting a cool $150 salary while waiting for the bus to another part of the forest.

The storyline follows our semi-intrepid jungle boy, by now really filling out his French cut Tarzan loin wrap. He galumphs and swings through the eucalyptus trees of the Santa Anita Racetrack Botanic Gardens, searching for some supposed hidden city. This "city" more of a couple of shacks with a forlorn palm-tree and a few added stumps,seems to be known by everyone especially the Arab suits, read villains. The plot is something like "Tarzan's Desert Mystery" or "Tarzan's Nazi Adventure" or "The Return of Somebody with a Name like Schnarzan". Forgive me, sometimes I get carried away with all the excitement. The city, hidden or not, has the sister of another member of the cast who may or may not have been there before. Nobody knows for sure. Also, in the village is somebody called "Ferengi", perhaps an escapee from a space opera, though that is probably doubtful. As can be expected, Bomba makes everything right while hardly having to fling his spear.The bad guys get their well deserved drenching and just when we are sitting on the edge of our thrones with the possibility of the jungle boy getting his first lady friend, the end comes. But one big thing we can be sure of, in the next outing of our titular hero, he still won't have any body hair, a true "child" until all the film runs out!

Bomba and the Hidden City (1950)

** (out of 4)

Extremely far-fetched but entertaining entry in the Monogram series has Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) witnessing a political assassination and years later the evil ruler (Paul Gulpoyle) plans on marrying a woman (Sue England) against her wishes. It's up to Bomba to try and save the girl as well as help her remember her past. This fourth film in the series is pretty camp and there's no question that it's over-the-top but I found it to be slightly entertaining simply because of all the craziness going at. At just 71-minutes the film doesn't last too long, which is always a good thing but it also manages to be rather fast paced, which was a first for the series. Director Ford Beebe actually keeps the film moving very well and we even get some decent action scenes from start to finish. This includes Bomba taking quite a bit of abuse as he tries to flee from the bad guys who are constantly shooting and throwing knives at him. The entire mystery of who the girl isn't all that hard to figure out and I'm sure the 3-year-old kids in the theater at the time figured out who she was long before it's revealed. Sheffield once again does a good job in his role of Bomba as he certainly fit the part and has no trouble playing it. England is fairly entertaining as the girl but this film clearly belongs to Gulpoyle as the crazy one. The actor really gives it his all and you can just see the glee in his eyes from getting to play a bad guy. With all of that said, this is still a low-budget Bomba movie so the various negative things are still present.

Another adventure for Bomba, the jungle boy. Here, John Sheffield is the wild jungle dude, who has befriended Zidah. Sheffield had first played Bomba back in 1939, and will play him for another five years before leaving hollywood. The local emir decides to take out Bomba; apparently, Bomba knows that Zidah was the rightful princess. Now, there is a hunting expedition led by Johnson (Damian O'flynn) to try to knock him off. Bomba is injured, but is helped by Zidah (Sue England). adventures, entanglements. Sheffield was only 18 or 19 at this point. it's ok. clearly aimed at the younger audience. directed by Ford Beebe, who had been directing Bomba and other adventure films since 1921 !

Though only 19 when this was made, I think that Johnny Sheffield was now becoming just a bit too old to carry off this most preposterous of "Bomba" tales. When he is spotted by a photographer swinging through the trees, the local Emir decides to have him killed as, basically, glorified vermin. Ever indestructible, our young lad is rescued, downriver, by the original Princess Leah (OK, slight spelling variation) whom it turns out is the daughter of the rightful Emir who had been unceremoniously overthrown. Needless to say, our chivalrous loincloth-clad Sheffield is up for helping her to reclaim her inheritance. As with the Weissmuller "Tarzan" films, this series has begun to run out of steam. The charm and innocence of earlier iterations have gone; the storylines have become angrier, and the underlying simplicity long since compromised by invasive weaponry and technology (even by 1950s standards). The writing isn't up to much here, either - and there is an annoying romantic sub-plot that bogs it down rather. They are still watchable little features, all of them, but this one - less so.