Bomba, der Herr der Elefanten

I was lucky to get hold of a copy of this movie as it is quite hard to get hold of, as are all of the Bomba movies.

In this one, some illegal poachers arrive in the jungle and kill an elephant. After killing their leader, they try and kill more elephants but Bomba tries to stop them and eventually succeeds by getting a heard of elephants to trample them to death.

Johnny Sheffield plays Bomba once again and takes a good part. A lot of the scenes involving the elephants running is stock footage I think. Bomba also has a young lady who fancies him in this movie. She is learning him to read.

I enjoyed watching this movie. Watch it if you are lucky enough to get the chance.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Miss Banks is a white missionary teacher in the jungle. Her assistant Lola teaches Bomba the Jungle Boy. Joe Collins and Bob Warren are two white big-game hunters who surprise their guide and start illegally killing elephants for their tusks. There is a local cache of ivory which would be a jackpot for the hunters.

This is a Bomba movie and I don't have high expectations. The elephants are mostly in stock footage or probably hired circus elephants. I don't know what I want, but I want more elephant fun. I find most of the movie very boring with bad acting. There are little ok scenes scattered around, but it's not enough.

ELEPHANT STAMPEDE (Monogram, 1951), with screenplay and direction by Ford Beebe, marks the sixth entry to the "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" adventure series starring Johnny Sheffield. In one of the better entries, cast change includes Leonard Mudie for Charles Irwin in the role of Bomba's friend, Deputy Commissioner Andy Barnes. As with the earlier segments, there is a young girl about Bomba's age who becomes more interested in him while Bomba's interest is on other things.

The plot development is introduced in three segments before leading to an entire whole: 1) As the camera tracks around the jungle setting, capturing the presence of elephants and other animals starting their day. Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) is seen riding one of the elephants while a hawk rests on his arm. The hawk flies to a tree branch where Bomba senses danger as he sees a snake approaching the bird, where Bomba gets off elephant and saves the day. 2) Lola (Donna Martell), a native girl, is seen ringing the bell for native tribe to enter cottage school of Miss Banks (Edith Evanson) where the missionary teacher gives lessons about the alphabet. During that time, Lola goes to Bomba where they meet at a secret place near the lake where she teaches him letters and how to read . 3) Mark Phillips (Guy Kingsford) is an authorized hunter, accompanied by Bob Warren (John Kellogg) and Joe Collins (Myron Healey). Because Collins has illegally shot and killed an elephant for its ivory, Phillips places him under arrest, but accidentally shoots Phillips during a struggle with the gun. Placing the body under some branches, Warren takes his credentials and assumes the identity of Phillips so they can hunt for ivory. As Andy Barnes (Leonard Mudie) meets and takes Collins and "Phillips," to the village to meet with Miss Banks, she secretly tells Barnes she suspects the men are not what they appear to be, considering the fact that she knows Mark Phillips, and the man pretending to be him has a "W" label on his buckle. As Andy heads back to the station to check up on these men by telegram, he asks Bomba to watch over these men and not to do anything until he returns. Later, Warren and Collins discover Bomba has discovered the body of Phillips, with intentions of killing him before tricking the native chief Nagala (Martin WIlkins) into revealing the secret cave where the cache of ivory is stored.

Pretty good "Bomba" adventure that presents Donna Martell teaching Bomba how to read and spell, though her notions are more on the romantic side than his lessons. To make him jealous, she joins forces with the ivory hunters, unaware that they are using her for their personal gain. Of the villains, John Kellogg, whose physical mannerisms comes as a reminded to character actor, Douglas Fowley, stands out through his vicious presence showing no remorse for his evil actions. Moving in episodic manner like a chapter serial with enough material for its 71 minutes, the movie title eventually comes to full swing late into the story.

Commonly shown on broadcast television during the 1960s and 1970s on morning or afternoons for the juvenile viewers, ELEPHANT STAMPEDE and other Bomba adventures can presently be seen on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: January 6, 2012). Next in the series: AFRICAN TREASURE (1952) (**)

The sixth Bomba movie starring Johnny Sheffield has Bomba learning to read from beautiful Lola (Donna Martell). Lola is interested in Bomba for more than his mind but, as was the case in most of these movies, Bomba will have none of that. So, to make him jealous, Lola starts flirting with one of two ivory poachers. Bomba doesn't care about the flirting but he does care about the poaching. So he steps in to put a stop to them killing his elephant friends.

No doubt some modern viewers will read some unintended subtext into the fact that Bomba was often uninterested in the attractive women throwing themselves at him in these movies. I think the real reason was the makers of these movies were aiming them at little boys who didn't like 'mushy stuff,' as well as the comic value that comes from some of these situations. Anyway, the series really needed a Jane like Tarzan had. It's unfortunate they didn't see it that way but that's just one of the many reasons this series never rises above middling juvenile entertainment. This entry is par for the course with the usual rear projection effects and stock footage but there is a nice supporting cast, which helps.

Elephant Stampede (1951)

** (out of 4)

While Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) is in the jungle having a pretty teacher's aid (Donna Martell) teach him to reach, a couple poachers are killing elephants for their ivory. Soon the two men find out about Bomba and must kill him so that they can get back to their business. The sixth film in the series actually turns out to be one of the most entertaining but than again this is a cheap Bomba movie from Monogram so one shouldn't be expecting an actual good movie. I think there are some pretty funny and campy moments throughout and not the ones we're used to seeing like the stock footage o rear projection stuff. There's an entire side-story dealing with this young, beautiful school assistant wanting to have fun with Bomba but he keeps pushing her away instead preferring to learn his ABCs. This leads to her wanting to make him jealous and take off with the two poachers who are constantly sexually harassing her. I'm not sure how many children in the audience knew this or cared about it but I'm sure the majority of the adults watching, then and now, couldn't help but laugh at Bomba for rejecting such a beauty. The film is actually quite dark for children because there's quite a bit of violence against elephants and especially Bomba. Poor jungle boy takes quite a beating here including being pistol whipped and knocked out a couple times. This action does help keep the film moving and I'd say that at times Bomba comes off as such a jerk you really don't mind it. Sheffield is certainly very comfortable in the part by now and he turns in a fine performance. Martell clearly steals the film as the teacher's aid. The support is pretty good as well, which is rare for this series. All in all, fans of the series should be some entertainment out of this but just don't expect something great.