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.

When you have seen one BOMBAs series film, it's the same with the JUNGLE JIM series too, you have seen all of them. More or less.... Unlike the TARZAN films, which were very variable, depending of the producers, directors and actors playing Tarzan, the BOMBAs and JUNGLE JIM's were all alike. Most of the time, the villains are all White, hunters, nazis, Uranium, diamond, gold seekers, or also ivory traffic goons. Many many stock shots, but all those films, which this movie belongs to, were all fun, excellent time waster, under the condition you watch them once in a while. Ford Beebe provided the bulk of Bomba. And the producer was at least not the infamous Sam Katzman but the famous Walter Mirish. Who will be famous for bigger budgets later. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, MAGNIFICENT SEVEN...

The least that can be said about "Elephant Stampede" (1951) is that it offers equal-opportunity eye-candy to both genders of viewers: Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) looks jacked and hunky, and his female friend in this episode, Donna Martell, has an especially nice back. Other than that, the plot of this film could not be more standard (ivory hunters....again), though at least it does deliver on the title promise by the end, even if only on a small scale. There is also one particular shot, of the bad guys shooting a vine that Bomba is swinging on, that I think I've seen reused in every Bomba film so far! ** out of 4.

This segment of the Bomba the Jungle Boy series finds Bomba trying to better himself by learning to read. Teaching him is the lovely Donna Martell, teaching assistant to Edith Evanson at the local native village. She'd like to further Bomba's education in other ways, but Bomba has his mind on book learning.

All that comes to an end when ivory poachers arrive in the territory in the persons of John Kellogg and Myron Healey. They murder their professional hunting guide and assume his identity. And Healey starts moving in on Martell which bothers everyone.

Elephant Stampede marked the appearance of Leonard Mudie as Commissioner Andy Barnes. The character appeared in the first Bomba film with another actor, but was then dropped. Mudie played Barnes throughout the rest of the series and was the only other regular besides Johnny Sheffield as Bomba.

If you know the Tarzan series and know his relationship with the elephant community and how they mutually aid each other you know something about how this turns out. And Bomba does need the aid of his pachyderm friends.

One of the better in the Bomba series.

Yet another cheap Monogram Pictures' Bomba film, with it's signature phony looking backlot jungle, poorly done rear projection, and an overuse of stock jungle footage. The entry has Bomba stopping evil ivory hunters and is less racist than most entries and also a slightly more enjoyable film than the rest of the series. After having watched five of the 12 Bomba films, I'm not sure I really need to see any more, though I'll probably make myself to just say I've seen all of them. Still, this was probably the most bearable of them that I've seen thus far.