Bomba, der Rächer

THE LION HUNTERS (Monogram, 1951), directed and screenplay by Ford Beebe, based on the character created by Roy Rockwood in the "Bomba" books, stars Bomba, the Jungle Boy as portrayed by Johnny Sheffield. An average production and fifth entry to the "Bomba" franchise, its not only routine material but the longest (82 minutes) in the series.

Rather than the usual camera tracking opening of animals and jungle scenery, the story immediately introduces Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), followed by his playing with some baby cubs as observed by its mother. Moments later at a distance, Bomba finds the father lion shot and near death. To prevent it from suffering, Bomba sadly puts a spear to him. He then goes about to find the one responsible. At first he believes it to be one of the Masai tribe, until, after communicating with animals in their own language, finds there's a jungle expedition consisting of Forbes (Morris Ankrum), his teenage daughter, Jean (Ann Todd), Jonas (Smoki Whitfeield), the guide, and Martin (Douglas Kennedy) with permit to capture lions to sell. As the lions are captured and caged, Bomba releases them one by one, much to the chagrin of the money hungry Martin. During the course of time, Bomba befriends Jean, who's unable to get Martin to give up on his lion hunt. As Martin tricks Chief Walu (Woodrow Strode), leader of the Masai tribe, to capture the lions for him, he also intends on killing Bomba for continuously getting in his way. Robert Davis as Lobu is also in the cast.

With Bomba befriending former teenage actresses of the 1940s now past their prime in earlier entries as Peggy Ann Garner, Allene Roberts and Sue England, Ann Todd (usually billed as Ann E. Todd) becomes a sort of love interest for the jungle boy for this entry. Her acting at times is sort of lame, but as usual, its the villain, played by Douglas Kennedy, who gathers the most attention. Though Bomba's communication with animals may seem far-fetched to contemporary viewers, its gets by in its comic book sort of way on how he could get information to and from them. Some good scenery and action scene (notably Bomba's fight with a vicious lion), but other than that, standard Bomba material.

Available on DVD, THE LION HUNTERS turns up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies where its been showing since August 2010. Next in the series: AFRICAN TREASURE (1952). (** lion cubs)

Johnny Sheffield as Bomba has such low-keyed charisma and an easy gait that he commands attention even when he's not saying anything, which is sometimes preferable to the lines he's given. Bomba finds an injured lion in his territory and accuses the local villagers of leaving it to die (they deny it, even though a custom of their tribe is to send a young man out into the wilds to kill a lion as part of his initiation). Meanwhile, 'bwanas' have invaded the jungle with a permit to trap lions to sell back home to zoos--and one of the white men has a psychotic bent and an itchy trigger finger. One of better movies in the "Bomba" serial is still loaded with repetitive and recycled scenes, cheap back projection and nature footage from stock. Still, the editing is nimble enough so that the plot at least moves instead of being bogged down in the padding, and the supporting cast is strong. Douglas Kennedy is a worthy adversary for Sheffield's jungle boy (sprouting a little chest hair here), and the natives are finally given some personality quirks to make the subplot interesting. Bomba wrestles both an alligator and a lion, plays with lion cubs, relays messages to the birds (a bit embarrassing) and flirts innocently with the proverbial girl. Fans of the series could hardly expect or ask for more. **1/2 from ****

It's Bomba the Jungle Boy (Johnny Sheffield). He's playing with the lions when he spots an injured male which has been shot by hunters. Bomba is forced to do a mercy kill. He confronts the Maasai but they insist that it's not them. Tom Forbes and his daughter Jean meet up with his partner Marty Martin who is trapping and killing animals.

I like the animal-friendly message of this movie although there is some animal-unfriendly lion wrestling. No matter how unfriendly, it is still impressive stunt work. The native people are not simpletons or unthinking savages. They actually have a big part in the plot. It may not be modern or that good but it is as good as Bomba movies get.

I already said it yesterday, when you have seen a BOMBA movie, you have seen all of them. But it's not a default, it's charming, enchanted, naive, fun, agreeable to watch if you watch them with the "proper" eyes. The topics are all close to nature, animal defense, against colonialism, the villains are most of the time White ones, as in any Tarzan or Jungle Jim feature. You like it or don't. No locations, only celluloid jungle and many footage stock shots about animals. You can easily see a jungle setting and the next scene you are deep into savannah.... You see a gorilla in the forest just before seeing an elephant in thee bush, or even a giraffe.....But that belong to the charm of this film series, firget any realism. It is destined to kids, adult kids. Or kids adults. Ford Beebe was a serial director and then westerns and adventures B pictures. He had no ambition but good skills with a camera.

These movies were made for kids back when kids had decent role models to look up to. Bomba was a gentle young man with the right attitude and the right morals to show kids. Not like today's 'heroes' that kill and maim and blow up everything and drive cars along the streets like every one else is a stunt driver on the road.

I would much rather live in Bomba's world than today's world. It is too bad that times changed, for the worse, and these kind of movies ended. Like with the "B" western movies, we always knew who the good guy was and what he stood for and in the end he showed us all that the right way is the best way and always produces winners.

With Johnny Sheffield's smile and gentle way of talking, it is a shame that he ended his movie career, but he did much better with the money he made from these movies to build his future. He wasn't just a boy raised in the jungle with animals after all.