Bomba y la pantera negra

Fairly weak follow-up to 1949's "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" has a better production (with much-improved nature footage from stock), but a terribly nonsensical script to contend with. Johnny Sheffield returns as Bomba, a teenage Tarzan complete with loincloth and stunted English, here tracking a killer black panther through the jungle; meanwhile, an American architect and his kid-sister (in matching pith helmets!) try persuading the jungle natives to chop down the trees to make room for their experimental farm, but the workers are scared off by the marauding beast who represents an ancient taboo. Also frightening the men is Lita Baron, a glinty-eyed French maid who may be possessed by the soul of a cat (paging Simone Simon!). Bomba certainly isn't afraid of the bewitching lass, taking momentary delight in her frisky caresses and excitable hands! Sheffield, with his thickly-sculpted physique and junior high school grin, is still a charmer...but what good can be said about a jungle adventure in which most of the action comes courtesy of the second-unit add-ons? (a buffalo fighting an alligator, for example). Monogram Pictures did keep the series going after this, but were already running low on fresh ideas. *1/2 from ****

In the 1940s, Johnny Sheffield played 'Boy' in several Tarzan movies for MGM...in the best of the various Tarzan incarnations of the era. However, when production ceased at MGM, both Johnny Weis smuller and Sheffield went on to other studios to make Tarzan-like films...Weissmuller's with his Jungle Jim series and Sheffield the Bomba series....both with small studios (Katzman and Monogram respectively). These were enjoyable films BUT also very low budgeted...and it showed. Reused scenes from various previous movies, the copious use of stock footage and a real sameness doomed these films to the 'adequate but just watchable' category. They are silly...and often very naive about what Africa and the jungles are like...they certainly aren't documentaries!

The story finds some Americans in the jungle...trying to build a plantation and having difficulty getting the superstitious natives to clear the land. At the same time, a killer black leopard is running amok...giving further problems for the fledgling plantation. But thanks to Bomba, they are able to eventually straighten things out and stop the rampaging leopard.

The Africa of this film is only vaguely African at best. After all, why is thre a white lady in a sarong who speaks French? Was she supposed to be in a Polynesian picture but just went to the wrong sound stage? And, then why didn't she look Polynesian?? Also, I'm no expert on the continent, though I have visited a few times...so where is this jungle and why are there all those rope-like vines all over the place?! Plus, why are some of the guys on vines obviously NOT Sheffield but some stuntmen? And, why are raccoons, Asian buffalo and American alligators in the jungle?! And, why do the plantation owner and his sister treat the natives like they are all addle-brained children?! Folks today clearly won't appreciate this!

Apart from being VERY naive and featuring lots of ill-fitting and grainy stock footage, is the film any good? Well, yes...provided your expectations are low AND you haven't already seen one too many cheap Tarzan style films. It's enjoyable and not as bad as some B-jungle pictures...but also quite silly at times.

By the way, there are a couple scenes where animals fight each other and I can only assume that for our 'entertainment' the filmmakers tossed them together and filmed it...which is pretty sad.

Bomba gets pretty busy in this one: he has to face a killer panther, a white jerk who almost sets fire to half the African jungle, and two women fawning over him - and who can blame them? He looks even more bulked up than in the first film in the series, and frankly he is smoking hot. The two women who cannot keep their hands off his body are the cute, demure Allene Roberts and the "French" (actually Spanish) Lita Baron: the choice should be pretty easy. Like its predecessor, the film makes little attempt to integrate the stock footage of wild animals convincingly - not only does the film stock look different, but the footage seems to be set in different locations, if not in different continents altogether. And the jungle studio sets never look like anything other than jungle studio sets. ** out of 4.

A brother and sister "Robert & Judy Maitland" are trying to turn some jungle acreage into a rubber plantation so hire a group of the natives to help out by "cutting down the trees so they can plant more trees". The couple - via the auspices of local commissioner Charles Irwin - try to convince our tousled hero "Bomba" (Johnny Sheffield) to help out; but he is determined to track down a man-eating panther that has been terrorising the locals. In order to speed things up, "Robert" tries to burn down part of the forest and chaos ensues... Add to the mix a seductive Lita Baron and it's not just the embers that start to smoulder. The story is quite weak, and the sets (and animal library footage) really do let the look of it down badly - but Johnny Sheffield does have something quite cute on screen and though it does take most of it's 70 minutes to get going, it's still quite a fun jungle caper.

Bomba on Panther Island (1949)

** (out of 4)

The second film in Monogram's series finds Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) trying to track down a killer black panther who is causing all sorts of trouble in the jungle. He must also help a young woman (Allene Roberts) and her brother (Harry Lewis) who are doing special experiments in the jungle but their mysterious helper (Lita Baron) has the natives thinking she might be evil. After a decent start, this second entry quickly loses steam and in the end it's just another cheap, low-budget jungle movie that is nothing more than a rip-off of the Tarzan series. Of course, the biggest difference is that Sheffield played 'Boy' in those MGM films so it was natural that he'd be offered his own series. Sadly, the end results are rather weak but then again this is actually one of the best I've seen from the series so take that as you will. I think the opening scene where a monkey friend of Bomba is killed was rather effective but as soon as this is over the cheapness quickly kicks in. The majority of the panther attacks features stock footage of a panther "stalking" and then we cut away to the results and this is just a human (or animal) on the ground dead. At first I laughed at how cheap this effect was but by the end of the movie I understood because when the "fake" leopard does attack Bomba the results is so laughable that you can understand why the producers didn't want to use it too much. At one point it seems as if Bomba is fighting a cloth toy! Sheffield looks the part of a jungle boy and he's actually not too bad in the part. Roberts makes for a good love interest and Baron certainly has the looks and sexuality for her part. At 76-minutes the film is way too sluggish for its own good but the performances and a few scenes of the wildlife at least give it a little life.