Bomba, el hijo de la selva

When I sat down to watch "Bomba: The Jungle Boy" I thought I was in for a fun, goofy hour. Instead I sat through a painfully dull movie. This is my second Bomba movie and I don't want to be mean but Johnny Sheffield is deadwood on screen. He brings nothing to the table. On the plus side, Peggy Ann Garner is cute and appealing. So the stars kind of balance each other out. "Bomba: The Jungle Boy" will only stay in my memory bank for about another ten minutes.

I guess I saw this when I was about eleven years old too, in the Mayfair Theater in Hillside, New Jersey. I remember getting quite a kick out of it, since I'd read all of the adventures of Bomba the Jungle Boy, a kind of second-rate Tarzan who lives in the Amazon Basin instead of an African Valley.

Mostly, I remember one particular scene. Peggy Ann Garner has had some sort of trouble pushing her way through the bush and her skirt is torn. Bomba, in a fashion that is unusually cultivated for the Amazon basin, points that out to her. She grabs her torn skirt, flips it, and glances down for a moment at her underpants showing through the tear. I thought I would die with excitement.

There were other adventures too, most involving animals I think, but I've long forgotten them.

Historical note: The Mayfair turned to even MORE explicit fare in the 1970s and, the last time I saw it, was boarded up and defaced by grafitti. And to think that George Washington passed within one hundred feet of this site on a trip to New York. The old days are gone forever. (Sob.)

I discovered BOMBA in the late eighties, thru my US VHS provider. Never heard of it before, the same with JUNGLE JIM character and movie series too. If you love TARZAN, you should,I say YOU SHOULD, like this cute series of movies, and not episodes, unlike JUNGLE JIM, which existed both in movie theaters and on TV. So back to this series of films made of course in Monogram studio lots, and certainly not on locations, it is fun, full of animals, natives, villains, celluloid jungle. OK, when you have seen one, you can consider you have seen the other ones, but for your kids, even now, in 2023, it would be better than Iphone silly and disturbing, insane games.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy is the first of the Bomba movies with Johnny Sheffield (Boy from the Weismuller Tarzan movies) as Bomba.

In this first movie, a safari in Africa including a girl and her dad are photographing and filming the wildlife when the girl, Pat gets lost and Bomba finds her. They become friends and he helps her to look for the rest of the party, facing several dangers along the way including lions, leopards, a huge swarm of locusts and unfriendly natives. She is reunited with the others at the end and Bobma disappears back into the jungle.

Joining Johnny Sheffield in the cast is Peggy Ann Garner as Pat, Onslow Stevens (Them!) as her dad and Bomba regular Smoki Whitfield.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy is worth watching if you can get hold of a copy.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

If I am not mistaken I watched this movie in 1951 and I was just an 11 year old, and my memory fades somewhat on detail of the Film. Keep in mind, my memories of this film was from a childs viewpoint, but the best that I remember, I really enjoyed it, in particular the animals, and lot & lots of action. Bomba was just a few years older than myself and I really related to him and his escapades. I would like to see it once more as an adult, but I really don't know if any videos/dvds' are available. Thank you for reading my comments.