Bomba, enfant de la jungle

"Bomba The Jungle Boy", the first film in a long series of "Tarzan Junior" adventures, makes no real attempt to integrate the stock footage of animals convincingly, or to make the viewer feel that the action is taking place anywhere outside of an admittedly large studio. The story is short on thrills - and purpose. And yet, it has some appeal, mostly coming from its two young (only just 18 years old) stars: Johnny Sheffield, as Bomba, is supremely well-built (his thighs, in particular, look like they could crush coconuts), and Peggy Ann Garner is absolutely gorgeous (she even changes from her city clothes to a ready-made leopard skin halfway through!). Watching those two makes this film worth watching. ** out of 4.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

** (out of 4)

When MGM decided to take their Tarzan series into a different direction, Johnny Weissmuller headed to Columbia to start the Jungle Jim series while his son, Boy, went to Monogram and began production on another Tarzan rip- off, Bomba, which would end up running for twelve films. The series opener has Pat Harland (Peggy Ann Garner) and her father (Onslow Stevens) are in Africa trying to take photos of some rare animals when she ends up in the jungle lost. Soon Bomba (Sheffield) shows up to show her some of the finer, less appreciated things in life. There's no question that this series should have been called TARZAN, JR. and there's no question that what brain cells the MGM series had are pretty much gone here. This isn't a horrible movie but at the same time it's doubtful too many are going to find it completely entertaining and this is due to several factors. One is that the screenplay really doesn't offer us anything new, original or really all that entertaining. I thought for the most part we got one boring sequence after another and in fact it takes nearly thirty-minutes before Bomba shows up, another ten-minutes for any sort of action and it takes yet another fifteen-minutes before Garner finally gets into her leopard-skinned outfit. As with the Tarzan films and the countless other rips, this film gets the benefit of many stock footage shots of the wildlife in Africa. We get to see a wide range of animals but it's obvious the footage was shot for other movies as it looks quite poor and even for stock footage the stuff isn't that good because the shots are so far away from the target and out of focus that at times you struggle to even tell what you're looking at. For some reason the film is pretty light on action as there are only a few fight sequences and even these are pretty tame. The first time Bomba fights a fake leopard it all happens off camera. The one saving grace to the film are the performances. Sheffield does a nice job playing the lead character and Garner adds up some nice support. The two feature some nice chemistry together and fans of HOUSE OF Dracula will enjoy seeing Stevens in his part. At just 70-minutes the movie goes by at a decent pace but it's just too bad they didn't try something fresh or original to throw a little life into the picture.

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.)

Johnny Sheffield who had grown too old to play Boy in the Tarzan films got a nice break from Monogram Pictures and was able to extend his career with the Bomba The Jungle Boy series of films. Like Tarzan, Bomba grows up in the jungle and in fact this film bears no small resemblance to Tarzan, the Ape Man.

Bomba's Jane is in the person of former child star Peggy Ann Garner who is a visiting photographer with her father Onslow Stevens. She gets separated from Stevens and enjoys an idyll of sorts with Bomba who is more articulate than those early Weissmuller Tarzans.

The only other regular in the Bomba series is Commissioner Andy Barnes who is a glorified game warden here and played by Charles Irwin. In later films Barnes would be played by Leonard Mudie.

Some stock jungle footage is integrated nicely into the film, better I would say than a lot of the Tarzan films done at RKO at the same time with Lex Barker.

Not a bad beginning for the series.

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.