Bomba dans le volcan en feu

Bomba the Jungle Boy encounters Paul Gordon's safari party with captive animals. Bomba manages to free some of the animals from their cages. Paul still does not believe in the local legend of Bomba. Paul's son David disagrees with his father's work and his disbelief in Bomba. David plays in the jungle and actually meets Bomba. Two hunters arrive searching for a hidden treasure under the volcano. They kidnap David who claims to have learned the location from Bomba. Bomba comes to the rescue.

I really like the messaging. They're fighting against the captive animal trade which is a bit ahead of its time. I like the use of the volcano stock footage. I would rather not use the fake volcano which looks fake. This B-movie franchise is always going to be hampered with fake settings and silly white boy premise. That cannot be helped. This one is probably as good as this franchise is going to be.

Johnny Sheffield is quite an agreeable hero in this jungle adventure story. Tommy Ivo is "David Woods" a young lad who camps on the outskirts of the forest with his zoologist father, his mother and their maid "Nona". Meantime, "Bomba" has been watching them and intent on releasing the animals they have been caging up, visits the youngster and they make friends. When a group of hunters stop by, they reckon the young boy knows the whereabouts of a wonderful treasure so they kidnap him and force him to take them to it. "Bomba" learns of this plight and sets off to rescue him - and to save everyone from an ominously noisy volcano. It's all pretty run-of-the-mill stuff but has enough action, vine-swinging and dastardly baddies to amiably pass 75 minutes; especially if you are prepared to overlook the obvious use of library footage....

THE LOST VOLCANO (Monogram, 1950), written and directed by Ford Beebe, the third installment in the "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series, as based on the character created by Roy Rockwell, is a well-made programmer. While done mostly in studio bound sets or back-lots, fine production values are very much evident here, especially with some intense scenes with characters inside an active volcano.

The story gets underway as Paul Gordon (Donald Woods), a zoologist, along with his assistant natives, taking a rest stop after trapping and caging wild animals. Observing them through their long journey home is Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), a teenage jungle boy, awaiting the opportunity to free the animals while the men sleep for the night. The next morning Gordon finds his captured animals gone. He's told by one of his tribesmen that they were released by Bomba, whom Gordon dismisses as some sort of myth. Returning to his cottage where his wife, Ruth (Marjorie Lord) and son, David (Tommy Ivo) are staying with Nona (Elena Verdugo), their native housekeeper, Gordon becomes even more disturbed when David claims to know Bomba and that he's for real. Even though Nona has witnessed David and Bomba's activities together, Gordon still refuses to accept his son's imaginary friend. Hoping to remove David's influence on Bomba, the Gordons agree to send David to a boys school in Capetown to overcome his loneliness. Entering the scene is Doctor Charles Langley(Grandon Rhodes) from the Cairo Museum, traveling with his guides, Barton (John Ridgely) and Higgins (Don Harvey). Langley, searching for a missing ancient city believed to be buried somewhere near an reactivated volcano, hopes that Gordon could lead them there. It is then learned that a golden knife with precious stones David acquired from Bomba happens to be part of that lost treasure. As a favor to the Gordons, Barton and Higgins agree to drive David by jeep to the Capetown school, though actually they use him to show them the way to the treasure inside the lost volcano. Because David refuses to honor their demands, mainly for keeping Bomba's place a secret, the men hold him hostage until he does. Sensing David in great danger, Nona warns the Gordons and Langley. When Bomba learns what has happened to David, he swings into action, racing against time to rescue the boy from the bad men who'll stop at nothing to get what they want.

Playing like a Saturday matinée serial, THE LOST VOLCANO, is an improvement over the previous two "Bomba" entries. Though routinely done, a familiar theme about a lonely child seeking companionship is hardly original yet great storytelling from a child's point of view. It brings about frustrations for a youngster who's not believed or taken seriously when talking about his special friend. This basic element is reminiscent to Val Lewton's classic tale of THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (RKO Radio, 1944) where lonely child (Ann Carter) finds love and companionship from a woman, Irena (Simone Simon), who happens to be a ghost. Her father (Kent Smith) refuses to believe her story, and punishes her for telling such tales. At least Bomba is not a ghost. He's categorized simply as a imaginary friend made up by David. When David is unable to produce Bomba in the flesh, he's forbidden by his father to ever to speak of him again. While Bomba could have made his presence known, he chooses not to in fear of being put to captivity like a caged animal.

Tommy Ivo, the boy in question, shows to be having a great time with his role, especially when playing jungle boy wearing only leopard skin loincloth provided him by Bomba. Bomba not only shows David the ropes of vine swinging, but methods of jungle survival as well. Ivo's David is that or an ordinary kid who hero worships Bomba as a role model. For Bomba, he looks upon David as a little brother he never had who fulfills his time of jungle living solitude.

As an added bonus, there's typical jungle suspense grabbers of Bomba wrestling a crocodile, a large python wrapping itself around a villain, an earthquake and volcano eruptions. The supporting players of familiar faces helps, Donald Woods and John Ridgely for example, along with Marjorie Lord, best known as Danny Thomas's wife, Kathy, in the TV series "Make Room for Daddy."

THE LOST VOLCANO, one one of the few "Bomba" adventures distributed to home video and DVD, is often listed at 67 minutes. The print presented on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere December 3, 2011) is clocked at 75 minutes. Either way, THE LOST VOLCANO is acceptable viewing for young and old alike. Next in the series: BOMBA AND THE HIDDEN CITY (1950). (**1/2)

The third entry in Monogram's Bomba series starring Johnny Sheffield has our monosyllabic hero befriending the son of an animal trapper. The boy's parents (Donald Woods, Marjorie Lord) believe Bomba is the boy's imaginary friend. When some bad men try to force the boy to take them to the ruins of a lost city near an active volcano, Bomba comes to the rescue.

Child actor Tommy Ivo plays the boy who idolizes Bomba and gives the corniest 'aw-shucks' performance this side of Timmy from the Lassie TV show. Donald Woods is his usual stiff self. Pretty Marjorie Lord and Elena Verdugo represent the fairer sex in this one, for better or worse. Bomba really needed a regular cast of characters like Tarzan had. The lack of one hurts the series, I think. This has the expected amounts of stock footage and rear projection effects all of the Bomba movies have. The climax goes on way too long. It's a decent B jungle adventure picture but nothing remarkable. Which is par for the course with this series. Might play better for the kiddos. But watch out for that python scene!

Lost Volcano, The (1950)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Third film in the Johnny Sheffield Bomba series finds the jungle boy becoming friends with the son (Tommy Ivo) of an animal trapper (Donald Woods) and soon the kid is kidnapped because a couple thieves believes he can lead them to a dangerous volcano where a buried treasure can be found. This third film in the series suffers from a rather weak and predictable story but also it runs way too long. Clocking in at 75-minutes that's about ten or fifteen-minutes too long as things get so slow that you really feel as if you're watching the movie and someone hits the pause button and keeps it on for an hour or so. As with the previous two films, this one here contains some decent moments and this includes the performance of Ivo as the young boy. I thought the actor gave a very good performance and managed to really keep the film moving at a good pace. I certainly think the film improved each time he was on the screen and there's no question that Ivo and Sheffield shared some nice chemistry together. Veteran actor Woods is also good in his part but he's not on screen enough to make a real difference. The same is true for Marjorie Lord who plays the boy's mother. As with previous films, this one here features quite a bit of stock footage of various wildlife and there's one incredibly freaky scene where a man is attacked by a large snake. I'll admit that I'm terrified of snakes so this scene was extremely effective to me but others might not see it that way. Of course, being a low-budget series we get some rather funny scenes including Bomba's first fight with a rubber crocodile and it looks even cheaper than what was used in all those Tarzan movies. THE LOST VOLCANO, in the end, really suffers from a story that just doesn't move anywhere and direction that just doesn't spark any energy or excitement.