The Lost Volcano

I recently obtained a copy of The Lost Volcano, which is a quite hard to find movie.

This is one of a dozen Bomba the Jungle Boy movies starring Johnny Sheffield after he finished playing Boy in the Tarzan movies.

The movie was quite enjoyable considering the low budget with Johnny playing a much younger version of Tarzan. His language is similar to Tarzan's too. This movies gets better as it moves along and the best part of the movie is the impressive eruption at the end. This is actually stock footage from One Million BC (1940), although we don't see any monsters from this movie. This is the second time Johnny Sheffield has encounted footage from One Million BC, as he encounted some of its monsters in Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943).

I enjoyed this movie a lot and is worth seeing if you get the chance, as it is quite rare.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Moony-eyed kid staying with his parents in a hut in Africa has secretly befriended Bomba, the legendary jungle boy; the child's father--who traps wild animals--has admonished little David for believing in a myth, but comes to regret his words after his son is kidnapped by two greedy men out to snare precious jewels from volcano territory. Third entry in the "Bomba" series has some good scenes (Bomba surprising a native girl in the jungle, and later freeing David from his captors), but much of the acting is amateurish and Ford Beebe's direction is balky. Typically, Johnny Sheffield is the sole reason to watch; his modest smile and husky physique are perfect equipment for a "monkey man". ** from ****

This film in the Bomba the Jungle Boy series has Johnny Sheffield making friends with the son of Donald Woods and Marjorie Lord who are in the jungle for Woods's work as a naturalist. The parents don't believe that Bomba exists, but their maid Elena Verdugo sure believes in the legend.

Some visitors come archaeologist Grandon Rhodes and his guides Don Harvey and John Ridgely and young Tommy Ivo as the son shows him a jewel encrusted dagger from a lost city in an extinct volcano that's right next a very much live one. Rhodes sees another finding like Schleimann did with Troy, but the other two see loot. They kidnap Ivo and force him to lead them to the treasure in the volcano with Bomba and the parents in hot pursuit.

I think you see where this is going. There was something kind of sweet about Bomba being lonely and making friends with young Ivo who in fact does look like him more than the local natives do. Even training him in jungle survival, a sort of Bomba Junior. Of course once Elena Verdugo happened on the scene I would think he'd want to make friends with her. She looks like she wants to with him real bad. In the previous film in the series Lita Baron in a similar role was a whole lot less subtle and I'm betting Monogram Pictures probably got mail on that from parents.

For a kid supposedly Bomba's protégé, young Ivo acts really dumb some times. Bomba rescues him once and the kid's actions get him captured again.

Not one of the better Bombas.

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.

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....