Elephant Stampede

ELEPHANT STAMPEDE (Monogram, 1951), with screenplay and direction by Ford Beebe, marks the sixth entry to the "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" adventure series starring Johnny Sheffield. In one of the better entries, cast change includes Leonard Mudie for Charles Irwin in the role of Bomba's friend, Deputy Commissioner Andy Barnes. As with the earlier segments, there is a young girl about Bomba's age who becomes more interested in him while Bomba's interest is on other things.

The plot development is introduced in three segments before leading to an entire whole: 1) As the camera tracks around the jungle setting, capturing the presence of elephants and other animals starting their day. Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) is seen riding one of the elephants while a hawk rests on his arm. The hawk flies to a tree branch where Bomba senses danger as he sees a snake approaching the bird, where Bomba gets off elephant and saves the day. 2) Lola (Donna Martell), a native girl, is seen ringing the bell for native tribe to enter cottage school of Miss Banks (Edith Evanson) where the missionary teacher gives lessons about the alphabet. During that time, Lola goes to Bomba where they meet at a secret place near the lake where she teaches him letters and how to read . 3) Mark Phillips (Guy Kingsford) is an authorized hunter, accompanied by Bob Warren (John Kellogg) and Joe Collins (Myron Healey). Because Collins has illegally shot and killed an elephant for its ivory, Phillips places him under arrest, but accidentally shoots Phillips during a struggle with the gun. Placing the body under some branches, Warren takes his credentials and assumes the identity of Phillips so they can hunt for ivory. As Andy Barnes (Leonard Mudie) meets and takes Collins and "Phillips," to the village to meet with Miss Banks, she secretly tells Barnes she suspects the men are not what they appear to be, considering the fact that she knows Mark Phillips, and the man pretending to be him has a "W" label on his buckle. As Andy heads back to the station to check up on these men by telegram, he asks Bomba to watch over these men and not to do anything until he returns. Later, Warren and Collins discover Bomba has discovered the body of Phillips, with intentions of killing him before tricking the native chief Nagala (Martin WIlkins) into revealing the secret cave where the cache of ivory is stored.

Pretty good "Bomba" adventure that presents Donna Martell teaching Bomba how to read and spell, though her notions are more on the romantic side than his lessons. To make him jealous, she joins forces with the ivory hunters, unaware that they are using her for their personal gain. Of the villains, John Kellogg, whose physical mannerisms comes as a reminded to character actor, Douglas Fowley, stands out through his vicious presence showing no remorse for his evil actions. Moving in episodic manner like a chapter serial with enough material for its 71 minutes, the movie title eventually comes to full swing late into the story.

Commonly shown on broadcast television during the 1960s and 1970s on morning or afternoons for the juvenile viewers, ELEPHANT STAMPEDE and other Bomba adventures can presently be seen on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: January 6, 2012). Next in the series: AFRICAN TREASURE (1952) (**)

This segment of the Bomba the Jungle Boy series finds Bomba trying to better himself by learning to read. Teaching him is the lovely Donna Martell, teaching assistant to Edith Evanson at the local native village. She'd like to further Bomba's education in other ways, but Bomba has his mind on book learning.

All that comes to an end when ivory poachers arrive in the territory in the persons of John Kellogg and Myron Healey. They murder their professional hunting guide and assume his identity. And Healey starts moving in on Martell which bothers everyone.

Elephant Stampede marked the appearance of Leonard Mudie as Commissioner Andy Barnes. The character appeared in the first Bomba film with another actor, but was then dropped. Mudie played Barnes throughout the rest of the series and was the only other regular besides Johnny Sheffield as Bomba.

If you know the Tarzan series and know his relationship with the elephant community and how they mutually aid each other you know something about how this turns out. And Bomba does need the aid of his pachyderm friends.

One of the better in the Bomba series.

The sixth Bomba movie starring Johnny Sheffield has Bomba learning to read from beautiful Lola (Donna Martell). Lola is interested in Bomba for more than his mind but, as was the case in most of these movies, Bomba will have none of that. So, to make him jealous, Lola starts flirting with one of two ivory poachers. Bomba doesn't care about the flirting but he does care about the poaching. So he steps in to put a stop to them killing his elephant friends.

No doubt some modern viewers will read some unintended subtext into the fact that Bomba was often uninterested in the attractive women throwing themselves at him in these movies. I think the real reason was the makers of these movies were aiming them at little boys who didn't like 'mushy stuff,' as well as the comic value that comes from some of these situations. Anyway, the series really needed a Jane like Tarzan had. It's unfortunate they didn't see it that way but that's just one of the many reasons this series never rises above middling juvenile entertainment. This entry is par for the course with the usual rear projection effects and stock footage but there is a nice supporting cast, which helps.

Elephants are strolling around as muscular Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) rides one through the African jingle. Bomba must swing into action when a snake threatens his bird. After this, Bomba visits attractive Donna Martell (as Lola). This shapely brunette is helping "old maid" schoolteacher Edith Evanson (as Miss Banks) teach the natives to read. Bored with her job, Ms. Martell is much more excited to be tutoring Bomba on the side. The jungle boy is a quick study, in academic areas...

Bomba learns to spell "L.I.O.N", but Ms. Martell is more interested in "L.O.V.E." A good jungle boy, Bomba is not interested in finding a mate. Frustrated, Martell decides to make Bomba jealous by seeming to be sexually available for trigger-happy John Kellogg (as Bob Warren) and amorous Myron Healey (as Joe Collins). On safari, this dastardly duo is out to shoot elephants and steal local ivory. Lola's idea is dumb and dangerous. You could say: Whatever Lola wants, Lola doesn't get.

**** Bomba: Elephant Stampede (10/28/51) Ford Beebe ~ Johnny Sheffield, Donna Martell, John Kellogg, Myron Healey

I was lucky to get hold of a copy of this movie as it is quite hard to get hold of, as are all of the Bomba movies.

In this one, some illegal poachers arrive in the jungle and kill an elephant. After killing their leader, they try and kill more elephants but Bomba tries to stop them and eventually succeeds by getting a heard of elephants to trample them to death.

Johnny Sheffield plays Bomba once again and takes a good part. A lot of the scenes involving the elephants running is stock footage I think. Bomba also has a young lady who fancies him in this movie. She is learning him to read.

I enjoyed watching this movie. Watch it if you are lucky enough to get the chance.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.