Nabonga

Nabonga (1944)

** (out of 4)

A thief steals some priceless jewels and heads off in an airplane with his young daughter. The plane ends up crashing and the little girl befriends an injured gorilla in the jungle. Flash forward several years and explorer Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) hears about a "white witch" from the jungle that "fell from a big bird" and heads there to search for the jewels. He finds the now woman (Julie London) being protected by a large gorilla but must find a way to get her to lead him to the jewels.

NABONGA, meaning gorilla, is a rather silly and low-budget jungle adventure that manages to be slightly entertaining as long as you don't take it too serious. if you're looking to find a meaning for life or some sort of great art then it's best you avoid this film at all costs and I'd also recommend not even looking at the posters for it. However, if you like cheap entertainment and just want 71 minutes to kill then there's certainly much worse out there.

I think the best thing about the film are the leads. While neither Crabbe or London give excellent performances, they at least have a nice chemistry together and I thought they were good enough to carry the picture. There's a scene where Crabbe is trying to act afraid of her pet gorilla that is quite funny and especially some of the flirtation going on between them.

The biggest problem with the movie is the fact that the budget was probably a tad bit higher than a pack of gum. There's a ton of stock footage in the movie that makes it look even cheaper and there's no doubt that the majority of the "real" footage was probably shot on one set with very limited range. More times than not the characters just stay in one spot and talk.

NABONGA was meant to be cheap entertainment, which is what it pretty much is.

"Nabonga" marks the debut film of Julie London. It's also the first and only movie of Jackie Newfield, daughter of director Sam Newfield (and niece, of course, of Newfield's brother, Sigmund Neufeld).

By the humble standards of the Neufeld Brothers, this entry is reasonably entertaining. The story is a familiar one (it was later re-used with great effect in "Mr Joseph Young of Africa"), but here it moves with sufficient pace and encompasses enough action to satisfy second-feature fans. True, Buster Crabbe breezes through his part with plenty of charm, but little conviction. As a good guy, his motives towards and treatment of the heroine often seem a little dubious, but such subtleties don't worry Buster at all. Julie London, however, makes quite an impression, while Ray "Crash" Corrigan has a grand time as the gorilla (though he is outclassed in the acting department by young Jackie Newfield). Fifi D'Orsay seems an unnecessary addition to the story, an opinion oddly shared by scriptwriter Myton who gives her little to do and then removes her from the plot with little ceremony. We would have liked to see more of Prince Modupe, however, whose dignified and knowledgeable native guide is far removed from the usual Hollywood stereotypes.

Production values seem adequate enough for Poverty Row and are helped out enormously by Robert Cline's always attractively glossy and often noirishly lit photography.

Available on DVD through Alpha. Quality rating: nine out of ten.

There are so many things about "Nabonga" that make you assume it's a terrible film...it makes we wonder why I watched it. First, it's a cheap jungle pic...and hundreds of terrible jungle pics were made during the 1930s-50s. Second, it's from PRC, a tiny studio known mostly for making B-movies that were worse than those coming from Monogram and Republic! Third, it features a guy in a gorilla suite. And, finally, after the film was made, they shelved it for a year...a sure sign that the studio had no confidence in the product.

The story begins with a man disappearing with his young daughter before the police could arrest him for embezzlement. Their plane crashes in the jungle and you see that the pair survived.

Years have passed. Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) is in Africa and he overhears natives talking about a 'white witch' living in the mountains and he decides to investigate this for himself. Eventually he meets the now grown girl and her companion, a gorilla who is her protector. Unfortunately for them, the evil Carl Hurst (Barton MacLane) has been following him at a distance and, naturally, he's up to no good.

It's funny that Barton MacLane is the baddie in this one, as he's nearly always the baddie in the films he did. I am sure when audiences saw him, they collectively KNEW he was the villain before he even opened his mouth! And here, he's definitely true to form.

It certainly could have been much worse as they filmmakers chose to insert less random and unnecessary wildlife footage into the story...though they still do this to a somewhat lesser extent, but at least they were mostly African animals (apart from an American Alligator)! Too many cheapo jungle films of the era show nearly ANY animal in the supposed jungle...African, Asian, South American and even Australian all mixed together. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see one with penguins!! Oh well, at least the African guide, Tobo, really was an African!

So is it any good? Well, there are certainly worse jungle films....not that this is saying much! Apart from SOME of the Tarzan films, nearly all the other jungle epics are cheap messes...and this one is, at times, a bit of a mess. The guy in the gorilla suit alone (in one scene there were TWO men in gorilla suits) make it a cheesy film. I also love that Marie, the witch, has permed hair and make-up...in the middle of the jungle!! On balance, it's a bad film but not a terrible one. Worth seeing if you like this sort of thing...though I assume few would!

I've just watched Nabonga for the first time and quite enjoyed it, despite its rather low budget.

An aeroplane with a girl and her dad on board plus the pilot crash lands in Africa into a jungle. Her dad has some treasure with him so he shoots the pilot and disappears some years later, leaving his daughter alone. But she has been "adopted" by a gorilla, (a man in a monkey suit) Nabonga, although she calls him Samson. A small party, including Ray Gorman looking for the treasure eventually finds it and the girl and after Nabonga fights another gorilla (another man in a monkey suit), he kills somebody else who is also after the treasure along with a woman. After that, Gorman and the now grown up Doreen plan to return to America.

The cast includes Buster Crabbe (Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers), singer Julie London and Barton MacLane (Unknown Island, The Maltese Falcon).

This movie is certainly worth watching if you get the chance. Great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Buster Crabbe, formerly Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, stars in this jungle action adventure. A box of jewels from a robbery was lost in the jungle years ago with the daughter of the thief. Our hero needs to find the box and/or the girl whose only friend in the meantime is a man in a gorilla costume. Sounds like a-dime-a-dozen, but actually "Nabonga" is well scripted and rather amusing. Instead of the same old wild fights against lions, this adventure gives Crabbe plenty of opportunity to be witty, for example I loved the scene when he is so afraid of the mighty gorilla the girl has to calm him down. Barton MacLane plays one his typical baddies, trying to steal the jewels himself. Well, it's a simple B movie within the genre rules of the 1940s, but it's doing well.