Nabonga

Well, I bought this gem for a fiver out of the blue. I thought: "Buster Crabbe is in it, so it can't be all bad!" Then I watched it in the German dubbing, and had to laugh quite a few times, but at spots neither the original movie makers nor the dubbing crew would have intended to be for laughter. The German dubbing sounds like from a bad porn movie. Really. The lines of the native people are just ridiculous, and the voice of the girls sounds like the voice of a 60 year old woman. Its crap! They even attached new music to it. Somekind of psychedelic syntho-pop, but a really bad one. So I switched over to the original soundtrack, and so I could finally enjoy this movie. Buster Crabbe is like usual awesome in action scenes, but his character play too is definitely better than in any Flash Gordon. I recommend this movie (in English!!!!) for anyone who is interested in fantastic movies from before the fifties. But its not King Kong tho! Therefore: 5 out of 10

An embezzler on the run crash lands in the middle of the African jungle. His young daughter grows up under the protection of a large gorilla and becomes known to locals as the legendary white witch. An explorer sets out on an expedition to find her.

This jungle adventure is directed by Sam Newfield who is famous for having directed more films than anyone else. Nabonga is very similar in plot line to another of Newfield's films, White Pongo. Both films feature large apes who covet young white women. And both also have striking titles that are never actually used in the film at any point! This picture is a pretty campy affair with a white jungle queen who acts more like a petulant city girl. It's overall entertaining enough to an extent but at the same time it has a lot of overly familiar adventure flick elements that aren't too interesting, such as a villainous, greedy explorer on the good guy's trail. The scenes with the girl and the ape were quite good fun though and, despite being nothing too great, this one is reasonably diverting as these types of movies go.

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.

This low-grade production is nevertheless a slight upgrade, if you can believe that, compared to "Jungle Siren" which I saw yesterday and which was also directed by Sam Newfield and starred Buster Crabbe. Don't expect too much excitement, though; the "perils of the jungle" alternate between obvious stock footage of random animals and a man in an obvious gorilla suit. At the end there is a long fistfight between Crabbe and bad guy Barton MacLane, but because they are dressed almost exactly the same, you can't tell who's punching whom! Julie London is quite stunning in her film debut. *1/2 out of 4.

A goofy, studio-bound melange of fisticuffs, stock footage and men in gorilla suits, atmospherically lit by Robert Cline.

Enjoyable for a late appearance by Fifi D'Orsay as Barton McLaine's saucy henchbabe (it's McLaine who sprains his ankle rather than D'Orsay) and the film debut in the title role of a provocative 18 year-old Julie London as the White Witch, who's grown up all alone in the jungle save for her tame gorilla, her makeup team, wardrobe designer and hairdresser, and - like the young Helen Mirren in 'Age of Consent' - projects a precocity way beyond her actual years.