O Tesouro do Vulcão

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!

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....

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.

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.

Synopsis: The parents of a young boy named David,thinks Bomba is an imaginary friend. Luckily,the learn differently when they learned that Bomba,the Jungle Boy is real. When the boy(Tommy Ivo),and his female guide(Elena Verdugo)are kidnapped by a pair of jungle crook guides who are searching for the lost city's treasure,it's up to Bomba to rescue the boy and save the day.

Produced by Walter Mirisch and Directed by Ford Beebe,the third installment "THE LOST VOLCANO",aka "BOMBA AND THE LOST VOLCANO" came out in 1950,and once again has Johnny Sheffield starring as Bomba. Within its running time of 69 minutes,this one has Bomba making friends with the son of Donald Woods and Majorie Lord who are in the jungle for Woods' work as a naturalist. The parents don't believe that Bomba exists,but their maid and assistant Elena Verdugo sure believes in the legend and they find that Bomba is real. Within its short time frame,the kidnappers force the boy into the jungle to find the lost treasure,and within the course of the film the boy gets rescued from a certain fate(often!). There is the scene with the giant snake,the scene where Bomba rescues the boy from a crocodile while Bomba tells him not to go swimming in the lake(there is a good crocodile fight scene-good underwater footage),and with the help of a erupting volcano,finishes off the bad guys and saves the day.

FYI: Actress Majorie Lord,after this went on to star opposite Danny Thomas in the television series "Make Room For Daddy" some three years later in 1953. Co-star Elena Verdugo went to make a number of movies during the 1950's,but her biggest fame came in 1969 opposite Robert Young in the daring TV drama "Marcus Welby,MD". Actor John Ridgely was known for voice-over work for Saturday Morning cartoons during the late-1960's-and throughout the 1970's and 1980's. Ridgely also starred in Mel Brooks' 1976 satire "High Anxiety"