Caçadores de Leões

I already said it yesterday, when you have seen a BOMBA movie, you have seen all of them. But it's not a default, it's charming, enchanted, naive, fun, agreeable to watch if you watch them with the "proper" eyes. The topics are all close to nature, animal defense, against colonialism, the villains are most of the time White ones, as in any Tarzan or Jungle Jim feature. You like it or don't. No locations, only celluloid jungle and many footage stock shots about animals. You can easily see a jungle setting and the next scene you are deep into savannah.... You see a gorilla in the forest just before seeing an elephant in thee bush, or even a giraffe.....But that belong to the charm of this film series, firget any realism. It is destined to kids, adult kids. Or kids adults. Ford Beebe was a serial director and then westerns and adventures B pictures. He had no ambition but good skills with a camera.

Lion Hunters, The (1951)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The fifth of twelve films in Monogram's "Bomba, The Jungle Boy" series, which Ford Beebe featured Johnny Sheffield as Bomba but he's probably still best remembered for playing Boy in the original MGM Tarzan series. In this entry Bomba is saddened when he comes across a lion that has been seriously wounded and must be put to rest. Soon Bomba learns that lion trappers are in the area and he must try and convince them that lions were meant to be free in the jungle. This is the first entry in the series that I've seen so I can't judge the entire thing but this movie here was pretty bad from start to finish. There's no doubt that this thing was meant to be a poor man's Tarzan and I'm going to guess that they did pretty well at the box office for so many films to be made but that doesn't mean we get quality. The biggest problem is the screenplay, which for an adventure film doesn't contain too much excitement. For the most part Bomba simply talks and talk and then talks some more about how lions are friendly creatures and that they should be left alone. It goes without saying but the talk of lions being nice creatures made for a few laughs as did many of the special effects including an embarrassing sequence towards the end when Bomba and his lady love are stuck in a tree with a lion jumping up at them. The fake claw being used to poke at them was downright hilarious as were some of the other effects when men are fighting the lions. Another problem are the performances with Sheffield coming off extremely bland in the role. He's certainly trying to recapture what Johnny Weissmuller did with Tarzan but the poor guy doesn't come close. He just doesn't contain enough energy to really be interesting and the screenplay certainly doesn't do him any favors. Douglas Kennedy pretty much steals the film as the crazed hunter as he's so over the top during certain scenes that you can't help but laugh. Ann E. Todd plays the love interest and is absolutely horrible. The early scenes she's acting as if she's a 12-year-old girl, which is rather confusing since she is playing an adult. The way she talks and tries to carry herself is just downright annoying to watch. Woody Strode has a brief role as one of the natives. As bas as this movie is, I'll admit to being a completest so I'll check out the other eleven as soon as they appear on TCM but I'm certainly hoping for better.

The Lion Hunters have come to Africa to do just as the title of the picture says they do. But what they don't know is that the lions are both held as sacred by the Masai tribe and that the area they've chosen is the home of the legendary Bomba the Jungle Boy. He just doesn't like white folks trapping or killing his animal friends as a matter of general principle.

Between the two of these facts, white trappers Morris Ankrum and Douglas Kennedy haven't a chance. Especially Kennedy whose hubris gets the better of him. It's always interesting in these B films how the villains never know when to quit.

Johnny Sheffield is allowed a little puppy love here in the person of Ann E. Todd who is also Ankrum's daughter. She's checking the well built Sheffield out, but he's got his mind on his animals.

The Lion Hunters never gets off the Monogram back lot with plenty of stock jungle footage supporting a hackneyed plot.

After he grew too old to play 'Boy' in the Tarzan movies, Johnny Sheffield wound up in this Monogram cheapie series based on the Bomba books/cartoon strip. In this one he is joined by Ann Todd, who had also been a child actor, as the ingénue, playing the daughter of a lion trapper.

For a Monogram movie there is a potentially interesting message about ecology: that it is simply not right to trap lions and keep them in cages. Of course, there is no real philosophy behind it in this movie. But there are hints of.... well, something. Bomba and the natives speak broken English at all times, but they have a sense of dignity and honor.

All in all, a silly, cheap movie, but I enjoyed it for the animals. Not only at least two lions, but a hawk, a monkey and folks walking around in pith helmets. Not to mention the funky hats the natives wear.

These movies were made for kids back when kids had decent role models to look up to. Bomba was a gentle young man with the right attitude and the right morals to show kids. Not like today's 'heroes' that kill and maim and blow up everything and drive cars along the streets like every one else is a stunt driver on the road.

I would much rather live in Bomba's world than today's world. It is too bad that times changed, for the worse, and these kind of movies ended. Like with the "B" western movies, we always knew who the good guy was and what he stood for and in the end he showed us all that the right way is the best way and always produces winners.

With Johnny Sheffield's smile and gentle way of talking, it is a shame that he ended his movie career, but he did much better with the money he made from these movies to build his future. He wasn't just a boy raised in the jungle with animals after all.