African Treasure

"African Treasure" is the 7th of 12 Bomba the Jungle Boy films, which were made by Monogram films in the late 40s and into the 50s. It's better than most I've seen and holds up a bit better over time.

A group of ruthless diamond smugglers have kidnapped folks and are using them to mine for diamonds in the jungle. Bomba comes to the rescue and saves the day.

While the plot is very simple and the conclusion foregone, the movie works a bit better than usual because unlike most jungle films of the era, this one is NOT filled with ill-suited stock footage of animals. Too often, when they are used in movies of the 1930s-50s, the animals often aren't even African ones and the footage is quite grainy. For some reason, the filmmakers decided not to use such footage and it makes for a better movie. Now I am NOT saying "African Treasure" is any sort of classic but it does play reasonably well and is enjoyable.

AFRICAN TREASURE (Monogram, 1952), written and directed by Ford Beebe, marks the seventh theatrical entry to the "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" series starring Johnny Sheffield. Starting off his movie career playing a jungle boy with his introduction as Boy in TARZAN FINDS A SON (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939), starring Johnny Weissmuller, Sheffield has come a long way with his jungle adventures from youngster in the "Tarzan" series (1939-1947) to adolescent in his very own series as "Bomba" (1949-1955), a character created by Roy Rockwood in the "Bomba" books. Now basically a young adult in his early twenties, Sheffield is no stranger to this routine material as a juvenile-like Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, coming to the rescue to anyone in danger as well as assisting his animal friends from greedy hunters. For this segment, Bomba, accompanied by his monkey, Kimbbo, swing vines into action from tree to tree, swims underwater, communicates with the animals in their own language as well as doing drum talk beat messages to natives across the jungle.

Unlike the previous entry of THE LION HUNTERS (1951) where Bomba appears in the opening scene, his character isn't introduced until nearly ten minutes into the story. AFRICAN TREASURE starts its initial ten minutes with Deputy Andy Barnes (Leonard Mudie) at his outpost station being served breakfast by his native servant, Eli (Smoki Whitfield) before Pat Gilroy (Lyle Talbot), a lion hunter, arrives by rowboat, asking Baarnes for his assistance to the village of Mangula where he can acquire native guides. Andy receives shortwave radio news from the commissioner in Nairobi regarding the last hunting expedition consisting of Professor Catesby, a geologist, to meet with Pedro Sebastian and others, who have mysteriously disappeared. In the meantime, Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), having rescued Lita (Laurette Luez) and her native guide, Tolu (James Adamson) from the attack of a vicious lion, finds that Lita is searching for her missing father, Pedro Sebastian (Marton Garralaga). About the time Bomba comes to the abandoned native village to find bodies and skeleton remains of Catesby and safari, Barnes receives his mail delivery consisting of a poster of Gilroy as a wanted fugitive and notorious diamond smuggler, Roy De Haven. Because of this discovery, Gilroy forces Barnes to take him by boat to the village of Nomgola. About the same time, Lita is abducted by Greg Wainwright (Arthur Space), who takes her to her father, where he and others are held prisoners by him and Hardy Moss (Lane Bradford) as they are at a secret location known as Mountain of Diamonds being forced to mine the crater of diamonds. As Eli plots on rescuing Barnes from Gilroy, Bomba remains at a distance watching over Lita, her father, and the enslaved prisoners before Wainwright entraps them inside a cave to be buried alive following a forced landslide. Woody Strode (The Native Mail Boy); Kermit Pruitt and Sugar Foot Anderson also appear in smaller roles.

Standard production routinely told in 70 minutes with some material geared mostly for juvenile audiences. Commonly shown on commercial television in the 1960s and 70s, and available on DVD, AFRICAN TREASURE and others in the Bomba adventures can be see occasionally on Turner Classic Movies where it's been showing since 2010. Next in the series: BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL (1952). (** diamonds)

Andy Barnes (Leonard Mudie) gets word by short wave that two of the three geologists who passed through his district some weeks before were known diamond smugglers, and that nothing since has been heard of the trio. And he also learns that a hunter, Pat Gilroy (Lyle Talbot), who has just arrived at the compound is really an escaped convict named Roy DeHaven.

Obviously, time to call in Bomba the Jungle Boy (Johnny Sheffield). He is summoned via the jungle drum wireless-telegraph, and Barnes asks Bomba to go to the cheesy back lot set and try to locate Gatesby, the geologist who was with Greg (Arthur Space) and Hardy (Lane Bradford.)Bomba finds the body of Gatesby but...lucky him and the viewer---he also finds Lita Sebastian (Laurette Luez), who is out in the jungle looking for her father, Pedro (Martin Garralaga),a Portuguese guide, and the cheesy jungle set now looks better than it did.

Through the help of jungle drums and his animal friends, all stock footage except Kimbbo the Chimp, Bomba leads Lita to where her father, and a large number of natives, are being held as slaves by Greg and Hardy, who have found diamonds in the crater of an extinct volcano, known locally as The Mountain of Diamonds. Lita is captured by Greg, but Bomba has summoned help and Gerg and Hardy flee but not without first staring a landslide on the enslaved workers.

Bomba has a lot of work to do before he can restore order to this jungle.

African Treasure (1952)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The seventh film in Monogram's series finds Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) trying to stop some diamond smugglers (one played by Lyle Talbot) who are trying to get rich while abusing some local natives. African TREASURE is as cheap as the previous six films but there's very little entertainment to be found here. At just 70-minutes the film seems way too long and even worse is the fact that very little happens throughout the movie. The biggest problem is the actual screenplay that doesn't give the characters anything to do. For the most part we have three or four groups who are constantly wondering around and talking about what they're going to do when they run into one of the other groups. We hear the natives call Bomba the "White Devil" and we get such politically incorrect lines as a jungle girl telling them they don't have to fear him because he's white. Yes, there's a jungle girl here played by Laurette Luez and she tries to bring a love story but even this here falls flat. The only good thing that can be said about the film are a couple fine performances. Sheffield is obviously very comfortable in the role and he has no problem as he at least appears to be giving it his all. Talbot, a classic bad guy, also makes for some fun but one wishes he had more to do. You can look quickly for a young Woody Strode. Outside of these things there's pretty much nothing else going on. We see Bomba fight a fake lion and of course he has to rescue people.

Pat Gilroy asks Andy Barnes for a safari guide. Andy gets word that two wanted diamond smugglers are with Roy DeHaven. They are guided by local Pedro Sebastian but the group is missing. Andy calls upon Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) for help. After battling a lion, Bomba answers the call but there is confusion over Lita Sebastian, Pedro's daughter. Andy receives a wanted poster showing Pat Gilroy as the criminal Roy DeHaven.

This Tarzan rip-off franchise continues to be a second-tier production. It's not a good starting point. It has all the hallmarks of the B-movie. There is action but not that well staged. There is an exotic babe in South Pacific dress for some reason. They do have a chimp but that's not a good thing in today's sensibilities. It has the simple B-movie charms, but I'm bored by the end.