Safari Drums

The Bomba The Jungle Boy Pictures series was running out of gas by the time Safari Drums were telling Johnny Sheffield that a movie company was in the neighborhood shooting. Safari Drums adds a mystery element to the proceedings here.

Now granted the Bomba series was intended for juvenile audiences, but just by looking at the cast list you should be able to tell Sheffield and Commissioner Leonard Mudie just who was the individual who killed an archaeologist and is hiding with the film crew. I think most of the juveniles in 1953 could have told as well.

Emory Parnell is the producer/director who wants and stages unusual action shots, Barbara Bestar is the film star, Paul Marion is the cameraman and Douglas Kennedy is their guide. Things never go quite right for Parnell in this film.

Bomba's adventures are getting a bit thin here.

Johnny Sheffield, Bomba the Jungle Boy, faces off with a dangerous jungle guide, which he takes on with the help of his jungle animal friends. As with most all the Bomba films, there's a ridiculously small budgets, lots of stock footage, and some embarrassingly bad looking backlot jungles. Stick with the early Weissmuller Tarzan films if you need a black and white jungle adventure fix.

Bomba the Jungle Boy smells a rat when a rifle-happy team of filmmakers invades the African jungle to shoot a moving picture--and, Bomba fears, to shoot innocent wildlife as well. Turns out one member of the nefarious troupe has robbed a local guide of his diamonds and killed him, so a drum warning is played for Bomba to keep the unit preoccupied until the police arrive. Thoroughly routine low-budget adventure, the first "Bomba" episode to bear the Allied Artists distribution logo, is sluggishly-paced, with much of the action taking place via stock footage. Johnny Sheffield's Bomba wrestles (clumsily) with a panther and a lion, while the requisite 'pretty girl' (Barbara Bestar) wrestles with the hokey dialogue. *1/2 from ****

Safari Drums (1953)

** (out of 4)

Number nine in the Monogram series has Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) once again in the jungle minding his own business when some movie people show up to film some animals. Bomba gets involved when it turns out that one of them murdered a man and the jungle boy must also be sure that the men don't try to harm any of his animal friends. By this time in the series there's no question that they were running out of fresh ideas and the films were becoming quite a hard chore to sit through. Thankfully this entry is a step up from the previous ones and I'd argue that the final ten-minutes here are the best moments in the series to date. With that said, the typical issues are still here including the ultra low-budget that really doesn't allow the filmmakers to do too much. As usual, there are way too many scenes where nothing is going on other than cast members standing around talking about stuff that really doesn't add up to anything. These dialogue scenes might work if they were actually saying something interesting but rarely does anything you care about come from their mouths. Another problem is of course the stock footage but at times this can add some campy charm. As with the previous films, Sheffield is at least entertaining in the part and you can tell he's giving it his all even though he probably shouldn't be. Barbara Bestar plays the love interest here and the supporting cast includes Emory Parnell, Douglas Kennedy and Paul Marion. I won't spoil who the killer is but the actor makes for a good villain. The final ten-minutes has more action than any of the previous movie put together. This includes a sequence where the filmmakers (in the movie) get a tiger and lion to fight a rather violent battle, which might offend some. There's also the action/chase sequence with Bomba that contains some nice drama. SAFARI DRUMS isn't a classic and it's not even a good movie but for a Bomba movie it's certainly not bad.

Filmmakers are in Africa to film wildlife. Wealthy benefactor Larry Conrad doesn't want the regular travelogue. He wants something special and unique for his private collection. He wants the life and death struggle in the wild. Deputy Commissioner Barnes suggests contacting Bomba (Johnny Sheffield). A message is sent through the network of Safari Drums, but the reply comes back no. Conrad insists and directs the group to find Bomba. A volcano erupts and Bomba comes to their aid. Bomba insists that they do not kill animals just to film them. Conrad is unwilling to obey.

This is the ninth of the 12 movie in the series. Bomba is basically a copycat Tarzan. I actually like Sheffield. There is a lot of animal footage. This film could have been good if it does what Conrad wants his movie to be. The animal footage is the most compelling parts of the movie. Bomba should just leave them as soon as Safari Conrad shoots that lion. The story gets messier from that point onwards. Those stuff is much less compelling.