Bomba on Panther Island

I am very satisfied with this BOMBA film, as I was with the previous one which I saw today. Not boring, despite the lame directing and stock footage that is a bit too much galore for my taste. But that's the rule in this kind of films, including the first TARZAN films and I don't even speak of JUNGLE JIM stuff too. So, yes, this little celluloid jungle adventure flick is fun, agreeable, but you need to be prepared to watch it. I mean don't be too hard in terms of judgment. It was destined to young audiences in saturday and sunday matinees. I even prefer this movie to most of JUNGLE JIM ones, starring Johnny Weissmuler. The fight between Bomba and the panther, in the end, is quite surprisingly good.

Fairly weak follow-up to 1949's "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" has a better production (with much-improved nature footage from stock), but a terribly nonsensical script to contend with. Johnny Sheffield returns as Bomba, a teenage Tarzan complete with loincloth and stunted English, here tracking a killer black panther through the jungle; meanwhile, an American architect and his kid-sister (in matching pith helmets!) try persuading the jungle natives to chop down the trees to make room for their experimental farm, but the workers are scared off by the marauding beast who represents an ancient taboo. Also frightening the men is Lita Baron, a glinty-eyed French maid who may be possessed by the soul of a cat (paging Simone Simon!). Bomba certainly isn't afraid of the bewitching lass, taking momentary delight in her frisky caresses and excitable hands! Sheffield, with his thickly-sculpted physique and junior high school grin, is still a charmer...but what good can be said about a jungle adventure in which most of the action comes courtesy of the second-unit add-ons? (a buffalo fighting an alligator, for example). Monogram Pictures did keep the series going after this, but were already running low on fresh ideas. *1/2 from ****

Bomba gets pretty busy in this one: he has to face a killer panther, a white jerk who almost sets fire to half the African jungle, and two women fawning over him - and who can blame them? He looks even more bulked up than in the first film in the series, and frankly he is smoking hot. The two women who cannot keep their hands off his body are the cute, demure Allene Roberts and the "French" (actually Spanish) Lita Baron: the choice should be pretty easy. Like its predecessor, the film makes little attempt to integrate the stock footage of wild animals convincingly - not only does the film stock look different, but the footage seems to be set in different locations, if not in different continents altogether. And the jungle studio sets never look like anything other than jungle studio sets. ** out of 4.

In the 1940s, Johnny Sheffield played 'Boy' in several Tarzan movies for MGM...in the best of the various Tarzan incarnations of the era. However, when production ceased at MGM, both Johnny Weis smuller and Sheffield went on to other studios to make Tarzan-like films...Weissmuller's with his Jungle Jim series and Sheffield the Bomba series....both with small studios (Katzman and Monogram respectively). These were enjoyable films BUT also very low budgeted...and it showed. Reused scenes from various previous movies, the copious use of stock footage and a real sameness doomed these films to the 'adequate but just watchable' category. They are silly...and often very naive about what Africa and the jungles are like...they certainly aren't documentaries!

The story finds some Americans in the jungle...trying to build a plantation and having difficulty getting the superstitious natives to clear the land. At the same time, a killer black leopard is running amok...giving further problems for the fledgling plantation. But thanks to Bomba, they are able to eventually straighten things out and stop the rampaging leopard.

The Africa of this film is only vaguely African at best. After all, why is thre a white lady in a sarong who speaks French? Was she supposed to be in a Polynesian picture but just went to the wrong sound stage? And, then why didn't she look Polynesian?? Also, I'm no expert on the continent, though I have visited a few times...so where is this jungle and why are there all those rope-like vines all over the place?! Plus, why are some of the guys on vines obviously NOT Sheffield but some stuntmen? And, why are raccoons, Asian buffalo and American alligators in the jungle?! And, why do the plantation owner and his sister treat the natives like they are all addle-brained children?! Folks today clearly won't appreciate this!

Apart from being VERY naive and featuring lots of ill-fitting and grainy stock footage, is the film any good? Well, yes...provided your expectations are low AND you haven't already seen one too many cheap Tarzan style films. It's enjoyable and not as bad as some B-jungle pictures...but also quite silly at times.

By the way, there are a couple scenes where animals fight each other and I can only assume that for our 'entertainment' the filmmakers tossed them together and filmed it...which is pretty sad.

Bomba On Panther Island is the one I remember best from watching the series in my childhood. Mainly because with the presence of Lita Baron in the cast the story came close to being adult.

Johnny Sheffield is on a jungle island where brother and sister Harry Lewis and Allene Roberts hope to build a plantation. But on that same island is a black panther with a taste for killing humans. When the panther kills one of Bomba's little monkey friends he goes on a mission.

There are two women admiring Bomba's physique in this one, Allene who is a good girl and Lita who is one sexy dish. In fact the closest sex ever came to this series was when Lita gives Bomba the come hither glance while at a jungle stream. If this had been an adult picture you better believe Bomba would have been putty in her hands. In the entire Bomba series there was never anyone else like Lita Baron in it.

I think more than the kids will like Bomba On Panther Island.