BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL (Monogram, 1952), written and directed by Ford Beebe, based upon the character by Roy Rockwood in the "Bomba" Books, stars Johnny Sheffield in the title role in the eighth installment of this "second feature" adventure series. While title leaves impression of Bomba meeting a displaced jungle girl, helping her find her family by assisting her through long journey and adventure before reaching some obscure village, no such thing occurs. A somewhat misleading title actually revolves more on the displaced jungle boy wanting to know more about himself and whom his people are.
The story gets underway as Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) observes the animals around him. He thinks to himself, "Every animal in the jungle has a mother and father but me. I don't even know who I am." This sets the pattern of what's to come. Bomba finds a book inside a cave that could lead to his true identity. By taking it over to his friend, Deputy Andy Barnes (Leonard Mudie) for translation, it is revealed the book to be a diary written by Cody Casson, a man now deceased, who found and raised Bomba when he was three. It is learned that Bomba's parents are John and Laura Hastings (possibly Hawkins), and that his father was a mapmaker living among the native tribe. Since Bomba, who likes the surname of "Hastings" best, wants to know more about his family, he decides to travel to the village where it all began many years ago. Along the way Bomba sees and rescues Linda Ward (Karen Sharpe) from an crocodile attack, who in turn shoots the crocodile as Bomba gets overpowered by it. Through a twist of fate, Bomba finds that Linda's father, Lawrence (Walter Sande) is a government agent inspecting living conditions of that same tribal village where he's headed. During his quest for information, Bomba discovers his parents were murdered, and intends on finding out who's responsible. To prevent Bomba from learning the truth from Linasi (Amanda Randolph), a blind woman who was once his native nurse, Gamboso (Martin Wilkins), the tribal leader, and Boru (Suzette Harbin), his daughter, arrange to have the woman killed by a poisoned dart from a blow gun, and placing Bomba under arrest for her murder. Set free by Linda, Bomba later makes every effort to save father and daughter from whatever danger lies ahead, at the same time, getting to the main source to his family mystery without getting himself targeted by death.
Based on the plot summary, there's no jungle girl, unless one counts the Linda character, who's never seen in jungle clothes. As much as BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL is often dismissed as one of the lesser entries, it is, in fact, a satisfactory one. Contrary, the summary used in this edition is one that would have served best for the first in the series, BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY (1949) rather than the plot used, consisting more time on the supporting safari players and hardly anything on Bomba's origin and how he came to be a lone jungle boy with a sphere. By this time, Ford Beebe, who scripted the entire "Bomba" adventures, slightly broke away from traditional "Bomba" stories by setting the pattern more towards Bomba's unknown heritage. By doing this, he adds further excitement placing Bomba's life in peril. Playing more like a murder mystery set in the jungle, it gets by on the material and limited production values it has. Below average acting from newcomer Karen Sharpe, along with a not-so-convincing demise of one of the villains, can be contributed towards the film's weakness, but overall, a passable 72 minutes. Others members of the cast include Morris Buchanan in notable support as Kokoli, a native who risks his life assisting Bomba; Don Blackman, Bruce Carruther, Roy Glenn, and Bomba's pet monkey, N'Kimba, doing what Cheta of the "Tarzan" movie series did best, attracting whatever attention in the "comedy relief" department.
Being the last "Bomba" adventure produced by Monogram, in fact, the last Monogram film ever release, the duration of the "Bomba" series (1949-1955) were distributed by Allied Artists. Unseen on cable television since Turner Network Television's broadcast in 1992 and 1993, BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL has joined forces, along with other "Bomba" adventures, as worthy presentations on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere January 21, 2012). Next in the series: SAFARI DRUMS (1953). (**)
