Bomba, the Jungle Boy ** (1949, Johnny Sheffield, Peggy Ann Garner, Onslow Stevens) – Classic Movie Review 8058

The poverty row Monogram Pictures studio finds a good use for Johnny Sheffield, Tarzan’s original Boy, as Bomba, a sort of teeny Tarzan, based on a series of American boy’s adventure books produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pseudonym of Roy Rockwood.

In action-adventure veteran director Ford Beebe’s 1949 Bomba, the Jungle Boy, the first of what turned into a long-running series of 12 adventures (1949–55), Bomba (Sheffield) rescues the young girl of a pair of photographers – daughter Pat (Peggy Ann Garner) and her father George Harland (Onslow Stevens) – visiting an Africa that is afflicted by the usual plot points – forests, locusts, fires, wild creatures and so on.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy is fine for nostalgia seekers and old-fashioned audiences of kids and adults who do not object to cardboard jungles and stock animal footage.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy is directed by Ford Beebe, runs 70 minutes is made and released by Monogram Pictures, is written by Jack DeWitt, based on books by Roy Rockwood, is shot in black and white by William Sickner, is produced by Walter Mirisch, and is score by Edward Kay.

The 12 Bomba films, all directed by Beebe, are: Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949), Bomba on Panther Island (1949), The Lost Volcano (1950), The Hidden City (1951), The Lion Hunters (1951), Elephant Stampede (1952), African Treasure (1952), Bomba and the Jungle Girl (1952), Safari Drums (1953), The Golden Idol (1954), Killer Leopard (1954) and Lord of the Jungle (1955). After that Sheffield’s film career was over.

There are 20 books in the Bomba series, written in imitation of the Tarzan books.  Monogram Pictures general manager Walter Mirisch envied the success of the Tarzan films, remembered the Bomba novels and thought they might offer material to do similar movies. Mirisch said he was paid $2,500 a film, and the series’ success launched him as a big-time independent producer with The Mirisch Corporation, producing The Magnificent Seven, The Apartment, West Side Story, The Great Escape, The Pink Panther and In The Heat of the Night.

In 1967–68, DC Comics published a series of seven Bomba comic books.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8058

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