''Bomba, the Jungle Boy'' is a 1949 American

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Ford Beebe Ford Ingalsbe Beebe (November 26, 1888 – November 26, 1978) was a screenwriter and Film director, director. He entered the film business as a writer around 1916 and over the next 60 years wrote and/or directed almost 200 films. He specialized ...

, based on the first of the '' Bomba'' series of juvenile adventure books. It was the first in a 12-film series featuring Bomba, a sort of teenage Tarzan, played by

Johnny Sheffield Johnny Sheffield (born John Matthew Sheffield Cassan, April 11, 1931 – October 15, 2010) was an American child actor who, between 1939 and 1947, portrayed Boy in the Tarzan film series and, between 1949 and 1955, played Bomba, the Jungle Boy. ...

, who as a child had played "Boy" in several previous Tarzan films.

Plot

A photographer and his daughter arrive in Africa hoping to capture the local wildlife on film. Instead, they encounter (and never end up photographing) a killer leopard, a swarm of locusts, deadly lion worshippers, and Bomba the Jungle Boy. Bomba was raised by an aged naturalist, Cody Casson (since deceased). He now lives beyond the Great Rift. The photographer's daughter, wearing a well-tailored leopard skin, spends most of the film with Bomba, while her father, Commissioner Barnes, and Eli search for her.

Cast

as Bomba *

Peggy Ann Garner Peggy Ann Garner (February 3, 1932 – October 16, 1984) was an American child actress. As a child actress, Garner had her first film role in 1938. At the 18th Academy Awards, Garner won the Academy Juvenile Award, recognizing her body of ...

as Patricia Harlan *

Onslow Stevens Onslow Stevens (born Onslow Ford Stevenson; March 29, 1902 – January 5, 1977) was an American stage, television and film actor. Early years Born in Los Angeles, California, Stevens was the son of British-born character actor Houseley St ...

as George Harland * Charles Irwin as Andy Barnes *

Smoki Whitfield Smoki Whitfield (born Robert Whitfield, and sometimes credited as Jordan Whitfield; August 3, 1918 - November 11, 1967) was an African American actor, comedian, and musician. Biography Smoki was born in Pittsburgh to John and Effie (Walker) Wh ...

as Eli * Martin Wilkins as Mufti

Production

Walter Mirisch Walter Mortimer Mirisch (November 8, 1921 – February 24, 2023) was an American film producer. He was the president and executive head of production of The Mirisch Corporation, an independent film production company which he formed in 1957 wit ...

had been general manager of

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

since 1945. They specialised in low-budget movies, including series of regular characters such as

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan ...

Joe Palooka ''Joe Palooka'' is an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. The strip debuted on April 19, 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. It was cancelled in 1984. The strip was adapt ...

and the Bowery Boys. Mirisch looked at the success of the ''Tarzan'' films and remembered the ''Bomba'' novels; he thought they might offer material to do a similar type of movie. In November 1947 Monogram announced they had bought the rights to twenty of the stories. They assigned

to oversee their production and said they intended to make three ''Bomba'' films per year. They were going to be in colour. They were seeking a male actor aged 18 to 20 to star. In September 1948 Monogram's president

Steve Broidy Samuel “Steve” Broidy (June 14, 1905 – April 28, 1991) was an American executive in the U.S. motion picture industry. Early life Samuel Broidy was born on June 14, 1905, in Malden, Massachusetts. He attended Boston University, but he w ...

announced that the studio would make two Bomba films over the following year. (Other series at the studio included

and Bowery Boys.) Mirisch later claimed he was paid $2,500 a film, and the success of the series launched him as a producer.

Reception

The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it a "dull flavorless picture about a vest pocket Tarzan."T., H. H. (1949, Apr 16)
"At the Rialto"
''New York Times'' However the movie was a large success relative to its budget.

References

External links

*
''Bomba the Jungle Boy''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

{{Bomba the Jungle Boy 1949 films American adventure films Films directed by Ford Beebe Films produced by Walter Mirisch Monogram Pictures films 1949 adventure films American black-and-white films 1940s American films