Bomba on Panther Island

Bomba on Panther Island (1949)

** (out of 4)

The second film in Monogram's series finds Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) trying to track down a killer black panther who is causing all sorts of trouble in the jungle. He must also help a young woman (Allene Roberts) and her brother (Harry Lewis) who are doing special experiments in the jungle but their mysterious helper (Lita Baron) has the natives thinking she might be evil. After a decent start, this second entry quickly loses steam and in the end it's just another cheap, low-budget jungle movie that is nothing more than a rip-off of the Tarzan series. Of course, the biggest difference is that Sheffield played 'Boy' in those MGM films so it was natural that he'd be offered his own series. Sadly, the end results are rather weak but then again this is actually one of the best I've seen from the series so take that as you will. I think the opening scene where a monkey friend of Bomba is killed was rather effective but as soon as this is over the cheapness quickly kicks in. The majority of the panther attacks features stock footage of a panther "stalking" and then we cut away to the results and this is just a human (or animal) on the ground dead. At first I laughed at how cheap this effect was but by the end of the movie I understood because when the "fake" leopard does attack Bomba the results is so laughable that you can understand why the producers didn't want to use it too much. At one point it seems as if Bomba is fighting a cloth toy! Sheffield looks the part of a jungle boy and he's actually not too bad in the part. Roberts makes for a good love interest and Baron certainly has the looks and sexuality for her part. At 76-minutes the film is way too sluggish for its own good but the performances and a few scenes of the wildlife at least give it a little life.