Review of Elephant Stampede

Bomba, the Jungle Boy returns, predictably involved in peril as he tangles with two mercenary Americans--ivory poachers in the jungle who have just killed their guide and plot to overtake an ivory shipment running through Portugese territory. Despite the camp-exotic undermining (which all the "Bomba" movie inevitably possess), this episode in the serial is curiously top-heavy with violent action (some of it rather nasty). Bomba is punched, pistol-whipped, shot at, and shot down; at one point, he misses a bullet by inches, which instead strikes a pretty native girl harboring a crush on the "jungle devil". Stock footage makes up most of the title stampede (a great deal of which is ridiculously sped-up, one presumes for time), while both the acting and Ford Beebe's direction are equally wooden. Johnny Sheffield is still charming as Bomba; resembling a corn-fed kid straight off the farm, or perhaps a quarterback on the high school football team, Sheffield cannot belie his embarrassment over this cheapjack endeavor, but neither does he get ambitious or attempt to turn his Bomba into a super-hero. The lackadaisical personality of Bomba (who speaks to his elephants in Swahili and asks questions like, "Why are there two f's in 'giraffe'?") is a major part of his appeal. Without him, this would be just another matinée quickie--one with a hardened heart. ** from ****