Bomba the Jungle Boy number 12 (also the last in the
series):
A herd of elephants is destroying pretty much everything in sight by
repeated stampedes, so three gouvernment sanctioned hunters (Wayne Morris,
Paul Picerni, William Phipps) want to shoot the herd - but Bomba (Johnny
Sheffield) won't let them, claiming the elephants are enticed to stampede
by no more than one rogue elephant, whom he will personally take care of.
Plus the land the elephants are on is legally his - which it is. But this
time, even Bomba's friend commissioner Barnes (Leonard Mudie) turns
against him, only his niece Mona (Nancy Hale), whose life Bomba once
saved, believes him.
Before long, the hunters do everything in their power - but within
limits, because technically, they are no baddies but firmly rooted within
the law - to get Bomba out of the way, even if it means tieing him up and
keeping him prisoner ... which almost costs Bomba his life in yet another
elephant stampede.
Ultimately though, Bomba steals the hunters' guns and lures Barnes away
from the others to get the rogue elephant to him and let Barnes shoot the
elephant - which almost kills Mona once again.
And in the end - Bomba does not get the girl.
The last of the Bomba-films is a pretty average affair
(by standards of the series): There are some nice action sequences (like
when Mona is running from a stampeding elephant only to be saved by
vine-swinging Bomba in the nick of time), but overall, the plot is too
weak to carry the film and lacks a central villain (on the other hand of
course, it's way less of an insult to one's intelligence than many other
jungle flicks). But running just over an hour, it's still ok cheap jungle
entertainment, if that's your thing.
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