Elephant Stampede (1951)

Following a long stint (8 films over 9 years) playing “Boy” in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan pictures, young Johnny Sheffield outgrew that role but was snapped up by Monogram Pictures for a series based on the popular Bomba, the Jungle Boy books published in the 1920s and 1930s. Sheffield – who was in better shape and a more agile athlete than many of the actors who would play Tarzan over the years, although he never outgrew the screwy haircut he had when he was 8 – starred in 12 Bomba pictures before retiring from the screen in 1955; tonight’s film is a typical entry in the jungle of fun, Elephant Stampede, directed by Ford Beebe and released in the fall of 1951.

A pair of poachers encroach into an elephant preserve and pour a couple of rounds into a hapless pachyderm; Bomba, who’s been riding around on an elephant smiling and nodding at stock footage of zebras, antelopes, and what appears to be naked Fuller Brush salesmen, is too busy rescuing a babe in a sarong from a giant snake to take much interest, surprisingly, so the two guys kill a visiting game warden and abscond with his ID. The babe in the sarong is Lola, who works for the local missionary, who is teaching the men in the village (not the women or children, if there are any) how to read. Well, actually, the only way the batty old missionary gets anything through the thick skulls of the tribesmen is because the Big Chief stands there threatening to have their entrails torn out by wolverines if they don’t pay attention in class, and if you think I’m kidding, you haven’t seen this film, obviously.

During recess, or after school, or maybe on Saturdays, lovely Lola sneaks into the jungle to teach Bomba how to read, too.

Lola: “What does this say? I – L O V E – L O L A.”
Bomba: “I… love…. SWIMMING!”

Lola spots the phony game warden, and, noticing that he’s wearing pants, decides to make a play for him, although she helpfully tells us that she only wants to make Bomba “J E A L O U S” (Yes, she spells it.)

This goes on for another 4 or 5 reels before the villains are revealed; they’re about to fill Bomba so full of lead he could be carbon-dated rather than Lola-dated when Bomba’s pet chimp, whose name does not appear to be Cheeta, whispers into an elephant’s’ ear, and the elephant trumpets to his pals, and… well, see the title of this film for a clue to what happens next.

In the final fadeout, Lola sees two monkeys kissing, and she puckers up and turns around, but Bomba is skipping away through the grass, pausing only to thank the elephants with what sounds like a gracious “Wuppasheema Dippy Doo."

All of the Monogram Bomba films are short (only one is longer than 75 minutes), cheap, filled with action and stock footage, and passably entertaining for a Saturday afternoon. In other words, a prime example of the type of fare Monogram turned out for decades to fill the bottom half of a double bill.

None of the Bomba films are officially available on DVD (Warner Bros. seems to hold the rights) but you can find them around if you look hard enough. Try the jungle.