Movie Review - Bomba on Panther Island

I love old black and white films, and I love Tarzan. So what wouldn't be great about an old film based on a series of books that rip off from Tarzan?

Bomba on Panther Island is a 1949 live-action film based on the Bomba, The Jungle Boy novels by Roy Rockwood. It is unrated  and is appropriate for all ages.

The Good

Story. The story is pretty simple, but interesting.

Visuals. This is the second film in the Bomba series, and the filmmakers have learned a few things. The stock footage was better integrated, and the sets looked less like sets.

Silent Storytelling. This film uses a lot of silent storytelling where it's just the visuals and the music to tell the story and describe the action, and it is done well and creates a good amount of suspense.

The Bad

Pacing. This movie moves a little slowly and doesn't have as much content as an 80-minute film could comfortably have.

Lack of Action. The action that is shown is really well shown, but there's too little of it. And some of the scenes consist of closeups of the actors mixed with stock footage. While this was a clever idea and done well, it still doesn't look as good as one would like.

What I Would Like To Have Seen

I wish there had been more action. I realize this was a low budget film from a studio with few resources, but too much of the movie consists of people standing around posing or walking just to walk and not get anywhere.

Overall

Bomba on Panther Island is a 1949 live-action film based on the Bomba, The Jungle Boy novels by Roy Rockwood, concept very similar to Tarzan except Bomba is a teenage boy instead of a man. The story is pretty simple, but interesting. The visuals were an improvement over the first film, and the silent sequences with nothing but action and the music were really well done and created a lot of suspense. The action that is shown is really well shown, but there's too little of it. And some of the scenes consist of closeups of the actors mixed with stock footage. While this was a clever idea and done well, it still doesn't look as good as one would like. This movie moves a little slowly and doesn't have as much content as an 80-minute film could comfortably have. Overall, I enjoyed the film. I give it 4 out of 5 Boxes of Popcorn.