The Lost Volcano (1950) User Reviews

Third Bomba film is campy as expected

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 20 December 2022]

Donald Woods and his party are walking through the jungle, with big cats in cages that they have caught. It's getting dark, and one of the party says "Make camp." (I think the Bomba films are camp enough.) During the night, Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) the jungle boy swoops down and frees all the animals. Donald Woods and his party wake up and announce they'll have to start again next week. Woods heads home to his shack in the jungle, where wife Marjorie Lord and son Tommy Ivo are enjoying breakfast, prepared by Elena Verdugo, who is particularly devoted to Tommy.

As it turns out, little Tommy is friends with Bomba, and even swoops through the trees with him in matching loincloths, but Tommy's parents think he's making it all up and threaten to send him to school in Cape Town, where he can get over his fantasies and have real boys for friends. At that point, three explorers show up, looking for a hidden city filled with jewels. (One of the explorers is a legitimate scientist; the other two are hoodlums looking for gold.) The two hoodlums kidnap Tommy and Elena and force Tommy to lead them to the lost city, but Tommy refuses -- he has promised Bomba that he would keep the secret. Commotion ensues, including lots of swooping down by Bomba. The good guys win in the end, and Donald Woods finally learns that his son's friendship with Bomba was real. Enjoyable film.

Bomba's Secret Treasure

[lugonian · 6/10 · 23 December 2011]

THE LOST VOLCANO (Monogram, 1950), written and directed by Ford Beebe, the third installment in the "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series, as based on the character created by Roy Rockwell, is a well-made programmer. While done mostly in studio bound sets or back-lots, fine production values are very much evident here, especially with some intense scenes with characters inside an active volcano.

The story gets underway as Paul Gordon (Donald Woods), a zoologist, along with his assistant natives, taking a rest stop after trapping and caging wild animals. Observing them through their long journey home is Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), a teenage jungle boy, awaiting the opportunity to free the animals while the men sleep for the night. The next morning Gordon finds his captured animals gone. He's told by one of his tribesmen that they were released by Bomba, whom Gordon dismisses as some sort of myth. Returning to his cottage where his wife, Ruth (Marjorie Lord) and son, David (Tommy Ivo) are staying with Nona (Elena Verdugo), their native housekeeper, Gordon becomes even more disturbed when David claims to know Bomba and that he's for real. Even though Nona has witnessed David and Bomba's activities together, Gordon still refuses to accept his son's imaginary friend. Hoping to remove David's influence on Bomba, the Gordons agree to send David to a boys school in Capetown to overcome his loneliness. Entering the scene is Doctor Charles Langley(Grandon Rhodes) from the Cairo Museum, traveling with his guides, Barton (John Ridgely) and Higgins (Don Harvey). Langley, searching for a missing ancient city believed to be buried somewhere near an reactivated volcano, hopes that Gordon could lead them there. It is then learned that a golden knife with precious stones David acquired from Bomba happens to be part of that lost treasure. As a favor to the Gordons, Barton and Higgins agree to drive David by jeep to the Capetown school, though actually they use him to show them the way to the treasure inside the lost volcano. Because David refuses to honor their demands, mainly for keeping Bomba's place a secret, the men hold him hostage until he does. Sensing David in great danger, Nona warns the Gordons and Langley. When Bomba learns what has happened to David, he swings into action, racing against time to rescue the boy from the bad men who'll stop at nothing to get what they want.

Playing like a Saturday matinée serial, THE LOST VOLCANO, is an improvement over the previous two "Bomba" entries. Though routinely done, a familiar theme about a lonely child seeking companionship is hardly original yet great storytelling from a child's point of view. It brings about frustrations for a youngster who's not believed or taken seriously when talking about his special friend. This basic element is reminiscent to Val Lewton's classic tale of THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (RKO Radio, 1944) where lonely child (Ann Carter) finds love and companionship from a woman, Irena (Simone Simon), who happens to be a ghost. Her father (Kent Smith) refuses to believe her story, and punishes her for telling such tales. At least Bomba is not a ghost. He's categorized simply as a imaginary friend made up by David. When David is unable to produce Bomba in the flesh, he's forbidden by his father to ever to speak of him again. While Bomba could have made his presence known, he chooses not to in fear of being put to captivity like a caged animal.

Tommy Ivo, the boy in question, shows to be having a great time with his role, especially when playing jungle boy wearing only leopard skin loincloth provided him by Bomba. Bomba not only shows David the ropes of vine swinging, but methods of jungle survival as well. Ivo's David is that or an ordinary kid who hero worships Bomba as a role model. For Bomba, he looks upon David as a little brother he never had who fulfills his time of jungle living solitude.

As an added bonus, there's typical jungle suspense grabbers of Bomba wrestling a crocodile, a large python wrapping itself around a villain, an earthquake and volcano eruptions. The supporting players of familiar faces helps, Donald Woods and John Ridgely for example, along with Marjorie Lord, best known as Danny Thomas's wife, Kathy, in the TV series "Make Room for Daddy."

THE LOST VOLCANO, one one of the few "Bomba" adventures distributed to home video and DVD, is often listed at 67 minutes. The print presented on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere December 3, 2011) is clocked at 75 minutes. Either way, THE LOST VOLCANO is acceptable viewing for young and old alike. Next in the series: BOMBA AND THE HIDDEN CITY (1950). (**1/2)

Idolizing Bomba

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 25 May 2015]

Moony-eyed kid staying with his parents in a hut in Africa has secretly befriended Bomba, the legendary jungle boy; the child's father--who traps wild animals--has admonished little David for believing in a myth, but comes to regret his words after his son is kidnapped by two greedy men out to snare precious jewels from volcano territory. Third entry in the "Bomba" series has some good scenes (Bomba surprising a native girl in the jungle, and later freeing David from his captors), but much of the acting is amateurish and Ford Beebe's direction is balky. Typically, Johnny Sheffield is the sole reason to watch; his modest smile and husky physique are perfect equipment for a "monkey man". ** from ****

A quite rare, enjoyable movie

[chris_gaskin123 · 18 March 2002]

I recently obtained a copy of The Lost Volcano, which is a quite hard to find movie.

This is one of a dozen Bomba the Jungle Boy movies starring Johnny Sheffield after he finished playing Boy in the Tarzan movies.

The movie was quite enjoyable considering the low budget with Johnny playing a much younger version of Tarzan. His language is similar to Tarzan's too. This movies gets better as it moves along and the best part of the movie is the impressive eruption at the end. This is actually stock footage from One Million BC (1940), although we don't see any monsters from this movie. This is the second time Johnny Sheffield has encounted footage from One Million BC, as he encounted some of its monsters in Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943).

I enjoyed this movie a lot and is worth seeing if you get the chance, as it is quite rare.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Bomba Junior

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 3 December 2011]

This film in the Bomba the Jungle Boy series has Johnny Sheffield making friends with the son of Donald Woods and Marjorie Lord who are in the jungle for Woods's work as a naturalist. The parents don't believe that Bomba exists, but their maid Elena Verdugo sure believes in the legend.

Some visitors come archaeologist Grandon Rhodes and his guides Don Harvey and John Ridgely and young Tommy Ivo as the son shows him a jewel encrusted dagger from a lost city in an extinct volcano that's right next a very much live one. Rhodes sees another finding like Schleimann did with Troy, but the other two see loot. They kidnap Ivo and force him to lead them to the treasure in the volcano with Bomba and the parents in hot pursuit.

I think you see where this is going. There was something kind of sweet about Bomba being lonely and making friends with young Ivo who in fact does look like him more than the local natives do. Even training him in jungle survival, a sort of Bomba Junior. Of course once Elena Verdugo happened on the scene I would think he'd want to make friends with her. She looks like she wants to with him real bad. In the previous film in the series Lita Baron in a similar role was a whole lot less subtle and I'm betting Monogram Pictures probably got mail on that from parents.

For a kid supposedly Bomba's protégé, young Ivo acts really dumb some times. Bomba rescues him once and the kid's actions get him captured again.

Not one of the better Bombas.

"I won't have my son grow up to be some sort of ape man!"

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 30 May 2015]

The third entry in Monogram's Bomba series starring Johnny Sheffield has our monosyllabic hero befriending the son of an animal trapper. The boy's parents (Donald Woods, Marjorie Lord) believe Bomba is the boy's imaginary friend. When some bad men try to force the boy to take them to the ruins of a lost city near an active volcano, Bomba comes to the rescue.

Child actor Tommy Ivo plays the boy who idolizes Bomba and gives the corniest 'aw-shucks' performance this side of Timmy from the Lassie TV show. Donald Woods is his usual stiff self. Pretty Marjorie Lord and Elena Verdugo represent the fairer sex in this one, for better or worse. Bomba really needed a regular cast of characters like Tarzan had. The lack of one hurts the series, I think. This has the expected amounts of stock footage and rear projection effects all of the Bomba movies have. The climax goes on way too long. It's a decent B jungle adventure picture but nothing remarkable. Which is par for the course with this series. Might play better for the kiddos. But watch out for that python scene!

Light and breezy

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 2 January 2021]

Another Bomba adventure, THE LOST VOLCANO is very much a familiar kind of low budget Tarzan copy with lots of cheesy action scenes, stock footage, and some low rent mayhem in the form of an erupting volcano. As usual, most of the conflict comes from a ruthless band of men, here treasure seekers who kidnap a guide, forcing our hero to the rescue. It's light and breezy, watchable enough for those who enjoy dated entertainment.

"There are no emeralds in Africa!"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 31 October 2020]

Bomba the Jungle Boy helps a family find their son, whom he has befriended, when two unscrupulous treasure hunters take the son and force him to lead them to the source of riches. The riches are in a lost city, near the lost volcano of the title down wind from a live volcano. There are chases, crocodile fighting, vine swinging, stock footage of lions and an eruption to finish the film with a bang. All pretty standard for a jungle film but pleasant, easy going entertainment. Johnny Sheffield as Bomba is his usual personable self, keen to keep his freedom and that of the animals in the jungle. Tommy Ivo as the son David acts well as does delicious Elena Verdugo as Nona the home help. The villains are rather underwhelming though.

Formulaic jungle adventure

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 10 March 2024]

The third film in the Bomba series seems to be geared more towards the kids in the audience: it gives a big role to a little boy (ironic that Johnny Sheffield himself started his career as a boy in the Tarzan films; even though the boy in this film is not his son, it almost seems to make Tarzan a grandpa!), and what modicum of erotic tension existed in "Panther Island" is totally absent here: the dull female role (Marjorie Lord) is a wife, not a sister, and the exotic female role (Elena Verdugo) & Bomba show no attraction to each other, which doesn't make a lot of sense because he's a hunk and she's a babe and they're both single, as far as I know. All that said, there are a couple of gruesome deaths and near-deaths, in concept if not in unconvincing execution (python, landslide of giant rocks, lava) that might disturb very young viewers. The rest of the story relies mostly on stock footage (again), and such familiar tropes as a lost city filled with precious stones and a wrestling match with a crocodile. *1/2 out of 4.

as good as it gets

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 16 July 2022]

Bomba the Jungle Boy encounters Paul Gordon's safari party with captive animals. Bomba manages to free some of the animals from their cages. Paul still does not believe in the local legend of Bomba. Paul's son David disagrees with his father's work and his disbelief in Bomba. David plays in the jungle and actually meets Bomba. Two hunters arrive searching for a hidden treasure under the volcano. They kidnap David who claims to have learned the location from Bomba. Bomba comes to the rescue.

I really like the messaging. They're fighting against the captive animal trade which is a bit ahead of its time. I like the use of the volcano stock footage. I would rather not use the fake volcano which looks fake. This B-movie franchise is always going to be hampered with fake settings and silly white boy premise. That cannot be helped. This one is probably as good as this franchise is going to be.

Yet another cheaply made Bomba Tarzan knock-off

[a_chinn · 3/10 · 3 June 2018]

Johnny Sheffield as Bomba the Jungle boy has to save a young boy kidnapped by hunters who want to use him to help them find hidden treasure. Bomba has to save the boy before the titular volcano erupts. More cheap production values and boring stories equal another bad Tarzan knock-off that's not worth watching. Maybe non-discriminating children would enjoy it.

Bombay, the former Tarzan boy, finds his own.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 2 January 2017]

Tommy Ivo is poised for his own jungle boy series that never happened as the end of the B movie was imminent. This third installment of the Monogram series has Tarzan's son, now Bomba, befriending the lonely Ivo, trying to convince his parents (Donald Woods and Marjorie Lord) of the existence of the elusive Bomba, a legend of fantasy to adults yet the obvious hero to an impressionable young boy. Add in Elena Verdugo as an exotic jungle girl and some bad white men, hidden treasure, and of course, an active volcano, and the stage is set for an action packed programmer that is satisfactory, if just barely adequate.

In spite of that, Ivo holds his own opposite Johnny Sheffield as Bomba, and it's a curious idea that so early in the series, the obvious ploy to promote a possible new jungle boy now that Sheffield was not quite a boy. The film stars off slowly but quickly picks up speed when the bad guys (lead by John Ridgley) kidnap Ivo. From there on, it's adventurous fun and fraught with tension, Indiana Jones like thrills, yet silly and often melodramatic serial like camp.

Bomba And The Lost Volcano

[raysond · 5 December 2011]

Synopsis: The parents of a young boy named David,thinks Bomba is an imaginary friend. Luckily,the learn differently when they learned that Bomba,the Jungle Boy is real. When the boy(Tommy Ivo),and his female guide(Elena Verdugo)are kidnapped by a pair of jungle crook guides who are searching for the lost city's treasure,it's up to Bomba to rescue the boy and save the day.

Produced by Walter Mirisch and Directed by Ford Beebe,the third installment "THE LOST VOLCANO",aka "BOMBA AND THE LOST VOLCANO" came out in 1950,and once again has Johnny Sheffield starring as Bomba. Within its running time of 69 minutes,this one has Bomba making friends with the son of Donald Woods and Majorie Lord who are in the jungle for Woods' work as a naturalist. The parents don't believe that Bomba exists,but their maid and assistant Elena Verdugo sure believes in the legend and they find that Bomba is real. Within its short time frame,the kidnappers force the boy into the jungle to find the lost treasure,and within the course of the film the boy gets rescued from a certain fate(often!). There is the scene with the giant snake,the scene where Bomba rescues the boy from a crocodile while Bomba tells him not to go swimming in the lake(there is a good crocodile fight scene-good underwater footage),and with the help of a erupting volcano,finishes off the bad guys and saves the day.

FYI: Actress Majorie Lord,after this went on to star opposite Danny Thomas in the television series "Make Room For Daddy" some three years later in 1953. Co-star Elena Verdugo went to make a number of movies during the 1950's,but her biggest fame came in 1969 opposite Robert Young in the daring TV drama "Marcus Welby,MD". Actor John Ridgely was known for voice-over work for Saturday Morning cartoons during the late-1960's-and throughout the 1970's and 1980's. Ridgely also starred in Mel Brooks' 1976 satire "High Anxiety"

The Lost Volcano

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 27 December 2022]

Johnny Sheffield is quite an agreeable hero in this jungle adventure story. Tommy Ivo is "David Woods" a young lad who camps on the outskirts of the forest with his zoologist father, his mother and their maid "Nona". Meantime, "Bomba" has been watching them and intent on releasing the animals they have been caging up, visits the youngster and they make friends. When a group of hunters stop by, they reckon the young boy knows the whereabouts of a wonderful treasure so they kidnap him and force him to take them to it. "Bomba" learns of this plight and sets off to rescue him - and to save everyone from an ominously noisy volcano. It's all pretty run-of-the-mill stuff but has enough action, vine-swinging and dastardly baddies to amiably pass 75 minutes; especially if you are prepared to overlook the obvious use of library footage....

Watch Out for That Rubber Croc!

[Michael_Elliott · 15 December 2011]

Lost Volcano, The (1950)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Third film in the Johnny Sheffield Bomba series finds the jungle boy becoming friends with the son (Tommy Ivo) of an animal trapper (Donald Woods) and soon the kid is kidnapped because a couple thieves believes he can lead them to a dangerous volcano where a buried treasure can be found. This third film in the series suffers from a rather weak and predictable story but also it runs way too long. Clocking in at 75-minutes that's about ten or fifteen-minutes too long as things get so slow that you really feel as if you're watching the movie and someone hits the pause button and keeps it on for an hour or so. As with the previous two films, this one here contains some decent moments and this includes the performance of Ivo as the young boy. I thought the actor gave a very good performance and managed to really keep the film moving at a good pace. I certainly think the film improved each time he was on the screen and there's no question that Ivo and Sheffield shared some nice chemistry together. Veteran actor Woods is also good in his part but he's not on screen enough to make a real difference. The same is true for Marjorie Lord who plays the boy's mother. As with previous films, this one here features quite a bit of stock footage of various wildlife and there's one incredibly freaky scene where a man is attacked by a large snake. I'll admit that I'm terrified of snakes so this scene was extremely effective to me but others might not see it that way. Of course, being a low-budget series we get some rather funny scenes including Bomba's first fight with a rubber crocodile and it looks even cheaper than what was used in all those Tarzan movies. THE LOST VOLCANO, in the end, really suffers from a story that just doesn't move anywhere and direction that just doesn't spark any energy or excitement.