Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

Intrepid explorers "George" (Onslow Stevens) and his feisty daughter "Patricia" (Peggy Ann Garner) are traipsing through the jungle taking photos when they espy something unexpected in their lenses. It's a boy! Clad in a loincloth and doing his own yodel-free "Tarzan" impersonation, they meet "Bomba" (Johnny Sheffield). He proves really quite useful to the pair when she manages to wander off and get herself lost and in deftly rescuing her, a friendship blossoms that happens to coincide with some shenanigans in the local village. As the young woman starts to take a shine to her new, fresh-faced, friend she regales him with tales of the city - but can he be tantalised or is he perfectly happy where he is? I found Sheffield to be an engaging performer in these jungle adventures that inject just a soupçon of moralising into a pretty straightforward adventure story that involves some lively stock-footage and just an hint of romance. It's maybe fifteen minutes too long, but it's still quite an amiable film that's of it's time, is quite watchable and tells us to beware of those marauding locusts!