The Golden Idol

Prince Ali hires great white hunter Joe Hawkins to track down the Golden Idol of the Watusi. They are following Bomba who has hidden the Idol.

THE GOLDEN IDOL (Allied Artists, 1954), Written, produced and Directed by Ford Beebe, based upon the character created by Roy Rockwood in the "Bomba" Books, marks the tenth installment of the "Bomba the Jungle Boy" adventures series starring Johnny Sheffield, and the second in the series distributed through Allied Artists. It also marks the return of Paul Guilfoyle, who appeared earlier in BOMBA AND THE HIDDEN CITY (Monogram, 1950), as the Emir Hassan.

Tenth entry in the "Bomba" canon is a drowsily-paced adventure with Johnny Sheffield's resourceful, likable jungle boy the only point of interest--the villains all being cut-outs right off the series' assembly-line. A hunter is hired by the nefarious Prince Ali to retrieve the Golden Idol of Watusi, which he claims is his, stolen by Bomba.

After Bomba retrieves a stolen idol from Prince Ali, the prince hires a ruthless hunter to get it back for him. The hunter's no fan of Bomba's to begin with because Bomba has been freeing animals from his traps.

A nasty Arab prince is in Africa, looking to retrieve "The Golden Idol" of Watusi. In flashback, we see Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) took the small statue from dastardly Paul Guilfoyle (as Ali Ben Mamoud), who stole it statue from the Watusi people.

The Golden Idol (1954) ** (out of 4)Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) is back in action and this time he's trying to bring down the evil Prince Ali Ben Mamoud (Paul Guilfoyle) who is starting trouble in the jungle after trying to steal a valuable golden idol, which is very important to some natives who just happen to worship the piece. THE GOLDEN IDOL was the tenth film in the Monogram series and it's clear that it's far from a masterpiece but in terms of this series it's not too bad.

This was not the last Bomba movie (two more were made shortly thereafter), but it may be the weakest. The whole series, never terribly well made, was just running out of "spiz" by this time, and it shows.

The Golden Idol has the youthful Bomba The Jungle Boy in pursuit of a The Golden Idol that the Watusi tribe worships. Perennial movie villain Paul Guilfoyle plays the evil Arab sheik who stole the idol and he and Johnny Sheffield as Bomba have some history between them.

Johnny Sheffield was getting pretty old to play Bomba the Jungle BOY in this episode, the tenth of the long-running Monogram series. It is, like all the others, a well-intentioned, decently produced work of knock-off Tarzan fiction, a bit more overt in its early ecological message than the Tarzan series was.