Nabonga

Plot synopsis:
T. F. Stockwell (Herbert Rawlinson) steals the money and jewelry contents of safe deposit boxes of the Cairo bank in which he works. After fleeing south in a private plane with his young daughter Doreen (Jackie Newfield, daughter of the director) and the pilot, they're brought down in the jungle during a storm. The three survive the crash but Stockwell murders the pilot when he sees the stolen loot. Whilst exploring the surroundings, Doreen finds a gorilla (Ray Corrigan) wounded and left for dead by members of a safari.
Years pass when Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) comes to the area on the fringes of the jungle where the plane crashed. Bar owner Carl Hurst (Barton MacLane) and his female associate Marie (Fifi D'Orsay) spy on Gorman to see what he's up to.
Gorman's father was head of the bank that Stockwell worked for and robbed; when Gorman's father was blamed for the theft he committed suicide. Gorman is out to recover the loot from the plane crash to clear his father's name. When Gorman saves Hurst's servant Tobo (Prince Modupe) from being murdered by another African (Fred Toones), Tobo confides in Gorman that there is a white witch in the jungle who legend has it came from the sky. Gorman realises that this could be a reference to Stockwell's plane crash and disappearance. Tobo offers to lead Gorman to the area whilst Hurst and Marie secretly follow.
The "white witch" is the grown up Doreen (Julie London) living with her gorilla named Samson who protects her; her father having long ago disappeared in the jungle.

Tags: violence, depressing, murder, flashback

Review:
"Nabonga" marks the debut film of Julie London.
Julie London, however, makes quite an impression, while Ray "Crash" Corrigan has a grand time as the gorilla (though he is outclassed in the acting department by young Jackie Newfield).
We would have liked to see more of Prince Modupe, however, whose dignified and knowledgeable native guide is far removed from the usual Hollywood stereotypes.Production values seem adequate enough for Poverty Row and are helped out enormously by Robert Cline's always attractively glossy and often noirishly lit photography.Available on DVD through Alpha.
I've just watched Nabonga for the first time and quite enjoyed it, despite its rather low budget.An aeroplane with a girl and her dad on board plus the pilot crash lands in Africa into a jungle.
But she has been "adopted" by a gorilla, (a man in a monkey suit) Nabonga, although she calls him Samson.
A small party, including Ray Gorman looking for the treasure eventually finds it and the girl and after Nabonga fights another gorilla (another man in a monkey suit), he kills somebody else who is also after the treasure along with a woman.
After that, Gorman and the now grown up Doreen plan to return to America.The cast includes Buster Crabbe (Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers), singer Julie London and Barton MacLane (Unknown Island, The Maltese Falcon).This movie is certainly worth watching if you get the chance.
This isn't a good movie or a camp classic, but a "B" (or "C") with just enough energy and silliness to be entertaining rather than merely mediocre and tedious.Julie London, a comely 18 years old in her film debut, plays the young woman who's grown up from childhood in the jungle after a plane crash, protected by a giant ape (Ray Corrigan wears the suit).
Buster looks great in his pith helmet and has some funny moments in his initial nervous interactions with London's Doreenand the ape she calls "Samson"--he might have been a good light comedian if anybody had given him the chance.
I need a shave?" This in a brief moment between the usual stock footage animal attacks involving exotic critters from around the globe.As others have noted, the relationship between "Bwana" Buster and his native guide Tobo (the rather stiff Prince Madupe, who seemingly never made another movie) is less condescending than the norm in such movies--Buster treats him more as partner and friend than servant.
NABONGA is just a low-budget gorilla adventure from PRC Pictures, but it offers a good story, more African wildlife shots than most Tarzan movies, and a reasonable level of sex appeal.
At 75 minutes, the movie is never dull; and it matters not that Nabonga is an actor in a gorilla suit -- because audiences allowed some slack if the story was good.
This rates a solid 7/10, if not better.Contrast this with Peter Jackson's overblown, miserable, and downright stupid 2006 gorilla movie --- that cost in excess of $100 million --- and was dying fast at the box office (per word-of-mouth) two weeks after its release.
Jackson's movie had no entertainment value at all.Some say that Nabonga was the inspiration to the 1950 "Mighty Joe Young" --- a truly excellent classic made by the same skilled people that made the 1933 "King Kong".
I thought: "Buster Crabbe is in it, so it can't be all bad!" Then I watched it in the German dubbing, and had to laugh quite a few times, but at spots neither the original movie makers nor the dubbing crew would have intended to be for laughter.
The German dubbing sounds like from a bad porn movie.
The lines of the native people are just ridiculous, and the voice of the girls sounds like the voice of a 60 year old woman.
Buster Crabbe is like usual awesome in action scenes, but his character play too is definitely better than in any Flash Gordon.
Buster Crabbe, formerly Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, stars in this jungle action adventure.
A box of jewels from a robbery was lost in the jungle years ago with the daughter of the thief.
Our hero needs to find the box and/or the girl whose only friend in the meantime is a man in a gorilla costume.
Instead of the same old wild fights against lions, this adventure gives Crabbe plenty of opportunity to be witty, for example I loved the scene when he is so afraid of the mighty gorilla the girl has to calm him down.
His young daughter grows up under the protection of a large gorilla and becomes known to locals as the legendary white witch.
An explorer sets out on an expedition to find her.This jungle adventure is directed by Sam Newfield who is famous for having directed more films than anyone else.
Nabonga is very similar in plot line to another of Newfield's films, White Pongo.
This picture is a pretty campy affair with a white jungle queen who acts more like a petulant city girl.
It's overall entertaining enough to an extent but at the same time it has a lot of overly familiar adventure flick elements that aren't too interesting, such as a villainous, greedy explorer on the good guy's trail.
The scenes with the girl and the ape were quite good fun though and, despite being nothing too great, this one is reasonably diverting as these types of movies go..
I love jungle adventure films, me.
Nabonga, however, doesn't have much in the way of action, has plenty of stock footage (seemingly from some turn of the century documentary), a man in a gorilla suit, and not much else.
It involves some guy going on the lam with his kid and some money who crashes in the jungle, only for him to die and the kid to grow and become friends with a gorilla, who protects her.
This low-grade production is nevertheless a slight upgrade, if you can believe that, compared to "Jungle Siren" which I saw yesterday and which was also directed by Sam Newfield and starred Buster Crabbe.
Don't expect too much excitement, though; the "perils of the jungle" alternate between obvious stock footage of random animals and a man in an obvious gorilla suit.
At the end there is a long fistfight between Crabbe and bad guy Barton MacLane, but because they are dressed almost exactly the same, you can't tell who's punching whom!
A really boring man played by Buster Crabbe finds her and needs her to give some money and jewels back.
Most of the movie is the discovery of the White Witch who is really just a good looking young woman and the efforts to keep her alive by the duo of Crabbe and gorilla.
"A young girl is the only survivor of a plane crash that carried herself and her father, a bank embezzler escaping with the money.
Befriended by a gorilla that protects and cares for her, the girl grows up in the jungle guarding the fortune.
Co-stars Buster Crabbe (as Ray Gorman) and Julie London (as Doreen Stockwell) are in very good shape.
Crabbe plays his scenes with London notably well (like a muscular Ozzie Nelson).
Since Ray "Nbongo" Corrigan plays the gorilla named "Samson", probably "Nabonga" means gorilla in another language.** Nabonga (1/25/44) Sam Newfield ~ Buster Crabbe, Julie London, Barton MacLane, Fifi D'Orsay.
It's far from being as good as "Mighty Joe Young" or "King Kong" and not nearly as fun as "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla".
"Nabonga" is more of a so-so film that is fine to watch but it's nothing special.The movie does have it's moments of cuteness, the story is fine it's not not a memorable story, the gorilla suit looks like any other gorilla suit from the 1940s so it's pretty neat and it is worth watching if you happen to find it playing on TV or acquire it in a film-pack.3.5/10.
Nabonga (1944) ** (out of 4)A thief steals some priceless jewels and heads off in an airplane with his young daughter.
The plane ends up crashing and the little girl befriends an injured gorilla in the jungle.
Flash forward several years and explorer Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) hears about a "white witch" from the jungle that "fell from a big bird" and heads there to search for the jewels.
He finds the now woman (Julie London) being protected by a large gorilla but must find a way to get her to lead him to the jewels.NABONGA, meaning gorilla, is a rather silly and low-budget jungle adventure that manages to be slightly entertaining as long as you don't take it too serious.
However, if you like cheap entertainment and just want 71 minutes to kill then there's certainly much worse out there.I think the best thing about the film are the leads.
While neither Crabbe or London give excellent performances, they at least have a nice chemistry together and I thought they were good enough to carry the picture.
There's a scene where Crabbe is trying to act afraid of her pet gorilla that is quite funny and especially some of the flirtation going on between them.
There's a ton of stock footage in the movie that makes it look even cheaper and there's no doubt that the majority of the "real" footage was probably shot on one set with very limited range.
More times than not the characters just stay in one spot and talk.NABONGA was meant to be cheap entertainment, which is what it pretty much is..
I was expecting a cardboard jungle "epic", but a superior one in that it has Buster Crabbe, Barton MacLane, Crash Corrigan and his gorilla suit and the luscious Julie London in her first motion picture.
What a surprise to find Crabbe portraying not another version of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or other perfect hero but a man driven to vindicate his father's reputation even if it should mean lying, cheating, theft from the girl to whom he is obviously attracted as well as trapping her beloved gorilla.
The moral uncertainty of Crabbe's character makes "Nabonga" different from its ilk.
There is an interesting relationship between Crabbe's character and Tobu, a black man who is treated as an equal not a servant and for whom the hero is willing to risk his life.
It reminded me a little of 1949's "Mighty Joe Young" without the production values, and quite possibly a more notable cast.The story opens with the ill fated plane flight of a wanted embezzler who escapes the authorities with his ten year old daughter in tow.
Shortly after getting situated, young Doreen Stockwell goes on a jungle foray and discovers a wounded gorilla.It's left to the viewer's imagination to piece things together as the film fast forwards unannounced to a period some years later when Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) arrives, curious to discover the facts behind the legend of a 'great white witch'.
Adding intrigue to the adventure is the presence of mercenary Carl Hurst (Barton MacLane), who sets out to follow Gorman and cash in on the treasure trove himself, along with an accomplice named Marie (Fifi D'Orsay).I got a kick out of the scene where Tobo saves Gorman by shooting a leopard about to attack; Gorman expresses his wonder at Tobo's ability to read the jungle.
Yet in the very next scene, Tobo follows Gorman as both swim across a crocodile infested river!
Gorman in fact treated his guide with respect and was willing to trust his judgment, and their relationship pretty much got along as equals.The casting coup of the film definitely has to be that of Julie London as the adult white witch Doreen.
It was almost comical to observe her repeated 'I really like you' conversations with Buster Crabbe's character, who managed to miss all the signals.
In that regard, the intrepid explorer was a total klutz.I saw this movie under the title "Nabonga Gorilla", which is a bit curious since Doreen's playmate is called Samson, and the name only shows up in the credits with a different spelling - 'Nbongo'.
There it states that the part of the gorilla was played by Nbongo, though film fans will easily recognize the name of Ray "Crash" Corrigan as the man in the monkey suit.
For the perfect jungle cocktail, stir in South American monkeys, Indian elephants, American alligators, Australian cockatoos...and cap it off with a guy in a gorilla suit.
Serve with Buster Crabe and Julie London for a really fun time.The story is about stolen jewels that are lost in a plane crash somewhere in the jungle.
The daughter of the thief, Doreen (Julie London) lives a life of seclusion and innocence in the jungle with the jewels, protected by her gorilla friend, Sampson.
Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) has journeyed to Africa to find the jewels and clear his father's name from the charges that he allowed the jewels to be stolen.
But after Gorman does the obligatory fight the fake crocodile in the river with his shirt off scene, Tobo has no future and is promptly killed by the guy in the gorilla suit.The rest of the movie involves the resolution of the Beauty and the Beast story.
The gorilla, Sampson, jealously protects Doreen's innocence and has kept her out of contact with other humans.
Buster Crabbe and Julie London together on screen are very entertaining.
Buster plays it all goofy and good natured, while Julie is naive, direct and flirtatious.Gorman's decision to trap Sampson and take the jewels against Doreen's will is a bit unsettling.
What is chilling is that this attitude is exactly how western civilizations treated Africa for over two hundred years.Doreen decides she really likes Gorman.
That means Gorman can now take Doreen out of the jungle and back to civilization.
A happy ending...?This is an entertaining little low budget movie.
As you can guess from the cover and title, Nabonga is about a man in a gorilla suit named "Samson." A plane crashes in the jungle with stolen jewels and securities.
She has become a legend as "the white witch." Buster Crabbe, sometimes known a "Bwana" looks for the treasure as bad guys follow him.Doreen (Julie London) as an adult living in the jungle has smooth silky white skin without a scratch, like most real live Hollywood Jungle women.
The stock footage, films from the jungles in Africa...and around the world, was edited into the film at random points.
NABONGA is a jungle adventure cheapie churned out in the 1940s.
Watching it these days it's a real chore to sit through, and that comes from somebody who loves old Tarzan movies, serials, and the like.The film sees a bunch of has-been characters flying into a jungle set and finding themselves menaced by the usual guy in a gorilla suit.
There's some dated romance stuff and a strapping hero played by genre mainstay Buster Crabbe.
I love Crabbe in his other roles but he gets very little to do here other than look dashing, which is no difficulty for him.
The jungle girl aspect of the plot is never used very effectively, and the gorilla makes noises and hangs around in the background a lot.
(Some Spoilers) Traveling to darkest Africa in the unexplored and forbidden, by the local natives, Nabonga Mountains Ray Gorman,Buster Crabbe, is determined to find the money that was embezzled from his father's bank back in New York City and return it to its rightful owners: The banks depositors.
With the local natives refusing to help him in getting into Naboga Country in fear of a "White Witch" who rules the area Ray gets a lucky brake in Tobo, Prince Madupe, more then willing to help him go there.
It was T.F who then checked out of the country with the stolen bank money converted to jewelry and ended up, via Cairo Egypt, together with his 10 year old daughter Doreen, Juli London, in the African jungles.
With T.F dead from his injuries his daughter Dooreen is adopted ,like Tarzan of the Apes was, by this big 400 pound gorilla "Samson", sporting what looked like a punk rock hairdo, played by Ray "Crush" Carrigan dressed in a gorilla suit.As Ray is out to find the stolen or embezzled bank funds he's followed in the jungle by American Carl Hurst, Barton MacLane, who found out about the money and wants to get his hands on it before Ray does.
In the jungle Ray and his native guide Tobo finally get to the cash site where the plane with T.L & daughter came down only to be confronted by "Samason" the gorilla!
"Samson" in thinking that Ray & Tobo are a threat to his master Doreen, now fully grown at 17 with a 36-24-35 figure, and ends up taking a terrified Tobo apart.
It's when Doreen gets to know Ray and what a nice guy he is that "Samson",in him getting the message, desist from any violence towards him.
But it's when both the greedy and murderous Carl Hurst and his non-African, she actually look Polynesian, native girlfriend Marie,Fifi Diorsay, come on the scene to make trouble is when "Samson" resorts to type.
And it's then when the action in the movie really starts to get both hot & heavy!***SPOILERS*** Despite Julie London's, as Doreen the Jungle Girl in her movie debut, knockout looks that even had actor and Olympic swimming champion Buster Crabbe, as Ray Gorman, a bit taken back and almost speechless it was the monkey or gorilla that ended up stealing the show.
Without "Samson" the gorilla coming to Ray and Doreen's aid it would have been curtains for both of them.
It fact it was Marie who after Hurst got his hands on the jewelry and dumped her for the far more sexier Doreen ,who was anything but interested in him, who then released "Samson" who was trapped in a bamboo cage to finish the two timing rat off.
It was "Samson's" confrontation with the gun wielding Hurst that ended up doing the big gorilla in.