Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

a_chinn Another corny Bomba tale has our hero, Johnny Sheffield, rescuing some great white hunters after they mistakenly kill some lions on sacred Masai burial grounds. As with most of the Bomba films, they are even more racist in their depiction of native African people than the much derided Tarzan films, and which is again the case with "The Lion Hunters." The only thing to set this Bomba entry apart from others is the presence of the great Woody Strode (credited as Woodrow Strode) in a before-he-was-famous role playing a tribal warrior.

MartinHafer Many of the MGM Tarzan films were exceptionally good and well made. Wanting to cash in on the studio's success, many lesser production companies also made similar films, though with a fraction of the budget or attention to details. Most of these Tarzan and Tarzan-like films from other studios stink when you see them today. Too often, the films are filled with poorly integrated stock footage and silly acting...and Monogram Studio's "The Lion Hunters" is really no exception. The story involves an expedition which has come to the jungle to trap lions. Unfortunately, the trapper they have hired, Marty, has zero regard for the animals or the locals. When Bomba the Jungle Boy finds a dying lion which Marty shot, he demands the folks leave and never return. Naturally, they don't just leave...otherwise the film would last only about 10 minutes! There are several awful things about the film. First, too often the flick relies on stock footage that obviously doesn't match the film stock. Some include non-African animals (such as alligators) ad the footage of the guy fighting the gator is OBVIOUSLY not the actor!! There also is the god-awful use of rear-projection--and it's so obvious that Johnny Sheffield (Bomba) is no where near any adult lions! And, speaking of Sheffield, I never understood having a guy who speaks much like any American high school student playing a guy raised in the jungle! He's also pretty stiff and lacks charisma....making the film a bit of a chore to watch. By the way, at one point in the film Bomba tells a girl that the baby lions need the male lions to provide food for them and hunt for the pride. Well, Bomba, it doesn't generally work that way. Female lions do the 'lion's share' of the hunting while males often lie about and do nothing to provide meat for the rest of them.

moonspinner55 Johnny Sheffield as Bomba has such low-keyed charisma and an easy gait that he commands attention even when he's not saying anything, which is sometimes preferable to the lines he's given. Bomba finds an injured lion in his territory and accuses the local villagers of leaving it to die (they deny it, even though a custom of their tribe is to send a young man out into the wilds to kill a lion as part of his initiation). Meanwhile, 'bwanas' have invaded the jungle with a permit to trap lions to sell back home to zoos--and one of the white men has a psychotic bent and an itchy trigger finger. One of better movies in the "Bomba" serial is still loaded with repetitive and recycled scenes, cheap back projection and nature footage from stock. Still, the editing is nimble enough so that the plot at least moves instead of being bogged down in the padding, and the supporting cast is strong. Douglas Kennedy is a worthy adversary for Sheffield's jungle boy (sprouting a little chest hair here), and the natives are finally given some personality quirks to make the subplot interesting. Bomba wrestles both an alligator and a lion, plays with lion cubs, relays messages to the birds (a bit embarrassing) and flirts innocently with the proverbial girl. Fans of the series could hardly expect or ask for more. **1/2 from ****

boblipton After he grew too old to play 'Boy' in the Tarzan movies, Johnny Sheffield wound up in this Monogram cheapie series based on the Bomba books/cartoon strip. In this one he is joined by Ann Todd, who had also been a child actor, as the ingénue, playing the daughter of a lion trapper.For a Monogram movie there is a potentially interesting message about ecology: that it is simply not right to trap lions and keep them in cages. Of course, there is no real philosophy behind it in this movie. But there are hints of.... well, something. Bomba and the natives speak broken English at all times, but they have a sense of dignity and honor.All in all, a silly, cheap movie, but I enjoyed it for the animals. Not only at least two lions, but a hawk, a monkey and folks walking around in pith helmets. Not to mention the funky hats the natives wear.