Sons of Kong?: Nabonga (1944)

Back to the Jungle we go!  Today's Film is Nabonga, a 1944 Film about...what you expect at this point.  We've got Explorers.  We've got an Ape.  We've got a Jungle Girl.  Thankfully, we don't have Mantan Moreland or most of the shit that has brought down some of these other Films.  You know what we do have though?  Buster Crabbe!  Flash Gordon, bitches!  He plays an Explorer who's in the right and has to do battle with one that is, well, not so much.  In between, we have a young lady, some lost loot and the titular Gorilla.  This really does have most of what you expect.  Thankfully, the casual 'I can't be offended since it was ''okay'' then' Racism is at a minimum here, as is the Comedy.  I like good Comedy, but it is so rare in this DVD Set so far.  Does it end up being the best so far?  To find out, read on...

A criminal and his daughter's plane crashes in the Jungle.  He kills the Pilot after the fact (when he sees the loot)...

...but gets killed and his daughter left alone in the Jungle.  This isn't a Savage Girl Prequel is it?

Years later, our hero shows up to find out what happened to the people in the Crash.

As a side-note, why do Flash Gordon Actors have to go Brunette to go to the Jungle?  You have Crabbe in this Film and Sam J. Jones in Jane & The Lost Jungle.  Coincidence?

The Plot isn't all that exciting, so here is some Stock Footage.  Kudos for including Hyenas this time.

Our hero finds the girl, but is being followed by the bad guy.  He's after the loot and anything else worth a dime!

This is Nabonga.  Is this the same suit from nearly every Film so far?  It sure looks like it, right?

Flash and the bad guy fight, but things turn against him.  When the bad guy betrays his moll, she decides to free Nabonga to sic on him.

It ends badly for her (off-screen).  Should have thought this one through.

Since Nabonga has the title-role, he offs the bad guy too!  All is well (for the living).  The End.

It's alright.  It's not great.  It's not bad.  It's...just alright.  This really feels like a cheap, Saturday Matinee.  I really can't say that much about it.  Crabbe is good.  The Nabonga suit looks fine (even if it is very familiar by now).  It is kind of funny to see all of the stuff that has to happen off-screen due to standards of the time.  Mind you- I don't want to see people ripped apart by a Gorilla...but that's clearly what is happening after they cut away.  In closing, Nabonga is a fine time-filler...but not much of a Classic.  The most notable thing to me is the lawsuit-worthy logo of PRC Pictures...

Next up, I go slightly-less Old School with a House of horrors!  You're Damned if you do and dead if you don't!  Stay tuned...