BLONDE SAVAGE (1947)

In an African city, Steve (Leif Erickson) comes barging into a lawyer's office across from a police station and says that a man named Harper and a woman named Meelah are currently being held for questioning, and if Harper is released, Steve plans on shooting him. We hear the rest of the story in flashback. Steve and his buddy Hoppy (Frank Jenks), who run a small air freight company, are offered a job by Harper, owner of a diamond mine, to find the jungle home of a tribe that is causing Harper trouble. Steve is surprised to find that Harper's wife Connie (Veda Ann Borg) is a former flame of his, and as soon as Harper is a safe distance away, she begins flirting with Steve and complaining about being stuck in Africa with her dull husband. Steve and Hoppy fly off to do some reconnaissance, lose control of the plane, and wind up forced to land in the jungle where they are captured by the troublesome tribe, led by Tonga and, surprisingly, a statuesque blond white woman named Meelah. She belts out a good old going-to-war song which seems to seal their fate as captured enemies, but when a warrior returns to the village, wounded in a battle with Harper's men, Steve uses the plane's first-aid kit to save his life. Tonga gives Steve a diary written in English which reveals that Meelah was the daughter of a man named Comstock, a co-founder with Harper of the diamond mine. Harper had Comstock and his wife killed, and the baby was saved by the tribe. Steve vows to go back to Harper's, find evidence, and have him brought to justice. Unfortunately, that's not so easy to do, and when an associate of Harper's is killed, both Harper and Meelah fall under suspicion, and we are brought back to the film's opening. Steve, who has fallen for Meelah, plans to kill Harper if the police keep Meelah and free Harper.

This is a par-for-the-course entry in the B-movie jungle melodrama genre, with a story template right out of the classic Tarzan movies, a roster of so-so B-actors, and some stock footage blended with the stagy backlot African sets. Erickson is fine as the butch blond hero, though Gale Sherwood comes off as an amateur as Meelah (her real career was as a singer, and she only made a handful of movies before she spent the rest of her life as Nelson Eddy's singing partner in clubs and concerts). Douglass Dumbrille is bland as the evil Harper, Veda Ann Borg (pictured above with Erickson) is more interesting as Connie, and I always enjoy Frank Jenks as a comic relief sidekick. The best moment is probably early on when Steve is enjoying a kiss with a local totsy. When he asks her how she learned to kiss, she says, "I used to play trombone in the school band. I'm just giving you the first 32 bars of the William Tell overture." He replies, "Play the next 32, baby!" I don't remember Erickson getting any shirtless time, which is disappointing, though both females get to display their physical assets. A nice pick for an "Oh, what the heck" night at the movies, for fans of 40s B-films. [YouTube]