Monday, May 19, 2025

BOWANGA BOWANGA (1951)

We are told through voiceover that the story we are about to see is one of any number of legends about unknown Africa. "Is it fact or fiction? Who can say?" Indeed. Next we see Count Sparafucile and his buddy plain old Kirby on safari, seeing (via badly inserted stock footage) lots of animals in the brush and one gorilla who seems ready to head off for some affection with a human woman, the two never to be seen again. Then they find an unconscious man on the ground whom Kirby recognizes as a guide named Trent. The man wakes up delirious, having become lost, mumbling something about "white sirens of Africa," and Kirby and the Count nurse him back to health. In a flashback, we see Trent, living with his alcoholic father in Africa, witness a group of white female natives, called Ulama, perform a frenzied dance ceremony (involving a quick shot of bare breasts). Years later, he has returned to Africa to get proof of the existence of the "white sirens." Kirby and the Count join him and soon enough, they are captured on a plateau where the Ulama, some of whom can speak broken English, live. The trio see that the women have enslaved some men, and learn that the Ulama use the strong men to service their queen and the weak ones to sacrifice to the Fire God. The queen gets excited when she sees the moderately hunky Trent and claims him for her use, irritating a group of jealous sirens, with the other two marked for sacrifice (though if I'm not mistaken, Count Sparafucile gets used himself by a lesser siren). Conflict ensues with one of the younger, more suburban looking sirens, Owoona, helping the men escape from the clutches of the queen and the Fire God in the nick of time.

This exotic B-movie melodrama runs with the whole "wild white women" thing (its alternate title is WILD WOMEN), with Black Africans shunted off to the background. Usually in a movie of this genre and era, the white women are in danger and need saving, or perhaps are misguided and need saving, but here, the white sirens don't need any saving at all—they’re rather vicious and only need men for procreation—forget the weaklings and the nerds. (To be fair, neither the Count nor Kirby are really weak or nerdy, but just not as studly as Trent.) It's almost surreal how much cutting back and forth there is between studio scenes and grainy, sometimes blurry stock footage, much of which was apparently taken from silent movies. In its own weird way, it's effective. The acting is of two qualities: trying hard and not trying at all. The women don't try at all, barking out syllables, looking pissed off, while decked out in make-up and nicely done hair. Of course, they're not really playing characters. Even the queen (Dana Wilson, who later married Albert Broccoli, producer of the James Bond films) isn't given much to differentiate her from the other sirens. Only the wholesome looking Owoona (Charleen Hawks) has any character at all. The men acquit themselves a little better because they actually have sketchy characters to portray. Lewis Wilson (the original Batman in the 1943 serial) is fine as Trent, Mort Thompson is likably casual as Kirby, and Don Orlando is mild comic relief as the Count. There are a few tribal dances to enliven the sometimes slow proceedings, including the "Hoy-ya, Boy-ya, Hoom-bah" song. I just had to see this for the title, and at a skosh over one hour, it’s mostly painless B-jungle movie fun. [YouTube]

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