Killer Leopard (1954)

Beautiful blonde movie star Beverly Garland (as Linda Winters) is in Africa, looking for her handsome wayward husband, Donald Murphy (as Fred Winters). After embezzling some money, he wants to pilfer an African diamond mine. Her marriage may be "on the rocks," and Ms. Garland wonders whether or not she is still "in love." Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) meets Garland and becomes her guide during the search. A nasty black, cross-eyed "Killer Leopard" wanders around, causing extra danger for the cast. This penultimate episode of "Bomba the Jungle Boy" certainly reveals the series to be long in the saber-tooth (unless, like most, you knew that already). Mr. Sheffield appears more miscast than ever, reciting boyish dialogue to Garland after they take a swim. Garland wears a modest one-piece and she is the film's highlight.** Killer Leopard (1954-08-22) Ford Beebe ~ Johnny Sheffield, Beverly Garland, Donald Murphy, Barry Bernard

***SPOILERS*** Bomba, Johnny Sheffield, the jungle boy now at age 23 is getting a bit too big for his kid or juvenile size loincloth gets involved with illegal diamond smuggling as well as a killer black leopard who's attacking and eating the local native population. It's Fred Winters, Donald Murphy,the abused husband, in him always being in his wife's shadow, of big time Hollywood actress Linda Winters,Beverly Garland,who decided to make it on his own by embezzling his wife's employer, Allied Artists, of $20,000.00. Not satisfied with the 20 grand Fred is now looking to buy diamonds off African diamond mine supernatant Saunders, Harry Cordine, at cut rate prices, since such a transaction is illegal, and at least double his money!It's Linda herself who travels to darkest Africa to get Fred to turn himself into the police where he'll end up only getting a slap on the wrists in that she paid out of her own pocket the 20 G's that he stole. Shocked that his old lady Linda bails him out as well as his crime being discovered so soon Fred in what seems to be a fit of madness still decides to go on foot with his American guide Charlie Pulham, Barry Bernard, to the far off diamond mines and buy the diamonds off Supt.Saunders! Even if it means he'll end up behind bars for doing it! While all this is going on Bomba is recruited by Linda to track down her husband and knock some sense into his head before he ends up getting himself killed: By either his partners in crime Supt. Saunders and his greedy and double crossing guide Charlie Pulham or the on the loose and hungry for human flesh killer leopard! It's the killer leopard that in fact makes the movie interesting in that he doesn't need to read and remember the ridicules script in the movie. In that his acting is purely natural, and mostly in stock footage, in that all he has to do is just be himself and not have to put on an embarrassing act,like Bomba Linda & Fred,at all!***SPOLIERS*** Bomba in first finding Fred is now confronted with the killer leopard in who's hideout, a hidden cave, Charlie Pulham's body was hidden in by his killer Supt. Saunders. Charlie like Fred got a bit too greedy in wanting more of a cut, from the illegal diamonds, from Saunders that the two agreed upon and ended up paying for it with his life. Bomba in a stock footage scene from an earlier Bomba movie, "Bomba on Panther Island", dispatched the killer leopard and ends up swinging through the jungle as the movie finally ends.P.S Check out actor Charles Stevens as bar owner Tony Gonzales who tipped off Linda to where her cheating husband Fred is. Stevens just happens to be the grandson of the famous and notorious Apache chief Gernoimo himself!

Killer Leopard (1954) ** (out of 4) The eleventh and next to last in the series has American actress Linda Winters (Beverly Garland) traveling to Africa to locate her husband who skipped town after embezzling some money. She can't make her way through the jungle so Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) agrees to help her but he also must fight a deadly leopard that has been chewing on the locals. I guess you have to give writer-director Ford Beebe a little credit since he was able to pump out two Bomba films a year but at the same time I do wonder if he actually re-wrote each screenplay or if he just had a format that he would slightly change. In this eleventh film we get the story of the husband who is running off. We then have Bomba and the actress following them. We then have a third party following them. Throughout the 71-minute running time we bounce back and forth between the three stories, which does very little except add boring dialogue as they talk about things "they're going to do" yet the series, probably due to its low budget, was nothing but talk and very little action. This film here is at least mildly entertaining thanks to Garland who manages to turn in a good performance and her tight bathing suit isn't another plus. The funny thing is that there's this strange flirting going on between her married character and Bomba, which was certainly a first in the series and these scenes are without question the best. Garland and Sheffield actually have some nice chemistry together. The biggest problem is that everything else is deadly boring and lacks any real energy or passion. The highlight of the film is one of the funniest moments I've seen from any non-comedy. For some reason Garland decides to go swimming in a river when Bomba jumps in. He notices that on one side of the river there are some crocodiles and on the other a tiger, which means they're trapped. Then, Bomba notices a water buffalo and just the way this scene is mixed in with the stock footage is hilarious. It's too bad rest of the film didn't contain this level of camp but KILLER LEOPARD is certainly going to be just for Garland fans.

The Killer Leopard is one of the later Bomba movies Johnny Sheffield appeared in. He was in his twenties when he starred in this.In this one he helps a movie star, played by Beverley Garland (It Conquered the World), to look for her husband in the jungle. He is on the run after committing several crimes in Britain. The search though is hampered by a rather unfriendly black leopard which seems to enjoy killing people. Bomba does kill it at the end though and the movie star successfully finds her husband, after some of his party are killed.I was lucky to obtain a copy of this movie as it is quite rare to get hold of, as are all of the Bomba movies.Watch this if you get the chance. I quite enjoyed it.Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.