I was just commenting to my buddy Jordan from the B-Movie Film Vault last night about how one quality actor can take a crappy movie and turn it into a gem. How brightly that gem shines depends on the actor and how decent of a story he or she actually has to work with. In this case, Buster Crabbe took what would have been an extremely slow paced and boring movie, and saved it from becoming just another forgotten turd in the dung pile of film history.
Nabonga starts out with a man named T.F. Stockwell and his ten year old daughter Doreen flying in a plane over Africa during a horrible storm. The plane is forced to make a crash landing in the jungle, and that's where we discover that he's carrying a box full of stolen money, jewels and stock certificates that he had embezzled from his own company. When the pilot discovers what Stockwell has in the box, Stockwell kills him and then proceeds to head off into the jungle looking for his daughter who had wandered off.
His daughter had found a gorilla laying on the ground that had been wounded by some hunters. She begged her father not to kill it, and rather than killing it, we find out later that they nursed it back to health and then Stockwell taught it to protect them by killing anyone who got near them or the money.
Years passed, and Ray, the son of Stockwell's business partner, came looking for the money so he could return it to it's rightful owners. Ray's father had committed suicide after he was wrongfully accused of taking part in the embezzlement scandal, and Ray desperately wanted to clear his name. To that end, he came to Africa looking for the stolen money, and after being told about the white witch and the house with wings that fell from the sky, Ray got one of the locals to lead him to it, believing that the white witch was in fact Stockwell's daughter Doreen, and that by finding her, he would also find out what happened to the money.
Unfortunately, that little French tramp Marie overheard them talking about things, and ran to her greedy and unscrupulous boyfriend Carl and told him all about it. Now Carl and Marie were after the money too, and it was a race to see who would get there first. What no one counted on however, was that Doreen would have a protector that was capable of literally tearing a man limb from limb, and had no problems with doing just that to anyone who got too close to her. It was just lucky for Ray that Doreen liked him and kept the beast from killing him. Otherwise, he'd have been in some serious trouble.
When I said that one great actor can save an otherwise crappy or boring movie, I was in fact talking about Buster Crabbe. Although he probably wasn't appreciated as much as he should have been back in the day, Buster Crabbe played some of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, including Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and more. He played the handsome and daring leading man well, and no matter how good or bad a movie is, if he's in it, the whole entertainment experience always steps up a notch or two.
While not a bad movie at all, the pacing in this one is what kept it from being overly exciting. Scene after scene of stock footage and of people plodding aimlessly through the jungle really slowed things down and dragged the movie out to a considerable degree. Were it to be compressed down into a well paced feature, this 75 minute film would have likely been no more than 45 or 50 minutes long at best. You'll notice I wasn't able to be overly funny with the character descriptions and I don't have many screenshots. That's because the movie was so slow and the characters and general action so plain that I found it hard to find much to goof on.
I won't say this movie was boring, because it wasn't. There were plenty of opportunities to see Buster Crabbe in action; wrestling in the water with crocodiles, fighting off armed men, and facing up to a gorilla that could have killed him without even breaking a sweat. What I would have liked to have seen though was more interaction between him and Doreen. Their contact seemed overly limited, and with her inability to grasp what he was trying to explain to her about the money being stolen and what not, their conversations usually ended with her getting frustrated and walking away. Even when she saw Ray and Carl fighting, she didn't show much emotion at all and didn't do anything to get involved. Basically she came off as just some hot girl to look at. Not that that's a bad thing, but a good writer could have written her part so much better and made the movie a far more entertaining experience.
If you're a fan of Buster Crabbe or you just like to watch old jungle pictures, then you're going to enjoy this film. It's not even close to being in the same league with Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or Tarzan, but for some Saturday afternoon fun, I think you'll find it quite enjoyable.
Oh, and just as a little end note. I don't know where the name Nabonga came from. I assumed before watching the film that it was the gorilla's name, but it wasn't, so I'm not sure how the title relates to the film. One of life's little mysteries I guess.