Bomba the jungle boy was played by Johnny Sheffield in a number of films over a period of 7 to 8 years although the only one I saw as a youngster at the cinema was Bomba and The Hidden City. One thing about the film channels on satellite Television is that they have uncovered and shown films of that era that otherwise would not have seen the light of day – and  Bomba  and The Golden Idol was a classic case.

It is action packed with a lot of swimming which you would expect, a good villain and a lovely leading lady not to mention the animals and the ‘jungle’ settings which were as we know parks in California – mainly Los Angeles area.

The villain in this film was played by Paul Guilfoyle who had appeared – also as the baddie no doubt – in the other film I mentioned earlier Bomba and The Hidden City – and then after these two Bomba films, he must have taken a liking to the jungle atmosphere because he was in the Jungle Jim TV series.

Ford Beebe wrote, produced and directed this one – and to be fair did a good job.  He in fact did all the Bomba films and really ended his career with them virtually. He was a vastly experienced film man who knew all about most aspects of filming and as Johnny Sheffield remembered, he could shoot the film and almost edit it in his head as he went along knowing exactly what he wanted to be on the screen. That must have been a very efficient way of film making – and from what I have seen an effective way too.