NABONGA (1944)

 This is the second one of these female Tarzan-type flicks that I've watched recently(the first one being SAVAGE GIRL)  and the main thing that sticks out to me is that back in the 30s and 40s no one could figure out how to make a female character, even ones that were raised by wild animals in the hostile jungles of Africa, tough at all. In this one our Tarzan lady(called "The White Witch" by the spooked natives) does have a dad for a while when she's a little kid but then he disappears and she's raised and protected by a big badass gorilla with a spiky punk-rock hair-do named Samson. Why they gave this guy in a gorilla suit spiked hair I'm not sure but I like it and I suppose it does make him stand out from the other standard apes running around. Everything's going fine with some gorilla fights and monkey hijinks until Buster Crabbe(who played Flash Gordon a bunch and also played Tarzan himself at least once back in the 30s) and a couple of crooks come along looking for some lost treasure that Lady Tarzan's(who actually just has the dull name of Doreen) daddy may have swiped. Doreen does get the hots for ol' Buster(mainly because he's the only white man she's seen since her pops and I guess that's her preference) and I suppose it's a happy ending. Things don't work out so swell for Sampson though. R.I.P. punk-rock King Kong. :(  AKA THE JUNGLE WOMAN