Nabonga (1944)

By CinemaSerf

This film has quite a sincere underlying message - conveying a remarkably (for the time) enlightened mid-WWII message on racial equality. It is just let down by the poor execution - not least from a dreadfully flat Buster Crabbe as "Ray" and the man in gorilla suit. When an hunter attempts to track down a case of jewels that were on a downed aircraft many years earlier over the dense African jungle, he discovers that they are now in the possession of Julie London - "Doreen" (aka "White Witch"), who is the daughter of the long dead thief. She's none to keen on surrendering her jewels and as he begins to fall for her, his friend Barton MacLane ("Carl) appears on the scene intent on securing the treasure for himself and the two men clash. It's odd to see Crabbe in a role where he isn't whiter than white, and for a while the story is quite engaging but all too quickly the effects of the sound-stage cheese plants and ropey lighting alongside a really prosaic script just draw more attention to "Crash" Corrigan - and his costume; never a good thing. It's not awful, and it's quite decently paced, but all just too predictably mundane to be memorable.