Blonde Savage (1947) User Reviews

Fast moving entertainment movie

[Panamint · 5/10 · 3 September 2015]

This film was made for entertainment purposes only and what's wrong with that? Its OK to be entertained and that is what "Blonde Savage" does.

It starts out as a good macho jungle adventure as two soldier-of-fortune pilots get embroiled with a millionaire, his sexy wife (and I mean Veda Ann Borg is all woman and is terrific in her role) and a good adventure plot. The well-made macho adventure revs up and I was really into it.

Then, all of a sudden a blonde teenage chick is thrust into the film and it totally changes. I knew to expect her (the blonde savage) but it was such a sudden jolt that I had to laugh as I was taken aback- its a different movie now! I immediately wondered "where did she get that perfect Max Factor makeup out there in the jungle?" This girl is literally a teenager (about 18 yr old), and towering 35-ish tough guy Leif Erickson is going around the jungle with her. Gale Sherwood is really beautiful, lively and in no way slows down the film, and her singing voice is terrific too. Yes, the savage sings!

So view this fun film if you get a chance and just go with it, including the sudden jolt when the incongruous Savage appears.

Veda Ann Borg will impress you and she is memorable as she plots, connives and flirts. And then the blonde goddess shows up, invigorating this film up into goofy fun status for me.

Not good...but not terrible either.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 18 January 2019]

"Blonde Savage" is not a great film. It's cheap, features lots of crappy stock footage and features a silly heroine....but despite all this, it's still pretty watchable.

The story begins with Steve (Leif Erickson) talking to a police official--telling him he must kill Mark Harper (Douglass Dumbrille) and why. The story then goes back in time and you see Steve and his friend, Hoppy (Frank Jenks), on a mission flying a plane over the African jungle. They end up crashing and are found by a tribe of nice natives. But, inexplicably among them is a white lady....a lady raised by these people. What makes this MORE amazing is that she has gorgeous permed hair, perfect makeup and no bone through her nose like the rest of them! Soon, Steve and Hoppy make friends with them....and Steve becomes VERY friendly with the shapely 'Blonde Savage'. Then, they realize that the lady was there because their boss is evil and he murdered her parents and stranded her here as a baby. How can they prove this and bring justice to the evil boss?

The two dumbest things about the film were the footage (very common at the time, unfortunately) and the stupidly coiffed lady. Apart from that, the story was interesting and Erickson and Jenks were awfully good....and the story, though dumb, is enjoyable in a low-brow sort of way.

Fun poverty row nonsense with a Jungle Babe who has the black natives under her white power.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 April 2014]

In a performance consisting mostly of grunts and one word sentences, blonde bombshell Gale Sherwood finds her Jungle hunk when diamond hunter Leif Erickson (no relation to the famous explorer) locates her after his plane crashes in the middle of her kingdom. He learns that his ruthless employer (Douglas Dumbrille) killed her American parents in front of her when she was a child, leaving her in the jungle to be raised by the natives. Erickson fights to have Dumbrille charged for the ancient crime, and gets help from Dumbrille's floozy wife (Veda Ann Borg) who is obviously in lust with Erickson.

This leads to the potential of cat-fights between Borg and Sherwood and lots of acting in getting the guilty party the justice he deserves. Silly, melodramatic and cheaply made, this is still an enjoyable campy experience, perfect for 1940's Saturday matinée audiences needing an escape after the end of the war, and today, it is still good for a few laughs. Borg gets the best lines, Dumbrille is as sinister as ever, and Frank Jenks provides some corny comedy.

Survival in the wilderness.

[michaelRokeefe · 4/10 · 25 March 2008]

Low budget jungle adventure. A brief 62 minute escape and quite predictable. Leif Erickson and his transport co-pilot buddy Frank Jenks crash land in the jungle in hopes of surveying a diamond mine. While working for the mine owner Douglass Dumbrille, the two fliers encounter a savage jungle tribe. To their astonishment a blonde white woman (Gale Sherwood)rules as a goddess being raised since infancy by the tribe. It turns out that the "blonde savage" is the daughter of the mine owner's murdered partner. So it is destination stateside to see if justice prevails; or will someone get away with murder. Other players: John Dehner, James Logan, Ernest Whitman and the alluring Veda Ann Borg.

Keep your mouth shut or I'll close it for you!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 10 January 2010]

(Some Spoilers) Hokey but watchable Trazan-like jungle movie with the very sexy and beautiful Gale Shergood, who was only 18 at the time, playing the blond jungle princess Meelah. Meelah's life was saved while she was just an infant by native chieftain Tonga played by the very talented black actor Ernest Whitman. It's Whitman who shocked audiences, as well as the star of the movie Ray Milland, two years earlier in playing the part of the hopelessly alcoholic black man who talked to himself, in the unforgettable Bellevue Hospital drunk-tank ward scene, in the 1945 Academy Award winning film "The Lost Weekend".

The man who murdered Meelah's parents Bob & Mary Comstock, John Dehnen & Cay Forrester, Mark Harper, Douglas Dumbrille, had taken over the diamond mine that he was a partner with the Comstocks. Harper is still worried that if their bodies are ever found with his and his #1 henchman Berger, Matt Willis, .38 slugs in them he'd be arrested and tried for their murders! The problem for Harper is that Tonga and his native warriors buried the Comstock's bodies deep in the African jungle where he'll have a hard, if not impossible, time to find them.

This brings the hero of the movie freelance pilot Steve Blake, Leif Ericson, onto the picture together with his wisecracking sidekick Happy Owens, Frank Jenks. The two who were hired by Harper to fly out in the uncharted Kawali Range in deepest and darkest Africa and find, without them really knowing it, the burial place where the Comestocks are. It's then that Harper would have his goons sent there and destroy the evidence, the Comstock's bodies, of him having murdered them. Crash landing in the jungle both Steve & Happy are captured by Tonga's natives who after showing them that he and Happy are really the good guys, not Harper's goons, in the movie end up winning him and his men over. It was Harper who was at war with Tonga for the last twenty years in him trying to find the Comstock's bodies that would in fact prove that he not Tonga's warriors murdered the couple!

It's when Steve gets to see Meelah, and she him, sparks starts to fly and it's love at first sight. Not only is Meelah a knockout of a babe but is the only living witness, at age one, to identify Harper and Berger as her parents murderers! It's then that Steve becomes determined to get Meelah, as well as have the exhumed Comstock's bodies, back to civilization and, by Meelah implicating and testifying against him, have Harper brought to Justice! That's if Harper with his life hanging in the balance just sits back and allows Steve to do that!

Besides the very sexy teenage Gale Sherwood as Meelah there's also the very voluptuous looking 32 year old Veda Ann Borg in the movie as both Harper's wife and Steve's ex-girlfriend Connie Harper. Connie is bored to tears living in the jungle away from the glitz and party life, in New York Paris and London, that she's been used to and wants Steve to take her with him when he checks out, after taking care of business, of the "Dark Continent". This leads to a conflict between not just Connie and her abusive husband Mark but Meelah as well over Steve's, how lucky can the guy get, affections.

***SPOILERS*** In the end things work out just right, Hollywood style, for everyone involved with the best thing to happen is that Harper ends up getting all that's coming to him not from Steve, who planned to do the job himself, but from the long arm of the law that he was attempting to escape from.

Contrived Africa on a Hollywood Set

[zardoz-13 · 21 July 2011]

This dull, low-budget, black & white Poverty Row potboiler set in untamed Hollywood studio replicas of the Dark Continent pits a happy-go-lucky aviator against a murderous millionaire diamond mine owner. The contrived and predictable plot concerns a double-murder in the past and the sensational subject matter of a white woman who serves as a princess for an African tribe. You know that you are in trouble when the footage of a water buffalo tangling with a python wrapped around its neck is more exciting than any of the shenanigans in the story. The performances are pretty solid with Leif Erickson relishing the role of the hero while dismissing the idea that he could be a hero. Douglass Dumbrille makes a first-rate villain, and his crisp dialogue delivery and body language make him appear quite sinister.

Penniless pilot Steve Blake (Leif Erickson of "Invaders from Mars") and his co-pilot Hoppy Owens (Frank Jenks of "Christmas in Connecticut") hear about a flying job that pays $25-hundred dollars. Mine owner Mark Harper (Douglass Dumbrille of "World for Ransom") hires them to find a village and a tribe that has been a thorn in his side. Blake smells something fishy in Harper's request. Harper explained that he doesn't want to start a war with the local tribes. Instead, he wants to make peace with them. Nevertheless, Blake suspects Harper's motives particularly because a man of Harper's prominence could whistle up government troops.

When Blake and Hoppy arrive at Harper's house, they notice that armed guards patrol the estate. No sooner has the red-blooded Blake shown up than he encounters an old flame, Connie (Veda Ann Borg of "Mildred Pierce") that once he ran around with five years ago. Connie is married now to Mark Harper. She hates her new life, cooped up in an estate in the middle of nowhere with nowhere for her to go and spend money. Harper is a jealous man and he doesn't trust Connie. Our heroes fly out the next morning, but they develop engine trouble and have to set down. No sooner are they back on the ground than they are surrounded by spear wielding warriors with bones in their noses and suspicion in their eyes. The biggest surprise in store for our heroes in the blonde goddess named Meelah who leads the small native tribe. Gale Sherwood plays the eponymous heroine. She was saved from murderous whites by a tribesman. Since her rescue, she has grown up in the jungle, somewhat like Tarzan. During the three weeks that Blake and Hoppy spend with Meelah, Blake teaches Meelah and Tonga (Ernest Whitman of "Congo Maisie") some rudimentary English, enough to facilitate interpersonal communication.

Eventually, Tonga and Meelah show Blake a locket with Meelah's deceased mother and father and a diary that contains background information about the Comstock family. Joe Comstock (John Dehner of "The Left Handed Gun") owned the mine and needed an engineer. He hired Harper and Harper hired Berger (Matt Willis of "The Mysterious Doctor") as his right-hand man. Comstock, his wife Mary (Cay Forrester of "Queen of the Amazons"), and their young daughter were camping out in the wild on an expedition to the mine. Harper orders Berger to kill both parents in cold blood. When Blake and Hoppy return three weeks later, Harper is doubly suspicious. Indeed, he gets the drop of Blake when Meelah breaks into Harper's house. Meelah jealously tries to stab Connie. Blake helps Meelah escape by disarming one of Harper's guards. Harper surprises them and disarms Blake. Harper has Berger give Blake and a thorough beating with the fists to persuade him to reveal the whereabouts of the native village. Hoppy cannot stand to watch as Blake is pummeled by the sadistic Berger. Hoppy points out on the map where the village is located. Harper turns our heroes over to one of his trusted guards, Stony (Art Foster of "The Verdict"), and they lock them up in a jail cell underneath Harper's house. Harper and Berger launch an expedition to attack Meelah's village. Meanwhile, Connie and Harper has patched up their relationship. Nevertheless, Connie decides to help Blake escape. She slips them a knife and shoves Stone against the jail bars. Our heroes escape, crank up the plane and fly out to warn Meelah. Initially, Meelah wants nothing to do with Blake after she catches lover boy in Connie's arms.

Paul Bache penned the original story and screenplay and must have been inspired by the legendary Edgar Rice Burroughs character Tarzan because the heroine and her parents strive to survive in the jungle. "Revenge of the Zombies" director Steve Seeley depicts the confrontational elements of the story in flashbacks among scenes set in a barrister's office. This is about as sophisticated as this lackluster yarn gets and feminist scholars will come away with nothing worthy of documentation from this harmless little frolic. The barrister's office is across the street from the police station. Blake rushes in at lunch and confronts the barrister and tells his tale of woe. He claims that he is ready to kill Harper if Harper is turned loose. The Alpha DVD is pretty rugged, with excerpts from dialogue missing.

Veda Ann gets any film an extra star

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 3 October 2014]

I've often wondered when in old Hollywood jungle pictures were made what they used for language. The major studios might have actually tried to use real African languages. For an outfit like PRC I'm sure no such care was taken.

Gale Sherwood's lovely soprano was used in Blonde Savage for some kind of tribal ceremony. She's the white girl princess taken in by a native pride who witnessed her parents being murdered.

Now that same murderer Douglass Dumbrille has hired Leif Erickson and Frank Jenks to the location of a native village that has been giving his diamond mine workers problems. Of course we know his ulterior motives.

Some stock jungle footage is used. But it's a backlot product and everybody knows it. The white princess among the natives is also getting old as plot gimmick. Maybe she should have met Mr.&Mrs. Tarzan and started making a play for Boy.

I'll bet Gale Sherwood was promised a musical if she did this one. As always Veda Ann Borg as Dumbrille's wife always is good.

She got this film an extra star from me.

The Water Buffalo Is The Mortal Enemy Of the Rubber Snake

[boblipton · 3/10 · 20 August 2021]

Leif Erickson is a pilot in Africa and Frank Jens is his comic sidekick, unless you actually insist on something funny. They crash-land in the jungle, right by a village of savages, ruled by very blonde. Gale Sherwood.

Director Steve Sekely directed this under an assumed name. There are some talented performers, including Veda Ann Borg, Douglas Dumbrille and John Dehner. There is also footage of a water buffalo in life-and-death struggle with a rubber snake.

But Bob, you say. You always find some good point about the worst movie, even the dreckiest PRC release. Well, those are the good points.

Jungle action adventure, old school

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 8 March 2008]

Funny opening sequence: Steve Blake (Leif Erickson) enters the office of a lawyer and says: "You may have to defend me in a murder case." - "Have you killed someone?" asks the lawyer. - "Not yet!" replies Blake, and begins to explain what made him consider that final option. "Blonde Savage" is a B movie about yet another girl lost in the wilderness, but in true "Sheena" style became a goddess to the natives. One little difference between other movies and this one is that Blake tells almost the whole story as a flashback, thus providing the opportunity to give ironic comment on everything. Gale Sherwood plays Meelah, the jungle girl Blake refers to as "that blonde package of TNT". Maybe even better is the role of Veda Ann Borg as Connie Harper, the villain's wife who has a difficult decision to make: shall she keep her mouth shut and stick with her husband, or would it be better to leave him and tell the truth? Well, "Blonde Savage" is good old action adventure cinema of the kind they don't make anymore, maybe not very original but definitely enjoyable.

harmless and amusing late night fare

[winner55 · 7/10 · 15 April 2009]

Low budget, formulaic - and lots of fun, especially for the 'camp' fans. Unlike a lot of 'camp' film 'classics,' there's nothing offensive about this one, which may explain its low rating, as camp fans sometimes demand the tasteless and forget what entertainment used to be about.

It's not stupid, its just a light working class Tarzan-type pic with humor, '40s style knockabout action, a good guy finding redemption in the arms of a beautiful and innocent young woman, a nasty villain, and babes. The 'natives' are not treated with any racist derision, by the way, which makes the whole outing harmless fun 'for the whole family.' Defintitely the type of film you would like to see on late night TV just before hitting the sack.

Fun

[fred3f · 7/10 · 19 January 2005]

Well, it isn't Citizen Kane, but it is a fun B picture. Don't expect anything original here, but if you want a fun, relaxing evening without many demands on your gray matter this is a great film to watch. The girls are cute the guys are strong and manly, and the chemistry is there. This is essentially a film about basic emotions and urges. Strong, handsome guy meets lovely, active girl who needs help, He responds with manly vigor. She responds with feminine charm and attraction. Attraction is mutual and he does the right thing, winning the girl and the prize. It is all an old, old story but one we seem to enjoy, because it forms the basis of most films. The thing that makes this enjoyable is that the urges ring true on the screen, You like the characters and you want it all to happen, but there are just enough thrills to keep you interested and wondering if it will come out the way you hope. Taken for what it is, this film is very good. So get out the chips or whatever else it is that you like to munch, get comfy on the couch and enjoy.

Gale Sherwood invades Tarzan territory.

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 19 December 2017]

On a very good St Clair Vision DVD, comes Blonde Savage (1947). in which the most beautiful opera singer in the world, namely Gale Sherwood (who needless to say never had a decent singing part in any of the eight films she made in Hollywood - except maybe her first, way back in 1939), is cast in the title role!

The rest of the players, with the exceptions, of course, of villainous Douglass Dumbrille and super siren, Veda Ann Borg, are a write-off, most particularly Frank Jenks as the hero's platitudinous buddy.

At least director Steve Sekely manages to keep the movie really moving for its welcome but brief 59 minutes, despite persistent attempts at sabotage from Mr Jenks.

William Sickner's unexpectedly glossy photography also rates top marks.