“Bowanga Bowanga White Sirens of Africa! 1000 adventures! 10,000 dangers! Scenes never before shown… never can be made again… most amazing jungle film story ever filmed!”
Kirby (Morton C. Thompson) and Count Sparafucile (Don Orlando), yes that is his name, are big game hunters on an expedition through tropical stock footage. Also walking around the jungle is a jungle girl and her gorilla boyfriend. They leave and never show up again. Also in the film are naked jungle people and a whole bunch of leopards, monkeys and orangutans. While they are taking a break a man stumbles out of the thicket and falls to the ground. One of the native bearers says he is Trent (Lewis Wilson). Trent starts babbling “Ulama, Ulama, White Sirens of Africa.” Then he passes out again.
Once Trent comes around and has rested his friends want to know what happened to him. In flashback, Trent tells the others a story that started when he was a kid and he saw a woman in the jungle that was called an Ulama. She came from a tribe of white Amazon type women. The Ulama killed his father.
On this last expedition Trent once again runs across the Ulama. This time he was the one they were trying to kill. He managed to get away, just barely. Now he plans on another expedition to find these jungle women again. Kirby and Count Sparafucile decide to go along.
They trek through some more stock footage of wonderful jungle creatures, elephants, hippos, deer, stuffed owls, the dog, the house, the moose. The moose? I’ve lived in Vermont for ten years now, never once saw a moose. Apparently they are all in Africa.
They eventually manage to get to the plateau where the Ulama live. They are then immediately captured by the Ulama, a vicious group of jungle maidens in animal print bathing suits. The Queen (Dana Wilson) is currently without a husband and decides she will marry the strongest of the three. The other two will be given to the fire god which appears to be a crack in the rocks with smoke coming out of it.
“Bowanga Bowanga: White Sirens of Africa” was a re-release in 1954 and was directed by Norman Dawn. Supposedly it was originally released in 1951 as “Wild Women”. Another story says that “Wild Women” was a black and white movie released in 1941. It was so bad it was re-released in 1951 as the re-titled “Bowanga Bowanga: White Sirens of Africa”. A third says that there was a TV version that was released as “Untamed Women”. No matter when it was released or what title it was released under, it still sucks. As for the name Bowanga, I have no idea what it means or where it came from.
The only stars of the movie are Dana Wilson and Lewis Wilson. They were married at the time the movie was made. Her claim to fame was eventually marrying film producer Albert R. Broccoli after her divorce with co-star Wilson. Broccoli put her in “Thunderball” 1965 and “Moonraker” 1979 as an extra. Wilson had been the first Batman on screen. He was in the 1943 “Batman” serial.
As for the movie itself, it appears to be another cut and paste similar to “Queen of the Amazons” 1946. The entire flashback scene is from an old silent jungle movie. The remaining stock footage, and there was plenty, is from other jungle movies and adventure movies and at least one wilderness movie, hence the moose.
The absolute highlight of the film is said moose. Well, there is one white woman boob shot very late in the movie if you want to look for it. Otherwise it’s pretty much crap, cheezy crap, but still crap.