Ep. 1: Curse of the Jackal

Matinee Idyll

New member
Well, I'm gettin' so freakin' into the Chronicles at the moment... just watched Petrograd July 1917 this evening. As powerful now as it was when I first saw it about 10 years ago. Honest to Christ, I can't understand the venom directed at this show. I don't think I'm blinded by childhood nostalgia, but a good 3/4 of the programs were moving or funny, exciting and interesting (the rest were quite awful). I think it's the last truly great thing George Lucas has been involved in.

Anywho, for those few of us who like the program, I thought this'd be a nice way to remember the episodes, in the order they originally aired. Post your comments, reviews, pictures, whatever - let's start with what was the first, and one of the best, The Curse of the Jackal!

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What a fantastic season opener it was. I remember when it first aired, I was only 7 or 8, and there was a thunderstorm, so the transmission kept dropping. Wonderfully introduces all the principal characters (always liked Ms. Seymour), the two different Young Indys, and wrap it all around tombs and revolutions and stolen Jackal headpieces and the like. Excitin' stuff!

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Wonderful scenes throughout - In the first half, the dinner scene on the ship with Indy describing with some glee the process of mummification is hilarious, the sequences within the tomb are mysterious and tense. T.E Lawrence is a wonderful 'action' mentor for Indy (just realised he's played by a different actor in Palestine, 1917), and it's a nice way for Mr. Lucas to pay some respect to the film by David Lean and its influence on Raiders.

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Sean Flannery takes over the role halfway through, plays it pretty darn well. Many exciting sequences, and fascinating issues about the nature of revolutions (does anyone actually win) (raised again later in Ireland), patriotism (Remy and Indy torn between two wars), capitalism, the class divide, etc. What other childrens program even attempts to touch on stuff like this? I think it's a testament to George Lucas, and I thank him for it.

I've always been tremendously moved by the sequence at Hearsts cinema - y'know the one? When the strings come in, Remy gets all thoughtful - then when Indys leaving the cinema, he picks up the photograph of the woman. I find it so poignant, that scene, and I can't explain why.

The fight with Dimitrius over the Jackal is thrilling, truly worthy of the film Indy.

And good old OLD INDY! Damn Mr. Hall ruled, beating up them punk kids - please reinstate him Mr. Lucas. He was so vital to the show. And stitch these two episodes back together again as they belong!

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Anyone?
 

Papa Jones

New member
Great season opener, I agree... though the "whip fight" with Demetrius was rather cheap compared to the movies... but it's my humble opinion. :hat:
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
Really? I thought it was a neat whip sequence... I don't really remember much whip fighting in the films either. A little bit in Temple of Doom where he whips the Thugees sword (and strangles the guy in the fan)... erm, some in the alleyway in Raiders... Is there any in Last Crusade?

I thought it was a really well choreographed fight with the hook in the oil can, the fire, falling into the trapdoor, the machine gun. Cool stuff.

Any how 'explosive' was the train sequence!
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Matinee Idyll said:
Is there any in Last Crusade?
Indy uses his whip only twice during the third movie. First he swings through the window in Castle Brunwald, then later saves Henry during the tank chase. No actual 'fighting' with it whatsoever.
 

Papa Jones

New member
Matinee Idyll said:
Really? I thought it was a neat whip sequence... I don't really remember much whip fighting in the films either. A little bit in Temple of Doom where he whips the Thugees sword (and strangles the guy in the fan)... erm, some in the alleyway in Raiders... Is there any in Last Crusade?

I thought it was a really well choreographed fight with the hook in the oil can, the fire, falling into the trapdoor, the machine gun. Cool stuff.

Any how 'explosive' was the train sequence!

Indy also uses his whip at the very beginning of "Raiders", and at the market place as you said, fighting the many peons.

But well, it ain't bad for a TV show
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
Heh, yeah - the 'whip around the waist and then spin out of it' is alittle silly. ;) But it's good silly - Indiana Jones silly.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Tongue in cheek, more like. But, Curse of the Jackal is the only episode I have which is completely unchanged with the Old Indy bookends. I should scan a copy of the comic of this episode for you. I recently got it at Supanova Comic Con a couple of months back. It's only the first part with kid Indy but it does have Old Indy as well.
 

Whipper

New member
Just before Indy attempts to use the whip, he actually pauses a moment to rub his chin scar from a few years back... :D

The music in the fight is terrific, too. The whole sequence with the torch dance and the spreading flames, followed by the wrestling match for the Jackal ("It belongs in a museum!") and crazy Demetrios in the ammo pit with the machine gun and Indy getting the hell out of there... It all looks great and the music really pumps it up. As it would throughout the series.

Heh -- I'll just chalk up the ineffective whip-around-the-waist move to Indy's inexperience. A couple of lucky strikes does not a whipmaster make. Likewise, putting up his dukes for a traditional boxing match only to get kicked in the balls. (Of course, by the time of Raiders, a wiser Indy would be the one pulling a trick like that. If he didn't have a gun to use.)

Y'know, after he heaved Demetrios into the ammo pit, it looked to me like Indy's intention was to then help him get out of there before the place blew up -- until Demetrios went for the machine gun instead of a helping hand. Good thing the first few bullets missed. I guess Indy was too astonished for a second there by the realization the guy was still trying to kill him.

Being a tri-athlete and into the martial arts, Sean Patrick Flannery was in great shape. This made him ideal for all the scrambling action stuff in the series.

And yes, I love the Old Indy bookends. It's not the Chronicles without them. They were so fun and so Important to the narrative structure, particularly in the early days. It allowed each episode to be interconnected but stand alone at the same time.

It was so cool when the kid respectfully asks, "Mister Jones? What happened to the Jackal?" and he simply points his cane past them to the display case behind them. Interesting that the Jackal lost an ear in the time between Indy's retrieving it and being placed in the museum. I guess that's another story.

I also like the cut to Old Indy outside the museum, where he tips his hat to a lady and then, seeing no one around, slides down the bannister. Still an adventurous kid at heart. :)

Trivia note: Sean rode the same black horse that Harrison rode in the Last Crusade. His name was Hurricane. I recall reading about a mishap during filming of the chase across the Mexican border. Flannery and Hurricane came too close to the camera car rolling in front of them. One of Hurricane's front hooves clipped the rear bumper, which sent the horse tumbling and rider flying, but they were uninjured.

Which reminds me of the music again -- this pilot episode was the only time we got to hear the extended main theme to Young Indy, during the horse chase and in the closing credits. It has an adventurous and romantic feel to it, following the Williams tradition established in the movies.

In full bombast, the main theme is slightly reminiscent of the Raiders march to me, but much younger-sounding somehow. Which reminds me that I'd really like to have my Young Indy Chronicles Soundtrack albums back. They're long gone, alas, so I'm probably just going to have to replace them the old fashioned way -- with money.

Oh, and I imagine most of you already know that Demetrios was played by Vic Tablian, who was also in Radiers Of The Lost Ark. He was the Monkey Man with the eyepatch.

So much other stuff to talk about just in this one episode, but I don't wanna get out of hand with the post length. And Matinee Idyll already covered the deeper themes. Thanks for starting up these episode threads!

I didn't even get around to mentioning the first half of the story. I like the Little Rascals-ish sequence that introduces us to the world of Li'l Indy. (If they broke up the episode, would that even be included?) Nice to see Indiana the Dog again, too. Great casting choice of Margaret Tyzack for Miss Seymour. Lloyd Owen does a good Sean Connery.

I really enjoyed having Rony Coutteure around. Remy was a fine sidekick and comic relief for Indy. (And a source of wisdom at times.) Their first meeting was hilarious, what with Remy's lousy Spanish. "Tie the kid up and shoot him." Hee.

"The minute I saw you, I knew you were a lucky kid." A good quote that would often prove out during the series.

And I loved the move of setting Indy's adventures against such a sweeping historical backdrop. I hit the history books a lot in this time, trying to see where Indy might wind up next. I'd look in the tv guide and see a name and go looking for information on that person and where they were and what they were doing in this period. It was really well-planned. In most cases, it really doesn't require much of a stretch for Indy to have crossed paths with the people he did.

And such dynamic real people obviously lend themselves to the creation of dynamic characters in an hourly television series. I appreciated that some of them were recurring, too, like TE Lawrence and Picasso.
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
It still strikes me how much more the Mexico sequence uses native languages and subtitles than the rest of the episodes. For the most part, the episodes are nearly completely conducted in English. I quite prefer the Mexico episodes approach - adds to the authenticity (though it would have been hell for Sean to learn the languages for every country Indy visits).

And I found the 'joining' sequence for Princeton/Mexico - acting, wigs, etc just terrible. Including the fact that it contradicts Indys letter writing later ("I'm sure you would approve...") in the scene before Patton shows up. Just lazy.
 
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Bump! Got Vol I DVDs!

Curse of the Jackal was better then I thought it would be, (always bracing for the worst with all the bashing). Having seen "The Old Indy Chronicles" I am sorry they are not included in some type of "Broadcast Cut".

My kids were perplexed at the abrupt "ending" but I piqued their interest by mentioning Indy and The Jackal cross paths in a few years.

The Tangiers half was remarkably tense, and though Carrier's "jump" in age was distracting, I liked PotC's "Mr Gibbs".

Has anyone mentioned a possible connection between the episode's Omar and the mention of Omar's Garage in Raiders? The search function wasn't bringing up anything on Tangiers...

The thought of Indy experiencing a slave auction is pretty remarkable. I was pretty shocked at the rawness of the scene where the kidnapped children were...well being diciplined.

While not flawless, I'm looking forward to the next disk!
 

T.E.Lawrence

New member
Matinee Idyll said:
-snip-
What a fantastic season opener it was. I remember when it first aired, I was only 7 or 8, and there was a thunderstorm, so the transmission kept dropping.

-snip-

This is amazing comment. On the Beowulf DVD set of Young Indy - the exact thing is happening during Curse of the Jackal. The picture comes and goes in a split second every few minutes like there are some bad conditioins during reception...It seems that the person who was recording the show was also somewhere in the area of thunderstorm :)

Wow :)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Has anyone mentioned a possible connection between the episode's Omar and the mention of Omar's Garage in Raiders? The search function wasn't bringing up anything on Tangiers...
I had also thought of this. Until proven otherwise, in my personal IndyWorld, it's the same guy...:p
T.E.Lawrence said:
This is amazing comment. On the Beowulf DVD set of Young Indy - the exact thing is happening during Curse of the Jackal. The picture comes and goes in a split second every few minutes like there are some bad conditioins during reception...It seems that the person who was recording the show was also somewhere in the area of thunderstorm .:)
Ha ha. Also...anyone in the northeastern U.S. or eastern Canada remembers the HUGE snowstorm on the night when "Mystery of the Blues" aired. The storm-warnings were all over the ABC broadcast!:(

Anyway, I just listened to the latest IndyCast (#93) and heard that it was Laird's idea to use the Tanis diggers' song in "Curse of the Jackal"! How cool is that?!?:cool:
 

AnnieJones

New member
Whipper said:
Just before Indy attempts to use the whip, he actually pauses a moment to rub his chin scar from a few years back... :D
Yes,I agree.I love that scene!(y)

Whipper said:
The music in the fight is terrific, too. The whole sequence with the torch dance and the spreading flames, followed by the wrestling match for the Jackal ("It belongs in a museum!") and crazy Demetrios in the ammo pit with the machine gun and Indy getting the hell out of there... It all looks great and the music really pumps it up. As it would throughout the series.
I agree with this also.The way the music was done in the series,it added a nice touch.

Whipper said:
And yes, I love the Old Indy bookends. It's not the Chronicles without them. They were so fun and so Important to the narrative structure, particularly in the early days. It allowed each episode to be interconnected but stand alone at the same time.
I totally agree with you.(y)I think the only thing I didn't like about the Curse of the Jackal old Indy bookends was the acting of the boys in the museum,but George Hall as old Indy did a great job.

Whipper said:
Trivia note: Sean rode the same black horse that Harrison rode in the Last Crusade. His name was Hurricane. I recall reading about a mishap during filming of the chase across the Mexican border. Flannery and Hurricane came too close to the camera car rolling in front of them. One of Hurricane's front hooves clipped the rear bumper, which sent the horse tumbling and rider flying, but they were uninjured.
Didn't know this,glad you posted it.(y)

Whipper said:
Oh, and I imagine most of you already know that Demetrios was played by Vic Tablian, who was also in Radiers Of The Lost Ark. He was the Monkey Man with the eyepatch.
Didn't know this either.Again,glad you posted it.(y)

Stoo said:
Anyway, I just listened to the latest IndyCast (#93) and heard that it was Laird's idea to use the Tanis diggers' song in "Curse of the Jackal"! How cool is that?!?:cool:
Thank you Laird!(y)




Also,I wanted to point out that in the scene where Ned catches Demetrios,Indy says "You've got him!" Only this boy doesn't 100% look like Cory Carrier and this boy has what sounds a little bit like an English accent.Is it possible that they had to use someone else because Cory Carrier was doing school or because Cory Carrier put his full work day in already(because of the child labor laws and everything)?
 
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About the different actor for Indy in the last scene - thats a result of that little bit being filmed years later for inclusion in the movie versions of the story, the original ended with Ned cycling off after saying a heartfelt goodbye to Indy. That little scene (which really makes little sense, I mean If he'd hidden it surely there was some way of finding out where, they could have had him arrested etc) Was actually filmed during the making of Phantom Menace if I'm not mistaken.

I'm not, am I Stoo?
 

AnnieJones

New member
Stoo said:
I just listened to the latest IndyCast (#93) and heard that it was Laird's idea to use the Tanis diggers' song in "Curse of the Jackal"! How cool is that?!?:cool:
Maybe Laird knows what their saying! Hey Laird,do you know what they are saying translated into English? If so could you please tell us?
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
Stoo said:
I had also thought of this. Until proven otherwise, in my personal IndyWorld, it's the same guy...:p
Ha ha. Also...anyone in the northeastern U.S. or eastern Canada remembers the HUGE snowstorm on the night when "Mystery of the Blues" aired. The storm-warnings were all over the ABC broadcast!:(

Anyway, I just listened to the latest IndyCast (#93) and heard that it was Laird's idea to use the Tanis diggers' song in "Curse of the Jackal"! How cool is that?!?:cool:

what mention of "Omar's garage" in Raiders? Its my favorite movie and I have seen it so many times and I do not remember this, can you fill me in.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
AnnieJones said:
Also,I wanted to point out that in the scene where Ned catches Demetrios,Indy says "You've got him!" Only this boy doesn't 100% look like Cory Carrier and this boy has what sounds a little bit like an English accent.Is it possible that they had to use someone else because Cory Carrier was doing school or because Cory Carrier put his full work day in already(because of the child labor laws and everything)?
Good eye, Annie!(y) Well spotted. I certainly never noticed that! I zoomed in x4 on my TV and it's definitely not Corey nor is it Margaret Tyzack as Ms. Seymour. (A stand-in was probably used for Pierre, the photographer, as well but it's hard to say with the glasses and beard.) Well done, Annie. Now we can add this unknown kid to the list of people who've portrayed Indy on film.:)
Jeremiah Jones said:
About the different actor for Indy in the last scene - thats a result of that little bit being filmed years later for inclusion in the movie versions of the story, the original ended with Ned cycling off after saying a heartfelt goodbye to Indy. That little scene (which really makes little sense, I mean If he'd hidden it surely there was some way of finding out where, they could have had him arrested etc) Was actually filmed during the making of Phantom Menace if I'm not mistaken.

I'm not, am I Stoo?
Hey, Jeremiah. Yes, the scene was one of the many which were filmed years later and I believe your are correct about this one being at the same time/location as "Phantom Menace". One of the reasons I musn't have noticed the non-Carrier kid is my dislike for the new ending and never paying it much attention. In my books, Annie has made a pretty significant discovery.
dr.jones1986 said:
what mention of "Omar's garage" in Raiders? Its my favorite movie and I have seen it so many times and I do not remember this, can you fill me in.
Just before Indy says, "I don't know, I'm making this up a I go", one of his instructions to Sallah is, "Meet me at Omar's". Later, when the truck reaches its hiding place, above the garage door it reads Omar's Garage.;) Could the character from Tangiers be the same person? Who knows but since we dont' know what the 1936 Omar looks like, anything is possible...

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Sven

New member
Well, actually I'm watching all the DVDs with my wife (I already told you about my surprise that she likes it very much) and even I'm not through the episodes yet I want to comment the finished ones with some thoughts and notices using these old threads here. Okay, "Curse Of The Jackal/Tangiers" first!

I didn't see the show for years and it was the first time that I saw the pilot with the new connection to the Tangiers episode. Even the combination was not too bad I ever would prefer the classic Egypt/Mexico Cut.

First new cognition for me: Corey Carrier wasn't that annoying kid I had in my memories. Okay, he wasn't a professional actor but the scene with his explanations about mummification was weird and funny. And I love Henry Sr.'s phlegm. Still eating while listening to all that disgusting stuff - true proponent of the Stoa philosophy, huh? (y)

But I never will understand the new link between the episodes. The fight between Ned and Demetrios doesn't make any sense. Why they didn't keep the end like it was before? They missed the ship with the Greek? But I think for that scene some close-ups would have been needed and cause they couldn't shot them they took that stupid rumble with some stand-ins. But it is still a terrible solution.

The "Tangiers" episode (I never saw it before) was nice even it was so obvious that CC was some years older. Cause some thought about "Omar's garage" in RotlA": Huh, long way from Morocco to Egypt... ;)

The Old Indy Bookends are badly missed cause of the Jackal's fate. But I gladly could abandon the "Baby Jones" scenes... :sleep:
 
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