Favorite Young Indy Movie

Hmmm... I'm struggling between Mystery of the Blues and Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. I would probably just have to tie them. I admit, I haven't seen that many of them (probably more than the average American, though), but of what I have seen, I just LIKE Blues, and I also really like the music... and TotPE feels most like Indy. Blues also has the great bookends. Again, I'll probably just have to tie them. These are my favorites, though.
 

Whipper

New member
Phantom Train Of Doom ("Are you making this up as you go?")
Attack Of The Hawkmen ("Full throttle, no brakes")

Those two have bigscreen movie-style action to spare, but then there's Scandal Of 1920, which is just hilarious start to finish, with Indy carrying on a romance with 3 women at the same time while working a summer job on a struggling Broadway show that's trying to make it to opening night. Good romantic comedy set against the backdrop of NYC and Broadway ("...when Broadway was really Broadway!" as Old Indy put it.) with lots of terrific Gershwin music and other jazz and Broadway greats.

My favorite lies somewhere in between these three.

Most of the other "movies" are better in their original, standalone episodic format. In the first home video release, they divvied up and mashed a lot of episodes together to become "movies" they weren't Meant to be.
 

Andy Jones

New member
Treasure Of The Peacock's Eye & Trenches of Hell are my favourites.

The only Young Indy I haven't seen is the Scandal of 1920, which wasn't released in the UK and was the only one that the BBC didn't show when they had them on a couple of years ago.
 

Pan Rado

New member
Basically, I would prefer these movies to be a separate franchise, not tied to Indy. Each time I see a missed oportunity to tie these movies with the original trilogy I groan. Would it really be so hard to make Indy say "Ah, Venice" in "Faces of Evil" for example?

Even "Peacock's Eye", though closest to the originals' formula, had a lot of these (missed oportunities). And I hated Indy doing Kung-Fu...

"Mystery of the Blues" had cool bookend sequences, and wasn;t bad in itself, but hte meat of the story would work better without being a part of Indiana Jones mythos.

"The scandal of the 1920s" was a nice, light-hearted adventure, which I liked, but once again, I couldn't picture its main character growing up to be Indy.

Now, I am very interested in "Phantom Train of Doom" because of its writer, and the quote provided by Whipper only increased my enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it'rather difficult to track down where I live.
 

MissDefense

New member
Bringing up an old thread!I've seen them all both as tv episodes and movies,and my top favorite are:

Trenches of hell: very dramatic;the war scenes were well done and quite realistic,except the fact that when Indy and Remy get off the train in Somme it's snowing....and the battle of Somme started on July 1st!!!Anyway in VErdun I liked the fact of Indy get more conscious of what a slaughtery is the war.
Overall I appreciated that WW1 was treated in tv,which has not happened often.

The mystery of blues: gangsters,jazz and blues,get to meet a still clumsy Elliott Ness and Hemingway (which I already liked from the italian ep).Interesting the dealing with racism and the difficults of going back to life after seeing what war is.

The curse of the jackal:the egypt and mexico episodes I mean. Adventurous and with a bit of archeology.And when I saw SFP with that dress,the fedora and the whip I just thought: "Heck it's him"!.

Other ones I really enjoyed:

Northern Italy:a bit because it happened in Italy (but I would have liked to see a more depht showing of the war there:italian soldiers had a hard time fighting in the mountains,hat off to them) and it was very funny to see Indy and Ernest fighting over a woman.

Palestine 1917: for the adventure; and for telling about australian soldiers,I got interested in their involvement in WW!.

Paris 1919: a apparently quiet episode,but I liked the fact that it dealed with the consequences of war,whose effect we have seen later.

The treasure of the peacock eye:very Indy alike, giving him another reason to pursue his archeology studies and becoming who we know he became.

Oganga: I think this experience,meeting such a person as Dr.Schwartz,changed a lot Indy.
 
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Grizzlor

Well-known member
Oganga: Giver and Taker of Life was really good, and stood out more than the others. Of course, the only one I actually bought on tape (other than the freebie Peacock which came with the Indy Trilogy) was Mystery of the Blues, because of Harrison.
 

JK_Antwon

New member
I'm surprised most did not like The curse of the jackal. Thats my fav.. I know its not a "real" not being on tape and all, but whenI first saw that as a kid, I was hooked!
 

kongisking

Active member
I've only seen one...

Like Kate, the only YIJC i have seen is Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. I thought it had some fun action, a nice story that answers the question of why Indy knew exactly was in store for him in the Jungle Temple in RAIDERS, and Sean Patrick Flannery gave an fine performance. (y) :whip:

But here are my quibbles: the entire scene with the soldier telling Indy about the Eye is acted in an incredibly cheesy and unbelievable way to the point of being painful to watch (in fact, I didn't like the war scene at all, it didn't truly capture the violence, the horror, and the sacrifice of war at all in my opinion). :eek: (n)

Remy is selfish, rude, determined and just comes off as not very likable. (n)

The native stereotypes from Temple of Doom are back with a vengeance in the island scenes. :(

And the action overall was just not epic or inventive enough to satisfy my insane hunger for Kick-Ass Indy Action. :mad:

In the end, I was rather disappointed by this movie. It was different from the Harrison Ford movies I love dearly in more ways than one, the Action was barely there, and some of the performances and plot points are B-rate and derivative. I'm afraid there is just not enough to recommend this for curious viewers, and there is not much to motivate me to see the other episodes as well.

(I apologise, YIJC fans. I know I sound kind of harsh, but this is just my opinion, nothing more.
 

The Adventurer

New member
kongisking said:
[....] and there is not much to motivate me to see the other episodes as well.

(I apologise, YIJC fans. I know I sound kind of harsh, but this is just my opinion, nothing more.

First, no need to apologise, is your opinion and I respect your point of view, but try to watch: "The Mistery Of The Bluse" (Chicago)(in the end appear Harrison in a great scene); "The Curse Of The Jackal" (Egypt; Mexico)...sure it's not like the movies but that's some of the best YIJC from my point of view.
 

Alexandria

New member
I've really only seen like maybe 2 or three episodes, so I'm not the best person to judge. :( They're just really hard to find in my neck of the woods. The Canton downtown library had a lot of them, but I don't live there, my cousins do. The one we saw with them was "tales of innocence" which was weirdly titled to me( I know it was also named after the Edith Wharthon (sp?) book, since she was in the episode), since it seemed like all Indy wanted was ... well, you know. (n) Pleasure without commitment shall we say. *sigh* Indy reminds me of an old song called "Traveling man" by Ricky Nelson. Here's the lyrics you may agree with me:
"I'm a travelin' man
I've made a lot of stops all over the world
And in every port I own the heart
Of at least one lovely girl

I've a pretty Señorita waiting for me
Down in old Mexico
If you're ever in Alaska stop and see
My cute little Eskimo

Oh my sweet Fraulien down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

------ instrumental break ------

Oh my sweet Fraulien down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

Oh, I'm a travelin' man
Yes, I'm a travelin' man"
 
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Matinee Idyll

New member
Hmm, well I think the edited together 'films' are crap - the joining sequences don't work at all, and cutting old Indy removes alot of the magic and context for the episodes. He frequently gave the stories modern paralells, so the audiences could see things haven't really changed all that much.

Alot of the dramatic weight of the series lay in the old mans reminiscing, highlighting say, the irony and futility in the Verdun episode - Indy may have destroyed the orders to attack, but he could only save 10,000 men for one day longer. Very poignant and tragic stuff.

I think part of the reason alot of people dislike the series is its 'European flavour'. The films always felt 'American' - the series was quite different in feel. This and, y'know - the show actually wanted to teach you something and didn't have Indy pistol whipping people every 5 seconds.

Unless you've got the attention span and brain capacity of a waterbiscuit, I fail to see how you could find the series 'boring'.

So my favourites?

London, 1916 - Wow. 45 of the best minutes of television I've ever seen - the chemistry between Indy and Vicky is completely believable and moving,
Liz Hurleys best ever performance too (though she is only playing herself). Stunning Holst inspired music, a beautiful study of the sexism of the time (with many modern parallels), and fantastic performances all around.

Curse of the Jackal - the whole damn telemovie, exciting, exotic, wonderful television. Tell me that slow zoom in on the Jackal at the end doesn't give you chills and I'll eat my fedora.

Verdun, 1916 - just watched this one again yesterday, stunning McNeely score, very powerful episode. Makes war appear less of a game than the Somme episodes did.

They're probably my top 3. Austria and Russia 1917 are both excellent too, many great episodes.
 
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IndyJr.

New member
Let's see... I've seen and own:

Chapter 6: Spring Break Adventure
Chapter 8: Trenches of Hell
Chapter 10: The Phantom Train of Doom
Chapter 11: Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life
Chapter 12: Attack of the Hawkmen
Chapter 13: Adventures in the Secret Service
Chapter 15: Daredevils of the Desert
Chapter 16: Tales of Innocence
Chapter 18: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
Chapter 20: Mystery of the Blues
Chapter 22: Hollywood Follies

My favorite would have to be... a tie between "Spring Break Adventure", "Phantom Train of Doom" and "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye"
 
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