Indy Timeline: 1917
Tales of Innocence opens with a majestic mountain view of
the Italian Alps. We see young Indy,
dressed in a German uniform, delving deep into enemy territory to try to
arrange a mass defection of disenchanted German troops. This is as promising an opening as one can
expect from this show, with Sean Patrick Flannery actually speaking bits of
German, French and Italian reasonably well.
The first half of the episode features a second plotline as well,
involving Indy’s efforts to seduce a naïve Italian beauty, Juliette.
I was feeling pretty positive about both of these plotlines,
particularly in the early going, with Indy shamelessly lying and trying to
manipulate the beautiful girl for his own selfish reasons – he even goes to
great lengths to ditch her prying elderly grandmother. All of this is in line with the roguish
character from Raiders.
However, the episode quickly devolves into farce when it
is revealed that Ernest Hemingway is also trying to court Juliette, leading
Indy and Hemingway to openly compete for her affection. This involves everything from an eating
contest to competitive playing of racetrack songs (Hemingway on the cello and
Indy on a sax). Schmee Skywalker once
again makes an appearance, this time as Juliette’s Italian mother. Ultimately, all the goofy slapstick took me
out of this half of the episode.
The sequence that bridges the first and second half of
this “movie” was (once again) clearly shot much later than the other episodes,
with Flannery aging notably. Indy is
injured and has to recoup in Venice, where he has a short but passionate affair
with an Italian nurse named Sophia. Nice
work.
This makes far more sense with the canon (“ah, Venice”)
than the love interest in the second half of the episode, Edith Wharton. Wait, what??
EDITH WHARTON?? At this stage,
Wharton was 55. I am including a picture
of Wharton at 47 years old for reference.
Anyway, Indy gets a mission in Morocco to investigate
some missing arms that might have been stolen.
Wait- didn’t he have to track down arms in Africa already? Wasn’t that the plot of the “Oganga” episode? Also, wasn’t Indy enslaved in Morocco as a
child in “My First Adventure”? Why no
mention of this? Never mind.
Indy goes to Morocco to investigate these missing arms
and is accompanied by Wharton. The two
go on a series of romantic excursions and discuss things like love and sex,
with Indy referencing his relationships with Nancy, Vicky, Juliette, Mata Hari,
etc. I appreciated THAT continuity.
This half of the episode wasn’t all bad, but did drag at
points. There is a daring escape
sequence in which Indy breaths fire. Indy
looks good in a French Foreign Legion uniform.
Rushan Seth, who played Chattar Lal in Temple of Doom, even makes an
appearance in a supporting role. The tension
actually picks up a little bit at the end as Indy zeroes in on solving the
mystery of the stolen arms cache.
On the whole though, this half of the episode, like the
first half, is mediocre in sum. For
every step forward (there is a sword fight!) there is a step back (it looks
pretty fake). The episode concludes with
Indy kissing Edith Wharton goodbye and leaving her heartbroken- it is unclear
whether their relationship was consummated.
Lowell Thomas shows up for part of the episode, but contributes very
little to the story. As per usual, this
episode amounted to a collective shrug.
How many more of these do I have left?
Indy Rating: 5/10
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