Customer Reviews

Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Chapter 22 - Hollywood Follies [VHS]

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As with all the adventures in this series, there are two criteria for review. One is how well Indiana Jones is characterized and the other is how well the history-lesson-of-the-week is portrayed. Throughout the majority of the series, at least the history bit is dramatized so well that we can forgive liberties taken with Indy's character.

Here, though, the liberties taken are so great that, although there are some fascinating character development moments, the weakness of plot premise prevents us from getting lost in the story. It is simply too fantastic a leap of faith to believe that Indiana Jones would somehow get involved with Hollywood's nascent film industry. Worse, even if one could forgive Indy's presence in Hollywood, the historical figures he meets are far too conveniently placed in the plot for us to revel in their discovery. On the other hand, the Indy on display here is very much Indiana Jones. There is a level of resourcefulness and cunning which sometimes makes us think we're watching Ford, not Flanery.

At once this film suffers from the series' worst quality (implausibly putting Indy at George Lucas' historical mercy) and benefits from its best (giving Flanery some moments to show us the glint in Harrison Ford's eye).

Thus, though the premise of the story is deeply flawed, we do care about the relationships Indy forges here. The entire first hour is very much foreshadowing for his relationship with Belloch (and other rogue archaeologists) from the theatrical film series. Likewise, the untenable romantic relationship lays the groundwork for the Professor Jones we see in "Raiders": a man who would probably like to commit to a woman, but who can't quite seem to get there because the kind of woman he likes has a very full plate herself.

Overall then, the film lives up to its full title. It is very much about both "Hollywood Follies" and "Young Indiana Jones".

This episode stumbles along until the last fifteen minutes or so, largely because Indy is portrayed as being a bumbling incompetent, both mentally and physically. While on a break from school, Indy is asked by movie studio owners to go to Hollywood and brace up the legendary and volatile movie producer Erich von Stroheim. The movie that he is making is wildly over budget and Indy is the one designated to go out and shut it down. After several tries where he is faced down by the von Stroheim's powerful personality, Indy finally comes up with a wild scheme that appears to work. However, Von Stroheim once again outmaneuvers him and Indie is unceremoniously fired.
Through all of this, Indy develops a strong romance with a female writer and it appears that he is in love. However, after he is fired Indy goes on location with John Ford to shoot a western and leaves the writer behind. Indy works as a general handyman and extra but his general ineptitude creates problems and amuses the other members of the crew. Finally, when injuries and death keep the other actors from performing, Indy steps in and executes a scene that is a right out of the "Indiana Jones" movies.
The depiction of Indy as incapable of doing much of anything degrades this episode, as that is so incompatible with the basic character. Two things keep it from being a terrible episode, the inclusion of the legendary Wyatt Earp and the closing stunt that brought back so many great memories of the action movies. The man that plays Earp was the perfect actor to play him and his comments about the gunfights were a joy to listen to as he describes them as they probably were, not as they are depicted on film. After watching the tape I went online and learned that Earp died in 1929 so his inclusion is historically possible. Earp did in fact live in Hollywood and did visit movie sets and even had conversations with a young extra named John Wayne.

Yep, although he doesn't mention it, it shows clearly his bad memories of his youthful filmmaking; like the other chapters I've reviewed, this one also is very inmersive and shows how dangerous was to shoot a film at that time (well it's still so, but not THAT dangerous), yes I do agree with other reviewers about that it doesn't has lot of action, but it still has many comic situations that are worth to see, and it is at the height of the other chapters.

This film, while all about budget, seems to suffer from just that. Don't get me wrong, it's a great addition to the wonderful Young Indy series, and the heroine, Claire, is captivating, but the plot is all over the map and it has virtually no action. For a better Indy episode that doesn't rely on action, check out Mystery of the Blues... it's brilliant.