Capter seven in the continuing adventures of young Indiana Jones features the first regular episode, "London, May 1916". One of the most memorable installments, it featuring Indy's first real love, Vicky (played by the then still quite unknown Elizabeth Hurley). When the series was first broadcast, it was made clear that this was Indiana's one true romance. True, there were two other episodes in which Indy encountered love shot for series one (thought inconveniently these were shown in the U.S. as part of series two). But in one of those he was only 9 year old and the second saw him losing his virginity to Mata Hari. But even so, during the Mata Hari Affair mentioned that he did not have the same kind of feelings for the older Mata as he had had for Vicky. Unfortunately, this sentiment was thrown out the window during production of the second series when the scripts on the whole became less dramatic and, taking a page from the cinematic Indiana, Jones began to fall in love in just about every single episode. When "London, May 1916" became part of this feature length adventure, it was partnered with "Ireland, April 1916", in which Indy indeed is dating an Irish belle, Maggie (Susannah Doyle). Although this takes away a little bit of the weight of the original love story, Vicky's tale has lost none of it's power and at least the writers were smart enough not to screw up the continuity by having Indy fall head over heels with another woman before meeting her.
We start off with a brand new sequence aboard a luxury steamer heading from Mexico to Ireland. After some stock shots that resemble the opening footage from 'The Love Boat', we learn Indiana Jones and Remy Baudouin had tried to hitch a ride as stowaways but were captured on the first night out and put to work cleaning the engine room. As in most of the new wide shots in these bridge sequences, the composite shots of the ship look really fake. The people leaving the ship are translucent! Sean Patrick Flanery's hair is also noticeably longer and blonder in the new scene. It's suddenly shorter when we see him waiting tables and twirling bottles like Tom Cruise at the start of the Ireland episode. Indy and Remy have taken jobs at a café to earn enough money for the ferry to England. Before they manage to do this, Indy meets opinionated playwright Sean O'Casey, witnesses the Easter Monday revolt first hand and spends most of his hard earned money on Maggie and her girlfriend Nuala, who think he's an American Millionaire. It seems writer Jonathan Hales tried to put a bit too much of everything into one script, ending up with a rather uneven story. In the original coda, Old Indy even added the fact that Maggie's brother, the hot headed Sean Lemass, later became prime minister of Ireland! As mentioned before, the second series was much more comedic than the first. Unfortunately, as Remy, Belgian actor Ronny Coutteure wasn't really all that funny. He just complained and whined a lot. Oh, I forgot that's the kind of humor George Lucas really enjoys.
After the revolt and a scene in the famous prison from the original Italian Job, Indy and Remy get on the boat for another quick new bridge scene. Notice they failed to come up with an excuse for Remy to shave off his curly mustache before arriving in London. His 'stache is a continuity error that will pop up on his nose only to disappear again in many more adventures to come. 16 year old Indy is still hitting on every girl he sees (even though another second season episode revealed he had a girlfriend back home in Princeton). Encouraged by Remy, Indy tries his luck sweet talking a posh war widow (Shelagh McLeod) while failing to be impressed by a quick witted female bus conductor until she saves his life during a zeppelin air raid.
The bus conductor is of course Vicky Prentiss, who, though skeptical of the young American at first, soon turns out to have a lot of common with Indy. He follows her to a suffragette meeting, where the main subject of this story is revealed: women were still deprived of equal rights during the first world war. Vicky's outspoken views on this subject make her beloved by Sylvia Parkhurst, but less so by Winston Churchill (it wouldn't be a real Young Indy episode without some prominent historical figures now would it). Indy takes her to meet his former tutor, Miss Seymour and for some reason, in her last chronological appearance, Margaret Tyzack's credit got lost in the shuffle. But as the time nears form him to join the Belgian Army he and Remy have just joined, their young love must come to a bittersweet end. During their last fateful dinner scene, you can just about spot the fake Harrison Ford scar on Sean Patrick's chin. Vanessa Redgrave guest stars as Vicky's mother and in the original broadcast version, Jane Wyatt made a brief appearance as older Vicky, reunited with 94 year old Indy at last at the very end of the episode. It's a shame they couldn't keep that lovely scene (even if it was a bit contrived). Now all that is left of George Hall's performance are his old hands closing the diary at the end of each Indy film.
9 out of 10
0 out of 0 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink