Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ***** (1984, Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Philip Stone, Rosan Seth) – Classic Movie Review 3077

Master entertainer Steven Spielberg piles up the breakneck thrills and spills in this exhilarating 1984 first sequel (or rather prequel) to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

The story by George Lucas throws in every Saturday morning serial movie cliché under the sun – horrible insects, lethal spikes, manacled bodies and so on – as professor, archaeologist and legendary adventurer Indiana Jones sets off in search of a sacred precious stone. The screenplay is by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz.

Harrison Ford again cuts a splendid dash as Indy, Kate Capshaw is charming as the feisty heroine Wilhelmina ‘Willie’ Scott (at least when she is allowed to stop acting hysterically) and Ke Huy Quan (Jonathan Ke Quan) reasonably winsome (arguably) as their young sidekick Short Round, though his presence makes the movie more juvenile. The spectacular set pieces include the opening Busby Berkeley homage (Cole Porter’s 1934 ‘Anything Goes’ is performed by Kate Capshaw), the bug chamber sequence when Capshaw is covered with more than 2,000 bugs, and the helter-skelter ride.

As always with Spielberg, it is a lovingly crafted movie, looking (cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, production design by Elliot Scott) and sounding great. Dennis Muren, Michael J McAlister, Lorne Peterson and George Gibbs won the 1985 Oscar and Bafta for Best Visual Effects, and John Williams was Oscar nominated for his Best Original Score.

It’s back in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indy teams up in Shanghai with nightclub singer Willie and a 12-year-old boy named Short Round. They then arrive in India, where Indy is asked by desperate villagers to find a sacred mystical stone they believe has been stolen  by evil spirits. He then stumbles on a secret cult plotting in the catacombs of an ancient palace.

The only downside is that Eighties American attitudes to Asians and especially Indians have dated the film, and that Capshaw and the kid are frequently irritating as she is too often left just screaming and the boy’s whiny antics can be quite annoying. Apparently Capshaw had to be taught how to scream, but once she got the hang of it, it seems she never wants to stop!

Despite the presence of the kid, Lucas and Spielberg were intending a darker tone this time, but Spielberg ended up putting a comical spin on tougher scenes, like the Thuggee chief guard hammer attack on Indy that concludes with a comical thud. Even so, it may be scary for younger children, and there is some mild PG-style swearing and violence.

The film-makers could not get permission to shoot scenes in India after the Indian government feared the content did not reflect their culture, so production was moved to Sri Lanka, using some of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) locations.

Slight niggles aside, it was of course mega popular. It still is. On a $28 million cost, it grossed $180 million in the US.

Also in the cast are Philip Stone as Captain Blumburtt, Rosan Seth as Chattar Lal, Amrish Puri, Roy Chiao, David Yip, Ric Young, Chua Kah Joo, Rex Ngui, Philip Tan, D R Nanayakkara, Akio Mitamura, Michael Yama and Dan Aykroyd as Weber.

Next: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), followed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Kate Capshaw met her future husband Steven Spielberg while beating out 120 actresses for the female lead in this movie. They married in 1991 and have five children.

Ke Huy Quan played Data in The Goonies the following year (1985) for its producer Spielberg.

Chua Kah Joo plays evil henchman Chen in the Shanghai sequence.

Ford damaged his back in the scene where he is attacked in his bedroom by a Thuggee assassin and the production was shut down so he could be flown to Los Angeles for an operation. Most of his fights and chases are done by stunt man Vic Armstrong. In 2015 the 72-year-old Ford was also injured while making Star Wars: The Force Awakens and was later on March 5 2015 injured in plane accident when his vintage, one-engine two-seater crash landed at the Penmar Golf Course, in the Los Angeles suburb of Venice.

Going to the dogs: Short Round is named after screenwriter Willard Huyck’s dog, which got its name from the orphan in The Steel Helmet (1951), Willie is named after Steven Spielberg’s dog and Indiana is named after George Lucas’s dog.

Three times Oscar-nominated British cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, whose films include classic Ealing comedies and the first three Indiana Jones films, died on February 22 2016, aged 103.

Gloria Katz, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter who partnered with her husband Willard Huyck on the scripts for George Lucas’s classics American Graffiti and Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, died on 25 November 2018, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3077

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