Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959)

A group of hot rodders need a new hangout and set their sights on a supposedly haunted house. Hilarity ensues! That is the skeletal outline for The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow, but the film is essentially a plot less mess, often bordering on the surreal. Despite its title, the "ghost" doesn't appear until 45 minutes into the movie and is completely out matched by our young heroes. The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is a hot rod movie, a rock n roll picture, a comedy, and a horror film all rolled into one muddled package. The narrative unfolds in fits and starts, often to make way for either gratuitous rock n' roll numbers or eye rolling slap stick humor. In one extremely odd sequence the heroine, Lois, has a slumber party much to the chagrin of her father. Lois and her friends dance, play records and, in the movie's most inexplicable moment, start cracking up at a western that is playing on the television. In the spirit of the moment, the western starts to go haywire (the image gets flipped around, horses gallop in reverse, etc.), while all sorts of crazy sound effects blare from the television. The novelty eventually wears thin and the girls go back to their dancing.

The running gag in this sequence is that the father has to use the bathroom, but keeps getting thwarted by Lois and her friends. He spends the entire scene waiting in the hallway while the girls go about their business. Just when it looks like he is finally going to get his turn, one of the girls will emerge from out of nowhere and cut in front of him. He waits so long, that he eventually falls asleep, while leaning against the wall. This is a throwaway scene and yet it eats up nearly five minutes of  precious screen time (the movie is 65 minutes long). It ends with Lois's dad breaking the fourth wall. Lois sees her father sleeping and asks him what he is doing. He says he must have been sleep walking. Lois tells him to back to bed and then enters the bathroom.
Her father, in a state of absolute confusion, looks directly in the camera and asks, "What am I doing here?" Black Out.

I would genuinely like to believe that Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is a misunderstood, subversive masterpiece. After all, there is a huge gender role reversal in the characters of Lois and Stan. Lois is the hell raiser out of the two, constantly getting into races with her rival, Nita, and running afoul of the law as well.

The movie opens with Lois and Nita drag racing across the dry river bed of the Los Angeles River. Nita eventually loses control of her car and crashes into a wall. Lois drives away, oblivious to the accident. However, a cop arrives on the scene and manages to catch her license's plate number. He eventually tracks her down and hauls her in. This, naturally, doesn't go to well with Lois's parents and her father suspends her driving privileges for two weeks.  Stan, on the other hand, avoids trouble at any costs and is upset with Lois when he learns about the drag race.

Other than the gender role reversal, there are a lot of other interesting things going on in The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. The Zenith Club (Lois and Stan's Hot Rod Club) befriend a reporter named Tom Hendry, who is writing an article about drag racing. He is at first neutral in his stance, as his article covers both sides of the issue, the parents and the dragsters. However, he eventually warms to Zenith Club and wants to help, often  taking a defensive stand towards the teenagers. He has this rather interesting exchange with Lois's father:

Dad: There seems to be such a difference between their adolescence and mine.

Hendry: It's a difference of a degree only. You didn't have jets to cope with of 375 horse powered automobiles. Or even more significant, a world on the verge of self destruction. All these things want to make kids grow up in a hurry.

Dad: They're so sharp. They know so much....TOO MUCH!

Hendry: That proves my point. They feel they have to become adults quickly. They're not sure there will be a tomorrow.

It's a rather somber moment, in an otherwise silly movie. Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow maybe one of the few teen oriented films of the 1950s to explicitly reference the Cold War. Yet, this little exchange was eerily prophetic; less than a decade later the world seemed on the verge of self destruction with the Vietnam War waging on and the brewing tensions on the American home front.  In 1959, everything still seemed peachy keen. Lois's drag racing is merely a whim, she will eventually move onto better things. The Zenith Club are a bunch of straight laced kids; they listen to authority and don't indulge in any self destructive behavior. Lois is the exception, rather than the rule, but she eventually learns her lesson.

What is also amazing about the Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is how anti-climatic it is. There are three major conflicts presented throughout out the movie and all them are resolved rather easily.

1) The Zenith Club gets evicted from their hangout, because they don't have money to pay the bills. Their future looks bleak, when Anastasia Abernathy (a client of Lois's father) remembers the old house she and her husband used to live in. She offers to let them use it, but warns that it is haunted. The gang accepts her offer and, after spending the night in the house, deem it suitable for their needs. They have a few run ins with the paranormal, but nothing really serious. They kids decide to kick things off by throwing a Halloween costume party.

2) The "ghost" is not really much of a threat to the kids and, is in fact, merely a prankster. He plays a few tricks on the kids, like pretending to be the sleeping Dave's girlfriend, or levitating a candle, but never means them any real harm. Hell,  at one point, he even dances with Lois at the Halloween costume party. In what might have been an inspiration for Scooby Doo, the ghost is unmasked and revealed to be a  bitter washed up horror actor (Paul Blaisdell), who is still upset that he didn't get cast in Horrors of the Black Museum. 

Horror aficionados will recognize the "ghost" suit as being the same one Blaisdell donned in The She Creature, a 1956 horror film that was a knock off of The Creature From the Black Lagoon. The She Creature suit has been considerable stripped down for this movie; the feet have been replaced by sneakers.  The She Creature is not the only Blaisdell creation that makes a return appearance, a man wearing a Saucer Man mask is briefly seen dancing to the music.

3. The main antagonists in the movie are Tony and his girlfriend Nita, members of a rival gang (that seemingly consists of four people, including themselves). Yet, even they are not a much of a threat. Tony will have a few choice words with Stan, while leering at Lois, and then walk away. Nita, however, keeps hounding Lois for a rematch. She demands satisfaction and Lois, inevitably, acquiesces. The two of them have one final drag race....OFF SCREEN! That's right! The movie slowly builds to this confrontation and the audience doesn't get to see any of it. Instead, Lois tells Stan and Tom all about it. Stan is naturally upset, but Lois promises him she'll pay the club fine and tell her dad about it, knowing full well that it means a further suspension of her driving privileges. Stan conjectures that this isn't too much of a bad thing, because now he can drive her around.

I said before that I would like to believe that Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is misunderstood, subversive masterpiece, but this is, of course, a lot of nonsense. It's wishful thinking on my part; a pathetic attempt to rationalize my genuine love for a really bad movie. Whatever quirks exist in the film is largely due to lazy film making, rather than clever screen writing. Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is very much a product of it's time, often loaded with bogus 1950's lingo. My favorite being, "He's got static in his attic, completely zonk!"
It often seems like the sole reason for this movie's existence was so A.I.P. (American International Pictures) could promote their new record label. It would explain why there is a rock n' roll number practically every ten minutes.

I would just like to add that I proudly own this movie on DVD! It was packaged as double feature, along with the equally ridiculous The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. What is about this movie that I find so appealing?

Two reasons:
1) It is very much  a product of its time (1959) that is makes for an interesting time capsule. You can learn a lot about an older generation from the movies that were made during their youth. Films like Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow visualize what it was like to be a teenager growing up in the late 50s (albeit in an exaggerated manner). It's a cinematic time machine, it allows us to see the 1950s up close and be completely flabbergasted by the trends of the time (bogus lingo, drag racing, rock n' roll, etc.) For this reason alone, the movie is invaluable.

2) I said it before and I will again, it is an insane piece of film making. It may not be a good movie, but it is never boring. The first time I saw it, I had no idea what was going to happen next. I expected to see a movie about an evil spirit tormenting a group of hot rodders, instead I got a film about a rabble rousing woman and her many misadventures. Just when I thought I had the movie figured out, it would blindside me with a new, and extremely ridiculous, plot twist. It runs the gamut from being a drag race movie to being a Scooby Doo like mystery.

Credits
Cast: Jody Fair (Lois Cavendish), Russ Bender (Tom Hendry), Martin Braddock (Stan), Henry McCann (Dave), Leon Tyler (Bonzo the Clown), Elaine DuPont (Rhoda), Dorothy Neumann (Anastasia Abernathy), Kirby Smith (Wesley Cavendish), Jeanne Tatum (Alice Cavendish), Jack Ging (Tony), Nancy Anderson (Nita), Sanita Pelkey (Amelia), Judy Howard (Sandra), Tommy Ivo (Himself), Beverly Scott (Hazel),Paul Blaisdell (Man in Suit), Jimmie Madden (Himself).

Director: William Hole, Jr.
Screenplay: Lou Rusoff
Running Time: 65 min.

Ironfinger (1965)/ Golden Eyes (1968)

The 1962 - Dr. No has been released in cinemas worldwide and is a huge hit. The following year comes From Russia, With Love (my favorite James Bond film) and that is followed by Goldfinger, James Bond has become an international sensation and it is only a matter of time before other studios jump on the bandwagon by producing 007 knock offs, such as Matt Helm, Derek Flint, Fathom Harvill, Modesty Blaise, and Andrew Hoshino.  Wait.....Andrew...who? Sadly, the adventures of Andrew Hoshino are hard to find in the United States (though they can be seen on Huluplus), they are so obscure that both films, Ironfinger and Golden Eyes, have less than 20 votes each. It's rather a shame, because both films are extremely entertaining.

Ironfinger follows Andrew Hoshino as he tracks down an arms dealer, Mr. Le Bois. Standing in his way are warring Japanese gangs, the Akatsuki family and the Aonuma, and a cool hitman, Komori, who uses acid to dispose of his victims. He forms an alliance with bumbling Detective Tezuka and sexy hit woman Yumi, who specializes in explosives.

The films is rather ambiguous as to what Hoshino's profession really is.... an INTERPOL agent or a hit man? Hoshino is a rather compelling character, he often puts on a cowardly demeanor so his enemies will completely underestimate his abilities. He is also somewhat of a bumbler; he constantly gets caught by the villains and is extremely clumsy at times: there's one scene in which he attempts to roundhouse kick a group of thugs, only to miss them and fall completely on his ass. What saves his neck is his ability to improvise under high pressure situations. This comes in handy as Hoshino is constantly being captured by the villains.

Early in the movie he is tied up in a taxi cab, that is stationed in an underground parking structure, and is being watched over by a dim witted henchman.  Hoshino notices a can of shaving cream resting on the passenger seat and evolves a plan. The villains have confiscated his suitcase and brought it up to their office to rummage through it. Hoshino tricks the henchman into believing that the suitcase has a radio transmitter hidden in it and that it's sending out signals to other INTERPOL agents, who should arrive very shortly. While he is telling the henchman this story, Hoshino uses a blade hidden in his wrist watch to cut through the ropes binding his hands together.  He then starts screaming that he is fellow INTERPOL agents have arrived. The henchman gets out of the car to check and is relieved to find the parking structure is still empty. He walks back inside of the cab and gets sprayed in the face with shaving cream. Hoshino ties up the henchman and then goes on his merry way. Later on in the film, Hoshino incapacitates another henchman (who uses a hearing aid) with a toilet plunger.

Akira Takarada is extremely charismatic as the hit man Hoshino. It's interesting to contrast Takarada's portrayal of Hoshino with Sean Connery's take on James Bond. Bond always has a cool demeanor and always seems to be in control, even when he was in the villain clutches, he is a professional and it shows, not to mention he is quite the lady's man. Hoshino is almost none of these things, he's extremely confident, but is quite inept at times. It's to Takarada's credit as an actor that despite his bumbling ways, the audience still takes Hoshino seriously as a hero. Takarada has wonderful comic timing, but he also can be serious when the scene calls for it. In fact, it's amazing just how effortlessly Takarada goes from being a bumbler to a cold hearted assassin, often in the same scene.

The most interesting aspect of Ironfinger (at least to me) is the character Yumi, played by Mie Hama. Shortly after the release of Ironfinger, Hama would portray agent Kissi Suzuki in the Connery-Bond film You Only Live Twice. However, despite brandishing a gun, Kissi Suzuki is more of a decoration (Hama spends most of her screen time clad in a white bikini) than an actual character. She doesn't appear until the film is nearly two thirds over, so there really isn't much time for character development. Hama is much better served in Ironfinger, where her character is often a driving force in the narrative.

Towards the end of the film Komori abducts Hoshino and has him taken aboard a plane, that is being piloted by gun smuggler (and Le Bris lackey), Mr. Huang. Yumi witnesses the kidnapping and follows them to the airport. She runs back to the hotel to inform Detective Tezuka of the abduction and the two of them form a rescue plan. Yumi has chartered an airplane and the two of them fly after Huang and Hoshino (who is tied up). Yumi sends a message to Komori (via one of of Le Bris goons posing as a bellboy) that she planted a bomb on the plane and it will explode any minute. Komori radios this information to Mr. Huang and he promptly bails out, leaving Hoshino to his fate. Yumi then pilots the chartered plane, while Tezuka uses a rope ladder to climb onto the plane Hoshino is trapped in. It is a success! Tezuka safely lands the plane. Meanwhile,  Yumi  goes back for Huang, who is still parachuting down, and takes him out with the propeller of the airplane. Yumi parachutes to safety and watches as the plane explodes in mid air. It's at this juncture in the narrative that Yumi loses clothes and spends the rest of the film in red bra.

Hoshino and Tezuka have been captured and are imprisoned in a concrete cell, Yumi blows them out with plastic explosives that she uses as bra padding. Yumi, despite her professionalism, has a few quirks of her own; she sets off small explosions to startle people and finds their reactions amusing. And despite her unflappable nature, the sight of a dead rat causes her to faint.

In You Only Live Twice, Japanese woman are depicted as being second class citizens, totally dependent on men. In Ironfinger, it's the quite the opposite as Yumi is just as good as Hoshino (if not better) in their shared professions. Their birds of a feather, which makes easy to believe that they would begin to harbor romantic feelings towards one another by movie's end. Though, their romance is fairly chaste; they kiss and embrace a few times, but never quite make it to the bedroom. Bond always found time in his busy schedule to bed whatever scantily clad hottie that crossed his path.

 Hoshino and Yumi are fairly amoral characters, they could easily go either way. In the beginning, Yumi is working for the Akatsuki family at first, but switches sides when it's no longer in her best interest. Hoshino is a hit man who has been hired by a European arms dealer to take out Mr. Le Bois, he is hardly a boy scout.
Hoshino is a good guy by default; this particular assignment calls for him to wipe out gangsters and other undesirable characters. In this one instance, he and the law have the same goal, to take down Le Bois, and they enjoy a rather cordial partnership.

Golden Eyes follows Hoshino as he attempts to find a rare gold coin and the man that assassinated a little girl's father. Like the first film, Hoshino aligns himself with a sexy female assassin, Ruby, who's specialty is knives.

Also in the mix is a flaky (and sexy) woman pop singer, whose main hobby is car racing. She has entered an auto rally in Japan and unknowingly has the rare coin in her possession. On top of that, there are hit men hot on her trail. Can Hoshino save her in time?

Golden Eyes is a lot of fun, but Ruby is a less interesting character than Yumi, in that we never see her skills put to use. Early in the film, the audience is shown her ability with the knife and then movie forgets all about this until the very end, and even then it's fairly anti-climatic, as Hoshino and Tuzeka (played by a different actor) already have things under wraps. However, Takarada is always a joy to watch and it's his spirited performance that really keeps that film afloat. Plus, any film that has assassins dressed up as nuns (pushing baby carriages) is automatically good in my book.

Both films were produced by Toho, which was also cranking out Godzilla films at the same time. Naturally, there is a huge overlap between the two series. Jun Fukuda, the director of both Hoshino films, would go on to direct Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.  Mie Hama and Ichiro Arishima (Tezuka in Ironfinger) both appeared in King Kong vs Godzilla. Arishima played the head of a pharmaceutical company, Mr. Tako, the man responsible for bringing Kong to Japan, and Hama played Fumiko, the young woman Kong carries around in his paw.  Akira Takarada and Akhiko Hirata (Komori) were regulars in the Godzilla franchise; Takarada appeared in six films total, while Hirata co-starred in seven. Bibari Maeda (Ruby) played the island girl, Riko, in Son of Godzilla. 
Finally, Takarada would be reunited with Hama  in the 1967 film King Kong Escapes. Hama played the memorable femme fatale, Madame Piranha.

Credits:
Ironfinger (aka 100 Shot, 100 Killed) (1965)
Cast: Akira Takarada (Andrew Hoshino), Mie Hama (Yumi Sawada), Ichiro Arishima (Detective Tezuka),
Akihiko Hirata (Komori), Toru Ibuki (Matsuki).
Screenplay: Michio Tsuzuki, Kihachi Okamoto
Director: Jun Fukuda
Running Time: 101 min.

Golden Eyes (aka Booted Babe, Busted Boss) (1968)
Cast: Akira Takarada (Andrew Hoshino), Bibari Maeda (Ruby), Tomomi Sawa (Mitsuko Saito), Andrew Hughes (Stonefeller), Makato Sato (Detective Tezuka), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Kurokawa), Nadao Kirino (Hassan).
Screenplay: Jun Fukuda, Ei Ogawa, Michio Tsuzuki.
Running Time: 79 min.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is my favorite entry in the "Indiana Jones" saga. "How is this possible?" you might ask. After all, Raiders of the Lost Ark is an all time adventure classic with a strong love interest (Karen Allen as Marion) and a memorable finale with awesomely gruesome face melting action.  And how can I even suggest that Temple of Doom is better film than Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? That film has Sean Connery as Indy's dad, while Temple of Doom has Kate Capshaw as the extremely annoying night club singer, Willie Scott, and, even worse, a kid sidekick named Short Round. Hell, it could be argued that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a superior movie than Temple of Doom. Sure, it features Indy's annoying illegitimate son Mutt, but at least it doesn't have a hysterical female in it. Well, calm down for a second and I will explain to you why The Temple of Doom is my favorite film in the series.Hell, I even concur that Raiders of the Last Ark and The Last Crusade are superior movies, but I personally find Temple of Doom to be the most entertaining film out of the bunch, warts and all.

Willie Scott-

Most fans absolutely loathe the character of Willie; she's extremely petty, superficial, and cowardly; it seems every two minutes she's screaming about something. She's particularly loathsome in the first half of the film, constantly shouting at Indy and extremely insensitive to the customs of the Indian villagers. Yet, Willie is probably the only female in the entire Indiana Jones saga that actually has a character arc. At first glimpse, Willie is step down from Marion Ravenwood, the female protagonist from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Marion was the complete opposite of Willie, plucky, intelligent, and able to hold her own in a male oriented world.  Willie is used to the life of luxury, being a famous night club singer and all, whereas Marion is  more worldly and street savvy, she is the daughter of an archaeologist and has spent most of her life in complete shitholes; the bar she owns at the beginning of the film is a complete dive, filled with all sorts of reprobates. Yet, despite her strong and feisty demeanor, Marion is constantly in need of being rescued. Even her most heroic scene, she knocks out a German that's about to shoot Indiana, ends with her needing to be rescued. She maybe a stronger female lead, but she is still a nuisance. On other hand, Willie's cowardly ways in completely consistent with the character we are introduced it the beginning of the film. Her forte is the ritzy night life of Shanghai, she has lived a pampered existence, therefore it makes perfect sense that this character would complain almost nonstop when forced to endure the hardships of the jungle, or would be spooked by practically every animal she encounters, she is completely out of her element. Hell, if I had to walk through a tunnel populated with BIG BUGS, I would probably be in hysterics as well. However, Willie's adventures with Indiana transforms her into a more compassionate person, one who is able to empathize with the suffering of others, instead of turning her back on them. She may be a screamer, but she does work up enough courage to walk through the bug infested underground tunnels of Pankot palace, and does save Indiana and Short Round from certain death.

Short Round -

I've always liked the character of Short Round, which is odd given that I usually cringe whenever a child sidekick is introduced in any action series, for instance I absolutely detest the character of Robin, the Boy Wonder. Yet, Short Round is actually a pretty wise kid and is able to hold his own in fight scenes. There iss also a nice dynamic between Harrison Ford and Jonathan Ke Quan, the two of them seem to genuinely enjoy one another's company, and it's easy to believe that Indiana Jones would take this kid underneath his wing. He also allows us a glimpse into Indiana's softer side; he is like a big brother/surrogate father to Short Round. It greatly humanizes the character of Indiana Jones and helps separate him from the one dimensional indestructible bad asses that have dominated the action film genre in the past twenty years.

Mola Ram -

As great as Raiders of the Lost Ark is, it's lacking in the villain department. Belloq, a French archaeologist and Indiana's rival, is too spineless to be a real threat. Whereas Toth, a bald headed, bespectacled Nazi, is relegated to the role of henchmen. Mola Ram, the bug eyed high priest of the Thuggee cult, is genuinely frightening. He is the kind of villain that will give you nightmares; he wears a ceremonial headdress that has horns protruding from its sides and a shrunken human head on top. Of course, his most famous feat is the ability to rip the hearts out of still breathing humans. Mola Ram even successfully (if only briefly) converts Indiana Jones to the dark side, by turning him into a mindless slave. Amrish Puri has a great screen presence and lends a real sense of menace to the proceedings.

Indiana Jones Gets to Be the Hero-

It's been argued, rather successfully, that Indiana Jones is a pretty ineffectual hero in Raiders of the Lost Ark, almost everything that happens in that film would have occurred whether Indiana Jones was there or not. Indiana doesn't defeat the villains at the end,  the Ark of the Covenant does the job for him. It is actually a nice, unexpected twist that deviates from the norm, but in terms of character development it is fairly unsatisfactory. The term Deus ex machina often gets thrown around while discussing the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but that's not entirely true, the Ark from the very beginning is set up as being a dangerous relic of God that isn't to be taken lightly, Marcus Brody even warns Indiana about this very point. The ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark is the pay off to everything we have been told from the get go.
In The Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones is unquestionable the hero, he defeats Mola Ram and frees the child slaves from the clutches of the Thuggee. It's more traditional ending, but it's satisfying just the same. If the audience spends two hours rooting for a character, they sure as hell want to see him come out on top by movie's end.

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas Take Chances.

What I appreciate most about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is that it's not a simple rehash of the first film. The opening credits clue the audience that Temple of Doom is going to be a completely different movie than Raiders of the Lost Ark. Instead of opening on a dangerous trek through the jungle, Temple of Doom begins with a musical number (modeled after Busby Berkeley), a Mandarin version of "Anything Goes" sung by Willie. The opening scene from Raiders of the Last Ark is a mini movie in it's own right and is fairly extraneous to the main narrative. It's main function is to introduce the antagonist, Belloq, but it's not a necessary scene overall. If Spielberg would have opted to cut it out of the film, the audience wouldn't have been any the wiser.

 In Temple of Doom, the night club scene sets the narrative in motion. He meets up with Chinese gangster Lao Che and Willie just happens to get in the way. Indiana Jones escapes the Lao Che's clutches by jumping out a window; he takes Willie with him, because she's holding an antidote to a poison that Lao Che has tricked him into drinking. The land in the back of a car, which is being driven by Indiana's kid sidekick Short Round. They manage to elude Lao Che and make it to the airport, where Indiana has chartered an airplane.  However, after Indiana closes the airplane door, it is revealed  the plane is one of Lao's and that the pilots are working for him. They parachute out of the airplane, while Indiana and company are asleep, and drain the fuel tank. Through a set on contrivances, Indiana Jones and companions use a rubber raft to parachute out of the plane, they end up in a poor Indian village.

Instead of pitting Indiana Jones against Nazis, he is up against the Thuggee cult of India. Granted, the Nazis were more of worldwide threat, but the Thuggee (as depicted in this film) are absolutely ruthless to the point that even children aren't exempt from their wrath, this makes them a far more frightening adversary.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a much darker film than Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg tries to balance this out with more scenes of comedy relief (provided by Willie), but the middle section is something out of H.P. Lovecraft. We are shown a poor man's heart getting ripped out of his body by Mola Ram, and, through some ancient magic, he survives the ordeal only to be lowered into a pit of lava as sacrifice to the god Kali.

Indiana briefly loses his soul to Mola Ram's magic, only to be awakened from his trance like state after Short Round burns him with a torch. Mola Ram is searching for the  two missing Sankara stone s(there are five total) that supposedly will bring him great power. To achieve this goal, he enslaves children from nearby villages and has them mine for the stones. Willie comes fairly close to being the next sacrificial victim, until Indiana and Short Round intervene. These are fairly grim moments, but then again, it's never really in doubt that Indiana is going to triumph in the end. Still, it's amazing to see such graphic violence in a PG movie. It was the heart ripping scene in this movie and the microwave scene in Gremlins that lead to the creation of the PG-13 rating.

Best Action Set Pieces.

In my opinion, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has the best action set pieces in the entire series. There are wonderful moments in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Last Crusade, (and yes even) Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but for my moment none of them can top the mine cart chase in Temple of Doom. The mine cart chase is Spielberg at his best; he seamlessly combines miniature work with footage of the actors. Even more impressively is that the audience is able to follow the action with relative ease; we know where characters are in relation to one another.  A lot of action scenes today tended by a bit muddled and hard to follow, images fly by in rapid succession (shots often last less than a second) and the filmmakers often do a piss poor job of establishing the spatial relations between the characters.
There's other great moments as well:
Indiana standing in the middle of a rope bridge (with the Sankar stones in a sack), while Mola Ram's henchmen close in on him from both sides. He tries to bluff his way out of it by threatening to drop the stones into the river below, but Mola Ram only laughs, saying they will eventually find them. The only option Indiana has left is to cut the rope bridge in half with a sword he has lifted from one of the Thuggee. Indiana secures himself to the bridge by wrapping his leg around a rope suspender and then cuts it in half, sending Mola Ram's men plunging to their doom in the crocodile-infested river.

Indiana and Short Round have finished their trek through the bug infested underground tunnels of Pankot and come upon a chamber. Short Round accidentally sets off a trigger mechanisms that causes the roof of the chamber to slowly closely in on our protagonists. If that weren't enough, spikes begin to emerge from the floor, either they will be crushed to death, or impaled.   Their only hope of escape is to have the hysterical Willie pull a lever that will reset the trap. However, the lever is located in a hole that is infested with huge bugs.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is loaded with wonderful cinematic moments and this why is my favorite film out the series. Once seen, they are absolutely hard to forget.

Credits:
Cast: Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), Kate Capshaw (Willie Scott), Jonathan Ke Quan (Short Round), Amrish Puri (Mola Rum), Roshan Seth (Chattar Lal), Philip Stone (Captain Blumburtt), Roy Chiao (Lao Che), Raj Singh (Little Maharaja), Dan Aykroyd (Weber).

Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Gloria Katz, William Huyck. George Lucas (story)

Running Time: 118 min.