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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com

Indiana Jones: The Trial of Amadeus Schubelgruber Indiana Jones
"The Trial of Amadeus Schubelgruber"
(45:53-end on the Espionage Escapades DVD)
Written by Gavin Scott
Based on a story by George Lucas
Directed by Robert Young
Original air date: December 5, 1993

Indy's new undercover assignment is positively Kafkaesque.

 

Read the "August 5–8, 1917" entry of the It’s Not the Years, It’s the Mileage Indiana Jones chronology for a summary of this episode

 

Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology

 

This episode takes place in Prague, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) in August 1917.

 

Didja Know?

 

The title I've used for this episode, "The Trial of Amadeus Schubelgruber", is derived from the events of the story and the similarities to Frank Kafka's 1925 novel The Trial. The original title of this episode was "Prague, August 1917" and appears as the second half of the The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Espionage Escapades compilation TV movie that combines this episode with "Barcelona, May 1917" ("Espionage Escapades").

 

Indy uses the assigned alias of Amadeus Shublegruber, a ladies underwear salesman, in this episode.

 

This episode's "historic figure of the week" is legendary surrealist writer Franz Kafka. Many elements of Kafka's posthumously-published 1925 and 1926 novels The Trial and The Castle are seen here.

 

Notes from the Old Indy bookends of The Young Indiana Chronicles

 

There were no Old Indy bookends filmed for this episode.

 

Notes from The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones

 

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication that purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The Young Indiana Chronicles and the big screen Indiana Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes from a functionary of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor agency of the Soviet Union's KGB. The FSB relieved Indy of his journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The notations imply the journal was released to other governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some bookend segments of The Young Indiana Chronicles depict Old Indy still in possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never been resolved.  

 

The events of this episode are not covered in the journal. The pages jump from August 1916 ("Trenches of Hell") to November 1918 and the end of the war (The Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye). 

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Indiana Jones

Marcello

Cunningham

Charles

Colonel Clouseau

blind man

wagon driver

village women

train woman

man on train

glass harp player

cleaning woman

Ministry of Telephones receptionist

new installations woman

reconnections man

removals man

sleeping man

tram man

tram woman

police captain

police officers

police interrogators

court clerk

judge

prosecutor

cellmate

foot patrol officer

jail guard

Department of Insurance workers

Franz Kafka

Anton Dvorak

George

soldiers

telephone installers

 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

The awkward character of Colonel Clouseau with whom Indy works during his Prague mission is likely named after the bumbling Inspector Clouseau character famously portrayed by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther series of films from 1963-1982.

 

Charles tells Indy he must be in Amsterdam by Tuesday evening to meet his contact, a blind man, in Berenstraat Square. Though Berenstraat is an actual road in Amsterdam, Berenstraat Square itself appears to be fictitious.

 

The blind man tells Indy he must go to apartment 7P at 150 Vlašská Street in Prague and wait three days for a phone call there. Vlašská is an actual street in Prague.

 

Indy takes the Prague Express train from Amsterdam, engine 534 0323. This is an engine at the Czech Railway Museum at Lužná, Czech Republic. At 50:16 on the DVD, we can see that the train station he leaves from is Belovar, which is actually a village in Croatia.

 

At 51:14 on the DVD the view is through the east gate of the Charles Bridge in Prague.

 

At 52:46 on the DVD, the numbers on the alarm clock are mirror-reversed, indicating the shot has been flipped.

 

The day calendar in the apartment indicates that Indy has arrived there on August 5, though it should show the month as Srpen in Czech! The same calendar is seen in another apartment and in offices throughout the episode.

 

When Indy finds that his apartment's phone has been removed, the cleaning lady tells him it was taken by the authorities and if he wants to know more he must ask at the Ministry of Telephones. This is a fictitious ministry of the Bohemian government. When Indy visits the ministry, he is actually walking up to the Czernin Palace in Prague.

 

The form the removals man gives to Indy to report a theft of a phone is in English instead of Czech.

 

At 57:35 on the DVD, as Indy looks down at the street from the third floor window of the removals department, two piles of cut stone are seen, one on the sidewalk and one on the street. These must be awaiting the patching of some holes in the cobblestone street, as we later see some workers outside the building heating and spreading asphalt.

 

After he is erroneously incarcerated, Indy is taken to the Department of Errors. This, of course, is a fictitious department of the Bohemian judicial system.

 

Indy meets Franz Kafka, finally someone who will assist him with locating the necessary form to be stamped properly and taken back to the Ministry of Telephones for a replacement unit. Kafka (1883-1924) was a Bohemian writer of surrealist fiction, only becoming widely known and acclaimed after his death. Indy finds him working as an insurance investigator of industrial accidents, and Kafka was indeed employed in such a role by the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute at this time in his life.

 

Kafka takes Indy to the desk of the only man who has any copies of the needed form 27b, Anton Dvorak. Presumably, this character is named after the real world Bohemian composer Anton Dvorak (1841-1904), who was deceased by this time.

 

At 1:24:01 on the DVD, the telephone the ministry workers unload Indy's new telephone from a wooden chest that has a large label on it reading "Ministry of Telephone"...and in English, of course!

 

The public clock seen at 1:27:33 on the DVD is Prague Astronomical Clock, the third oldest astronomical clock in the world, installed in 1410.

 

At 1:28:14 on the DVD, Indy's apartment building appears to be called Chauvin Atelier. This sounds more French than Czech, though the scene was shot in Prague, on Uvoz, as reported on the Young Indy Locations website. Running the phrase through a French language translator, it comes up "Chauvinist Workshop". Possibly though, "Chauvin" refers to the series' matte painter Eric Chauvin.

 

    When Indy finally receives his phone call in Prague, he is told to go to 107 Friedrichstrasse in Berlin and arrange to have a telephone installed. Friedrichstrasse is an actual street in Berlin, Germany.

    Indy's mission in Berlin is left untold in the series. 

 

Memorable Dialog

 

under no circumstances.mp3

that's what they all say.mp3

no one is innocent.mp3

how do you plead?.mp3

the fate of the civilized world.mp3

I'm not leaving without form 27a.mp3

form 27a has been superseded by form 27b.mp3

and then they put me in jail.mp3

I am incandescent with rage.mp3

what if I took your telephone?.mp3

my name is Kafka.mp3

a little imagination.mp3

what do you think, I'm an imbecile, some kind of fool, an idiot?.mp3 

 

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