Indiana Jones And The Dunn & Duffy Circus Train

The opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is rife with callbacks and foreshadowing (what the cool kids these days call 'Easter eggs'). We witness the origin of Indiana Jones' iconic wardrobe; a wardrobe that he will, for the most part, remain faithful to for the next 60+ years of his life. Spoiler alert - the felt fedora was inexplicably gifted to him by a sweaty stranger. We find out how Indy got Harrison Ford's chin scar (freak whipping accident). But the sequence that is most meta is River Phoenix's chase along the length of the Dunn & Duffy circus train.

There are four distinct set pieces on the train:

• The first, and most obvious callback, is the House of Reptiles carriage. It is reminiscent of the Well of the Souls in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and is responsible for Indy's totally justified fear of snakes.

 

• Indy tussles with a whooping street tough on top of the next carriage, which houses a raging rhino. The rhinoceros horn protruding through the roof of the carriage and almost skewering our hero brings to mind the spike chamber in Indiana Jones Part Deux - The Temple of Doom.

 

 

• The Last Crusade's Nazi book burning parade is foreshadowed in the next carriage, the Den of Lions. Later in the film, Indy's dad will convince him to retrieve the grail diary by going to Berlin, 'into the lion's den'.

 

 

• And finally, we get an inkling of the sorry state of Indiana Jones' fourth film adventure, upon entering Doctor Fantasy's Magic Caboose. In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy meets inter-dimensional, magical super beings. He also hides inside a fridge to avoid being disintegrated by an atomic blast, which is a bit like how he hid in a box to escape Doctor Fantasy's Magic Caboose.

 

M*A*S*H ft Something For Kate

M*A*S*H followed the exploits of the staff and patients at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. It was broadcast from 1972 to 1983, then continued in syndication for decades. Throughout my youth, M*A*S*H was one of a handful of shows that my entire family would gather to watch - mostly due to it being the only thing on at 7pm that was worth watching. This newspaper from 1984 can attest to that fact...

Something For Kate are an Australian alternative rock trio. Acclaimed by critics and fans alike, they have continued to release relevant and exceptional music for almost thirty years.

What does a thinly veiled anti-Vietnam War sitcom and one of the greatest Australian bands of all time have in common? Very little, unsurprisingly, except for the striking resemblance between singer Paul Dempsey and M*A*S*H's charismatic lead, Hawkeye (Alan Alda). The realisation of this got me thinking - What if the band shot a music video as if it were an episode of M*A*S*H, kind of like Weezer's 'Buddy Holly'? Instead of inserting the band members into actual footage from the show (as Weezer did with Happy Days), they could play characters from M*A*S*H. Bassist Stephanie Ashworth could be Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan, and bearded drummer Clint Hyndman would play moustachioed surgeon B.J. Hunnicutt.

Back in 2005, I pitched the idea to Something For Kate. Needless to say, I never received a response. Now, almost 20 years later, I still feel it was a missed opportunity and, as a fan, would have gotten a kick out of seeing Paul Dempsey in a Hawkeye Pierce Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat ensemble. So, for your reading pleasure, here is my original script for a Something For Kate/M*A*S*H music video...

View-Master Mock-Up: Let it Be

Since the release of The Beatles: Get Back, there has been a renewed interest in the original version of their 1970 documentary, Let It Be. However, copies of the film have been hard to come by, and as yet, it is unavailable on any streaming service. If only this View-Master set were real, we'd at least have 21 stereoscopic images of the band to gawp at.