Indiana’s ‘Joans’

There is a scene in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where Indy and the beautiful art historian, Dr. Elsa Schneider, are trapped in a flooded, rat-infested catacomb in Venice.

When villains set fire to the oil-slicked water, the pair are forced to seek safety in the air pocket of an overturned coffin. Just when you think nothing could be creepier, rats start streaming in from a hole above. As Elsa screams in terror, a rat climbs to dry ground on her head.

That crowning touch came at the suggestion of the actress who plays Elsa, Alison Doody. “They were going everywhere except near me,” the 23-year-old Irishwoman says, her light brogue contrasting with the Austrian accent she adopted for the role. “I asked Steven (Spielberg), ‘Don’t you think we should get a couple on my shoulders or something?’ He said, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ I said, ‘Yes.’

“In that scene you’ll see--I practically had to lay my head beneath them to get one to land on me. I wanted people to think ‘Indiana Jones-rats-Alison Doody.’ That’s my ideal.”

As if a starring role opposite cliffhanger king, Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, in the sure-to-be-box-office smash opening Wednesday wouldn’t be enough to cinch a gal’s career. But that’s not necessarily so.

Karen Allen, Ford’s spunky, hard-drinking cohort Marion of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” has never come close in subsequent films to the success of the 1981 release--her first major starring role. It didn’t matter how much the critics loved her or how long she hung by her thumbs over that pit of poisonous snakes, she continues to be confused with her contemporaries, Margot Kidder and Brooke Adams.

Kate Capshaw went from middling reviews as the nightclub floozy Willie screaming her way through “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” to starring roles in “Best Defense” with Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy, and “Spacecamp.”

As with Allen, the Indiana Jones action-adventure was Capshaw’s first major role and nothing that followed has come close to its success.

One might ask why Indiana Jones is able to hang on to his hat and his bullwhip through three films filled with hell and high water, but can’t seem to keep track of his women. Why must there be a different love interest in every film?

George Lucas, the Indiana Jones series producer, co-creator (with Steven Spielberg) and co-story writer of “Last Crusade,” (with Menno Meyjes) explained that the switch from Allen to Capshaw in the second film had to do with story logic.

“ ‘Temple of Doom’ was set in 1935, one year prior to ‘Raiders.’ Since Allen’s Marion and Harrison Ford’s Indy hadn’t seen each other in 10 years, the decision was made . . . not to have Karen Allen return,” Lucas said.

For the third film, set in 1938, Karen Allen’s character could have been brought back, “but we decided to get somebody fresh,” he said. “The primary relationship (in ‘Last Crusade’) is between father (Dr. Henry Jones, played by Sean Connery) and son. Karen’s character would have been a tag-along. We wanted a strong role and a reason for it to be there.”

Thus was born Dr. Elsa Schneider, who shares Indy’s fearlessness and passion for science.

Lucas said the film makers chose to focus on the father-son relationship between Connery and Ford as a “concrete way to explore the abstract metaphors of the film--the search for the Grail itself, the quest for personal happiness and satisfaction in a caring, lasting relationship with another person. We decided those themes were best served by the father and son.”

Not to say that Indiana Jones isn’t capable of a lasting, caring relationship with a woman. The question is, who would it have been? There was real chemistry between Indy and the spunky spitfire Marion. She could hold her own against Nazis and still look great in a dress. And being the only brunette of the trio, you’d think she’d be ready for kids, cooking and card writing at Christmas.

Willie, the Shanghai nightclub performer of “Temple of Doom,” was too squeamish to last long with our hero. He’d drop her as soon as he got the first late-night phone call to come kill a spider in the bathroom. No doubt, she’d drop him for the first guy who pulled up in a Bugatti.

Indy and the sophisticated, Aryan queen Elsa could have made for a fun couple, the Sly Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen of the faculty party circuit, but philosophical differences would seem to head them for career conflicts.

Lucas said Marion was Indy’s best hope of a long-term relationship. “The assumption can be made that they went off and were at least good friends,” Lucas says. He cautions that “Steven might have a different opinion,” but ventures the thought that “her character was his equal as much as any have been.”

In keeping with the Indiana Jones tradition, the “Last Crusade’s” love interest was cast with a relative unknown.

Dublin-born Doody’s biggest previous part was as a sidekick to Grace Jones and Christopher Walken in the James Bond thriller “A View to a Kill.”

Doody came to acting “quite by accident,” she said. She had planned to go to art school to become a fashion designer. Modeling assignments helped pay tuition, and soon an acting agent in London led to film roles.

Doody comes from a non-theatrical family (her father is in real estate) and most of her acting training has been on the job. She would like eventually to do stage to sharpen her craft.

“When my agent told me I’d be reading for the part and that I’d need an Austrian accent,” Doody said, “I called a German actor friend, bought a tape recorder and started listening to his voice constantly.”

After three audition scenes and some improvisations, Spielberg asked her how she felt about rats.

“I said I loved them,” she said. “I would have said anything at that moment to get the role. But it’s true, I love all animals. There’s nothing wrong with rats. I think they just get a lot of bad press.”

Doody is grateful that Spielberg didn’t make her perform with snakes or spiders, a favorite creep-out creature from the previous films. “That would have been a different story,” she said. “I don’t take much to spiders. They always look the same. You can never tell whether they’re happy or mad.”

The shoot that took Doody and the rest of the “Indiana Jones” cast and crew on location to Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and the American Southwest left the Irish actress with her share of bruises and at least one scar--from dripping wax while carrying torches through the catacombs.

As for the lasting marks the film will make on her career, Doody is optimistic, despite the track records of Indy’s two previous co-stars.

“I hope it will open doors for me,” Doody said. “I hope I’m not just operating under an illusion. But I know it’s not going to do everything for me. It’s up to me to produce the goods. I’ll have to choose my next project wisely and the project after that.”

After “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Allen did impress as Albert Finney’s mistress in “Shoot the Moon,” but by 1985 was publicly grousing that she wished to shake her identity with “Raiders.” She is currently in Australia filming “Confidence,” starring Bryan Brown and directed by Taylor Hackford.

As for Capshaw, she was most recently seen in the CBS miniseries “Internal Affair,” with Richard Crenna, and has completed the film “Black Rain,” starring Michael Douglas and directed by Ridley Scott.

Doody isn’t too concerned with being typecast and wouldn’t turn down another action-adventure film--as long as it wasn’t a James Bond movie. “I wouldn’t want to do another one of those right away,” she said. “But one doesn’t want to be too choosy when they’re first starting out. You can’t turn everything down.”