I feel sorry for Dr Indiana Jones. He is the most famous archaeologist on the planet, and yet no one seems to take his lectures remotely seriously. His field trips are forever being hijacked by Nazis, and his father, Professor Henry Jones, used to masquerade as James Bond. The indignity of it all. Worse, the actor who plays him has scant respect for Dr Jones’s contribution to science despite the personal fortune he has excavated from Steven Spielberg’s trilogy. At least Harrison Ford actually enjoyed playing Jones, before he retired from the role after The Last Crusade in 1989. He hated Blade Runner and Star Wars.

But old treasure hunters die hard. The imminent unveiling of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on May 18 at the Cannes Film Festival has set hearts aflutter. Indy is one of film’s most loveable rogues. The terrific sense of expectation after 20 years is in stark contrast to similar recent comebacks by Rocky and Rambo. Indy is a genuine rarity. So too are big movie roles for the ageing Harrison Ford. He is 64. The last time he carried an entire film was Wolfgang Petersen’s totally barmy Air Force One more than a decade ago. Ford might begrudge the suggestion that he needs Jones. The producers (including George Lucas, who invented Indiana Jones with Philip Kaufman) would doubtless disagree. Ford’s stock will go through the roof.

That the ultimate B-movie of 2008 is headlining the most distinguished arthouse festival in the world is an irony lost on no one, least of all the director Steven Spielberg. The last time he was invited to premiere one of his films on the Croissette was in 1982 when he opened ET: The Extra Terrestrial in Cannes. He hasn’t been back since. The secrecy surrounding The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has made it the most eagerly anticipated event at the festival.

George Lucas and David Koepp have set the story in 1957, ageing Jones by 19 years. The postwar university lecturer is forced to crack the whip once more when he becomes tangled up in a KGB plot to discover the secrets of some rare Mayan artefacts known as the Crystal Skulls. He is prodded and helped by his former lover Marion (Karen Allen) from the original Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), a Hell’s Angel played by Shia LaBeouf, and a trio of British academics played by Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent.

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not, according to Koepp, as dark as The Temple of Doom (1984), or as light as The Last Crusade. In tone and spirit it is closest to Raiders with its classically composed action sequences, and precious few digital special effects. The novel daring of the picture is showing Indy growing old.

When asked recently if Ford was too elderly for Indiana Jones’s sportive tricks, the producer Frank Marshall plucked a line from Raiders: “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” The actor himself feels the movie has the potential to reach a far bigger demographic, precisely because he shamelessly does play his age.

He might have added that there is a huge demand for Indy’s method heroism – which is why, I suspect, the star insists on doing almost all his own stunts. No one does fear quite like Harrison Ford. He has spent most of his Hollywood career perfecting his anxiety in films as disparate as Roman Polanski’s Frantic, and Mike Nichols’s Working Girl (both 1988). He has managed to turn teeth-clenching panic into a facial art form.

It helps that Ford has the sex appeal of an old-fashioned matinee idol. He may not be as dashing as George Clooney, but he still has a good strong jaw, and a deft line in withering irony. That self-deprecating charm has been both Ford and Jones’s saving grace. Let’s hope they bring bags of it to Cannes.

Pearls of ancient wisdom

Indiana Jones on:

AGEING
“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”

REPTILES
“Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?”

THE THIRD REICH
“Nazis. I hate these guys.”

FAMILIAL BONDS
Professor Henry Jones: “Actually, I was a wonderful father.” Indiana Jones: “When?”

UNFLAPPABILITY
Jones: “Wear your jewels to bed Princess?” Willie Scott: “Yeah . . . and nothing else. Shock you?” Indiana Jones: “Nothing shocks me. I’m a scientist.”

*Compiled by Ed Potton, Louise Cohen and John McNamara

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is released nationwide on May 22 2008; the first three Indiana Jones films are being released on DVD on Monday 12 May 2008

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