Chapter Overview

In this comedic tale set high in the Italian Alps, Indy finds himself fighting not only Germans, but for the heart of a beautiful Italian girl. Still working as a spy, Indy is charged with sneaking behind enemy lines to lead a small group of defecting German soldiers into allied territory. Between missions Indy races to his innocent and beautiful Guiletta, only to discover that there is another suitor challenging his love. Distraught over the possibility of losing yet another love, Indy seeks advice from an ambulance driver named Ernest Hemingway.
Indy is then forced to leave Italy for Africa, when he is dispatched to go undercover in the French Foreign Legion to investigate how French weapons are falling into the hands of the enemy. This adventure places Indy with famed author, Edith Wharton, and future storyteller, Lowell Thomas.

People and Topics

Documentary Previews

Below you will find information about each documentary that supplements Tales of Innocence.

Unhealed Wounds: The Life of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was the best-selling, most celebrated author of his time. He wove war, love, pain and death into unforgettable patchworks of prose, and sought adventure and craved risk. Behind a cheerful façade were wounds much deeper than any physical ones sustained in an eventful lifetime. Hemingway battled devastating personal wounds he found impossible to shake. Produced and Written by Karena O'Riordan. Running Time: (0:34:55)

The French Foreign Legion: The World's Most Legendary Fighting Force

For almost two hundred years one group of fighting men has held an unrivaled grip on the world's imagination. Shadowy pasts have made them outcasts. Glorious victories have made them heroes. And bitter defeats -- often in hopeless battles to the death -- have transformed them into legends. They are the men of the French Foreign Legion. Today, the mystique that surrounds these unusual soldiers still fascinates, still draws young men to enlist in their ranks. Produced by Mark Page and Jennifer Petrucelli. Written by Mark Page. Running Time: (0:28:22)

The Secret Life of Edith Wharton

In 1905, all of New York was riveted by the story of Lily Bart, a stunning young woman hoping to claim her place in society through marriage to a wealthy man. As her prospects for marriage unraveled, Lily's life spiraled downward. No longer the toast of New York society, she ended up in a rooming house, alone and penniless. After drinking an overdose of sleeping medication, she died. This tragic figure whose story so captivated New York was not real. She was a character in the novel The House of Mirth. The writer who exposed the dark side of High Society was herself a member of it; Edith Wharton was in a unique position to chronicle -- and critique the upper class. She did -- mercilessly -- and her literary success came at a price. Produced and Written by Betsy Bayha. Running Time: (0:30:35)

Lowell Thomas: American Storyteller

Over the course of his illustrious career, Lowell Thomas was an adventurer, a showman, the most familiar voice in radio, a television personality and a media pioneer. He was one of the first to be called a newscaster, but through it all, one thing always was true about Lowell Thomas: he was a supreme storyteller. Produced and Written by David O'Dell. Running Time: (0:29:17)

Indy Connections: Tales of Innocence

Below are current event articles that relate to events, topics, and people found in Tales of Innocence.

The Most Loved and Hated Novel About World War I

Smithsonian.com

6/16/2015

On December 5, 1930, just over 12 years after the end of World War I, German moviegoers flocked to Berlin’s Mozart Hall to see one of Hollywood’s latest films. But during the movie, a cadre of 150 Nazi Brownshirts, nearly all too young to have fought in World War I, were led into the theater by propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Spewing anti-Semitic invective at the screen, they repeatedly shouted “Judenfilm!” as they tossed stink bombs from the balcony, threw sneezing powder in the air, and released white mice into the theater. A somewhat shocking turn of events, considering the movie was the highly anticipated adaptation of countryman Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the blockbuster novel that had transfixed the nation months earlier.

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Sunken Wrecks Of Epic WWI Naval Battle Revealed

news.sky.com

6/16/2015

They show the battered wrecks of several of the 25 warships - 14 of them British - that were blown up during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, 1916. Among them is HMS Invincible which was torn apart by a German shell, killing more than 1,000 sailors. HMS Defence and HMS Queen Mary were also scanned during the survey.

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World War One time capsule discovered in Germany

telegraph.co.uk

11/21/2014

A hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, builders renovating a historic castle in Germany’s Ruhr valley have found a time capsule that appears to have been left in memory of soldiers who died in the conflict.

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WWI Canadian soldiers' remains identified

cbc.ca

10/5/2014

Nearly a century after they died in battle, the remains of unidentified Canadian soldiers who fought in the First World War are still being found in Europe.
Today the Department of National Defence released the names of four who died during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918.
Their resting place was discovered in 2006 by then 14-year-old Fabien Demeusere, while digging in his back garden in Hallu, France, 120 kilometres north of Paris.

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Trench Warfare in World War I Was a Smarter Strategy Than You Realize

io9.com

9/22/2014

History remembers trench warfare as wasteful, futile, and uninspired, but in reality it was a deeply thought-out system that underwent constant revision. Here's how it worked during World War I.
Top image: A painting by Captain Kenneth Keith Forbes shows a Canadian 6-inch howitzer supporting British troops in the attack on Thiepval on 16 July 1916 during the Somme offensive. Via Canadian Artillery in Action.
It was around this time 100 years ago that the mobile battlefield along the Western Front ground to a screeching halt — a 440 mile stretch that barely moved in the ensuing four years.

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The Blockbuster World War I Film that Brought Home the Traumatic Impact of War

Smithsonian.com

8/21/2014

The United States had entered the war with high hopes and dreams—aiming to make the world “safe for democracy” as President Woodrow Wilson would proclaim, but by the 1920s there were strong feelings that the U.S. should never have gotten itself involved in the byzantine affairs of the European powers. Isolationist sentiments grew across the country especially after the rejection of the Versailles Treaty by the U.S. Congress in 1920. These feelings of bitterness and disappointment found their fullest expression in the literature of the day, written by members of what has become known as the “Lost Generation,” most notably John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

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This Riveting Art From the Front Lines of World War I Has Gone Largely Unseen for Decades

Smithsonian.com

8/12/2014

In the words of one historian, “Art and war are old companions.” The United States government proved that nearly a century ago when it commissioned eight artists to go to war. Armed with sketchpads, charcoals, pastels and little to no military training, the artists embedded with the American Expeditionary Forces and sketched everything from rolling tanks to portraits of German prisoners. The War Department coordinated the program in the hopes that the artists could provide a historical record and galvanize support for the war.

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First World War centenary: how the events of August 2 1914 unfolded

telegraph.co.uk

8/2/2014

Britain went to war on August 4 1914. In the second part of a four-day series, we document the dramatic events leading up to the declaration of war as they happened, hour-by-hour.

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A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: ‘We desire no conquest, no dominion. The world must be made safe for democracy’

independent.co.uk

6/5/2014

A light rain was falling on the evening of 2 April 1917 as Woodrow Wilson was driven from the White House to Capitol Hill, escorted by a unit of the United States cavalry, to address a specially convened joint session of Congress. According to contemporary accounts, the 28th president looked pale and nervous. But his words betrayed not the slightest doubt or hesitancy.

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For men used to mining - fighting in trenches was seen as an escape FROM HELL

express.co.uk

6/1/2014

These days, however, Big Pit digs tourism, not coal; the party descending into the earth are American visitors. There are no working deep-mines remaining in South Wales; already in decline, the area's coalfield was annihilated in the wake of the 1984-5 Miners' Strike, the names of the closed collieries to toll like funeral bells. Mardy. Tower. Deep Navigation. Markham. Lady Windsor. How black was my valley a century ago, on the eve of the Great War, when there were a dozen collieries within sight, and another 600 coal mines across South Wales, employing 232,000 men, who hewed 57 million tons a year, a fifth of the entire output of the United Kingdom. The very earth vibrated to the metronomic percussion of thousands of subterranean men wielding the pick. Coal for the Navy. Coal for industry. Coal for locomotives. Coal for homes.

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Suggested Lessons

• "Three Shots": Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams
• Hemingway Adventure
• Edith Wharton: War Correspondent
• Personal or Social Tragedy? A Close Reading of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome