Indiana Jones rides into Cannes on Sunday on his most perilous quest, facing a whipping by the critics or the Holy Grail of success.

The world premiere of the latest instalment in the "Indiana Jones" saga, the first in 19 years, is the hottest ticket at this year's Cannes film festival.

Crowds milled outside the Cannes festival centre, many waving signs saying "Anyone got an invite to get in to see Indiana?", the entrance to the city's poshest hotel, the Carlton, was made over as a sort of temple decorated with skulls and snakes.

The fourth adventure from Hollywood hitters Steven Spielberg and George Lucas -- "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" -- gets two screenings, the first and most potentially dangerous is a press viewing a little after noon, a showing some reckon is tantamount to Indiana's worst nightmare, a snake pit.

A hugh crush of journalists was already queuing up to an hour before the screening, hoping to get a place.

"Why is Indiana Jones entering the Kingdom of the Critical Knives?" quipped trade magazine Variety this week.

Hollywood blockbusters have a chequered history at Cannes and studios carefully weigh up the pros and cons before releasing big-budget movies at a high-profile fest like Cannes, attended by sharp-tongued, hard-eyed, often-extenuated jet-lagged critics.

On the plus side is the enormous publicity from a world release at the film industry's largest cinema showcase.

On the down side are fears of a mauling of what is arguably the most-awaited movie of the year as bad as the bruising that greeted "Da Vinci Code" in Cannes in 2006.

Should critics jeer at the noon screening and word get out ahead of Sunday evening's gala premiere at 1700 GMT, the climb up the red carpet could be as difficult an ascent as any "Indy" stunt yet for Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Spielberg and Lucas.

"I think the public will like it. As for the critics ..." Spielberg told French film monthly Cine Live.

Plot details have been kept under wraps, although it is known that the first Indiana Jones released in 19 years this time takes place against the backdrop of the Cold War, with an older Jones on a quest for an ancient skull with mystical powers from an Amazonian temple.

The adventure begins in 1957 as Professor Jones returns to his college to find he is under suspicion from the government and may be fired.

On his way out of town he meets young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who proposes a mission to find the Crystal Skull of Akator, supposed to be in a remote corner of Peru.

Hot on their heels are Blanchett, the icy cold but devastatingly beautiful Soviet agent locked in battle for the eerie skull against now 65-year-old archeologist-adventurer Ford, who says he did his own stunts.

The problem for Spielberg and Lucas, whose first three episodes in the saga grossed 1.2 billion dollars between 1981 and 1989, is that reports are swirling that the film may not live up to its predecessors.

Earlier this month, a review on aintitcoolnews.com, claiming to have been written by an anonymous executive after a preview, dubbed it "the Indiana movie that you were dreading."

So why is Indiana Jones facing the terrifying challenge of Cannes?

"In theory," said Variety, "everybody wins. Cannes gets a Major Event and 'Indy' gets even more worldwide attention.

"And Spielberg and Lucas can remind the world that they're not just movie guys but Serious Makers of Cinema as they return to Cannes, the place that helped deify Fellini, Bergman, Antonioni and their compatriot Coppola."