VLVL(5) At the Movies and on the Tube

[Toby G Levy]

There's a rather odd exchange between Zoyd and Frenesi during their last
face to face conversation as described on the second page of Chapter 5.

Zoyd says "Feel like Mildred Pierce's husband, Bert."

To which Frenesi replies "Appreciate the comparison Zoyd, although as
you see I'm alone..."

(Am I wrong in thinking there should be a comma after "comparison?"  Is
there one in other editions)

Mildred Pierce was a box office smash in 1945 for Joan Crawford.  Zoyd
says that he feels like the character Bert, because in the movie (as in
the novel by James M. Cain) Bert is rejected by Mildred, who goes on to
have a successful life without her husband. So his comment is a
reference to Frenesi's rejection of Zoyd.  Frenesi tells Zoyd that she
appreciates being compared to Joan Crawford, but she is not rejecting
Zoyd so she can go man-hunting.

It seems strange that these two characters are discussing a movie from
1945 in the 1970s.  This was just before cable TV and VCRs exploded the
availability of old movies. Why do you suppose Pynchon has the two main
characters bring this movie up?

There are several other movie references in this chapter.  The Kahuna
Airline that Zoyd finds employment with shows movies with Hawaiian
themes.  The three that Pynchon mention are all followed by the date of
release in parenthesis, his method of showing that they are real movies,
as opposed to the ones he makes up in the novel.

Zoyd plays the "main title theme from "Godzilla, King of the Monsters
(1956)" as the mysterious intruders prowl through the airplane, and as
Takeshi makes his initial appearance in the novel. The movie title
Pynchon lists is the American title, released two years after the
Japanese version, entitled "Gojira" was released.  The main character
was played by an actor named "Takashi Shimura" and the Babies of
Wackiness folks state that Takeshi's name was "Almost surely borrowed"
from the actor.

I'm not so sure.  An equally possible source is Takeshi Kitano.  Here's
what the All Movie Guide has to say about him:

"'Beat' Takeshi Kitano is widely considered to be Japan's foremost media
personality. In addition to his work in the film industry he is an
active newspaper columnist, an author and poet, and a ubiquitous
presence on Japanese television where he can be seen in up to eight
prime time shows per week.
Kitano first found fame, as well as his "Beat" nickname, in the early
'70s as one-half of the manzai comedy duo The Two Beats, a fast-paced,
cross-talk act that thrilled audiences with their off-color humor and
satirical bite. Throughout the early '80s, Kitano acted in a number of
films, most memorably in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
(1983). He portrayed Sgt. Hara, the jailer of a concentration camp, with
a mixture of brutality and pathos, a characterization he would repeat in
his later self-directed efforts."

So maybe the second half of The Two Beats was "Ichizo?"  (Takeshi and
Ichizo were the wacky Kamikaze pilots in Gravity's Rainbow.)  No, the
other "Beat" was Kiyoshi Kaneko.  But the name "Ichizo" takes us right
back to Godzilla, because Ichizo Kobayashi was the guy who found Toho,
the company that got rich making Godzilla movies.

Turning to Television, Pynchon manages three separate references to
Hawaii Five-O in this chapter. (Hawaii Five-O aired from September 1968
through April 1980. A long run.)

First during Zoyd's conversation with Frenesi, Zoyd says "what happened,
Steve McGarrett couldn't solve a case..."  Steve McGarrett was the name
of Jack Lord's character on the show.

On the next page Zoyd tells the hotel manager that the only thing
keeping him from suicide is "the indignity of lying there all splattered
by the pool and in my last few seconds on Earth hearing Jack Lord say,
'Book, him Danno -- Suicide One.'"

Finally, a couple of pages later in describing the inadequacies of
Kahuna Airlines, Pynchon cites "the failure of Jack Lord to show up, as
promised in the brochure, for photo opportunities."


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