Re: Shadow Ticket—Pre-Code

[Robin Landseadel]

> On 05/04/2026 8:49 AM PDT Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>  
> me: Pynchon hasn't specifically written about filmmaking in the Hays Code era, has he?
> 
> Robin: Have you heard of a little pamphlet called Gravity's Rainbow?
>  
> I don't recall any mentions in GR of directors working around censorship during the Hays Code period (during which GR takes place). Maybe I've forgotten some passing references? The whole Greta/ Gerhardt von Goll sequence of course doesn't qualify. Neither do mentions of King Kong, Marlene Dietrich or Bianca's sexualized Shirley Temple routine.
> 
I don't recall any talk about directors working around censorship issues in ST either.

My focus initially was/is more about the connection of the fall of Pynchon and Company when
Fox Films was taken down. I know I can go deeper into the weeds and doubtless will. I'm simply
noting that a number of films from 1935 onward are mentioned in GR. I've only just started
thinking of how ST and GR are related. Here's a list of movies cited in Gravity's Rainbow. Note
how most are Pre-Code:

* Going My Way (1944)
* White Zombie (1932)
* Son of Frankenstein (1939)
* Freaks (1932)
* Flying Down to Rio (1933)
* Dumbo (1941)
* Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
* Die Nibelungen (1924)
* Die Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon, 1929)
* Frankenstein (1931)
* The Return of Jackie Slade (1941)
* King Kong (1933)
* Fu Manchu (1931)
* Wizard of Oz (1939)
* Tarzan (1932)
* Zorro (1940)
* Martin Fierro (1940)
* The Return of Martin Fierro (1941)
* Alpdrucken (Nightmare, 1929)
* Good Society (1930)
* Weisse Sandwuste Neumexiko (White Desert of New Mexico, 1930)
* Jugend Herauf! (Youth Arise!, 1930)
* Lucky Pierre Runs Amok (1930)
* Dr. Mabuse der Spieler (The Gambler, 1929)
* Metropolis (1927)
* Der Mude Tod (The Tired Death, 1929)
* Doper’s Greed (1930)
* The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
* A Day at the Races (1937)
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1914)
* Dracula (1931)
* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
* New Dope (1930)
* Reply Award (1930)

23 are Pre-Code, 10 from the Hays era, make of that what you will.
 

> Pynchon (and others) may believe that Shirley Temple's movies were pedophile-coded. I think it's more a case of  (paraphrasing) "Did the baby smile or does it have gas. Which do you want it to be?" 
> 
 
As for Shirley Temple's movies and public persona being pedophile-coded, Pynchon clearly
found something in that. However, even more than that I was looking at the piggish behavior
in GR and ST of "The Little Princess". In ST we have Squeezita Thickly acting like a pig, at least
as regards her appetite (though she is something of a Little Fascist as a Food Commissar). And
later, on page 241, a Mangalica pig is compared to Squeezita.
 
Three times is supposed to be the charm, maybe somebody can tell me what's going on here.