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Fourteen Hours and Other Sources
Grace Kelly's first movie was called Fourteen Hours based on a New Yorker article regarding a man about to jump from a building in New York. Grace Kelly plays a woman considering a divorce. I sense some influences of this movie and others on Mad Men. Can anyone else think of other sources?
I see a lot of Hitchcock references in Mad Men, particularly with Betty. January Jones is a Grace Kelly look-alike, and Matt Weiner puts her in scenes and attire very much reminiscent of Kelly's in Hitchcock films. In episodes in which Betty is seen in her white negligee, she resembles Kelly wearing an almost identical garment in Dial M for Murder. The scene in Season Two, Episode 1 in which Betty glides down the stairs of the hotel to meet Don reminds me of a scene from Rear Window. James Stewart's character wakes from a nap to see an astonishingly beautiful Kelly wafting toward him, wearing an voluminous cocktail gown. Finally, Betty's horse obsession reminds me of Hitchcock's Marnie. The role of Marnie was played very well by Tippi Hedren, but Hitchcock originally wanted Kelly for the role. Kelly, by then married to Prince Rainier and the mother of two, was ecstatic about returning to films. However, the people of Monaco were mortified that her would-be film character was a sociopathic thief with a former prostitute as a mother. The princess had to decline the role.
Weiner was definitely influenced by other films, especially The Apartment, a marvelous 1960 film starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley Mc Laine and Fred Mac Murray. And there are a few other fun ad films - the Hucksters, with Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr; as well as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, with Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones
I know there are so many others I am missing. Come on Maddicts, help me here!
Love all your insight, Catty!
One that comes to mind is "Executive Suite" with William Holden (very Don Draperish in it!) and June Allyson. It's about a furniture company's inner workings. Also has Barbara Stanwyck in it!
It's got that Mad Men "look" to it! Great acting also.
It even had Shelley Winters in it, I do believe.
The Hucksters was a good movie. I only saw it once and haven't seen it on television in a long time. There is a movie called the Desk Set. It has Katherine Heburn and Spencer Tracy in it. The office pool reminds me of Sterling Cooper's office. Tracy plays a efficiency expert and comes in to clean house. That would be an interesting subplot on Mad Men especially in today's downsizing "madness".