At The Movies with Don Draper

Draper thinks about having a fag

Warning: the following article contains spoilers, and makes gratuitous use of the term ‘boffing’ as a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

One of the many pleasures to be found in Mad Men, the slow-burning, smoke-filled US television drama currently airing on BBC4, surely lies in spotting the countless cinematic references with which almost every episode is filled. Indeed, as the third series of the Sixties-set show continues to unfold on British screens, it’s becoming increasingly apparent just how much of a role movies from the period have in shaping creator Matthew Weiner’s vision.

For a start there’s the way that Mad Men looks. Like many films from the Fifties and early Sixties the show is, by and large, studio-bound. Don Draper, Peggy Olsen et al spend most of their time in the kinds of New York offices, apartments and bars that, with a few subtle modifications, are familiar to us already from films like The Apartment, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and The Girl Can’t Help It. And then there’s the way that Mad Men is shot: no hand-held malarkey here, just the kind of smooth, conventional compositions and strong, vibrant colours that one would find in any mainstream Hollywood movie from the period.