'Lover Come Back' and 'Mad Men'

"Mad Men" is the critical hit TV series about Madison Avenue ad men and women in early 60's New York City.

Its creator Matthew Weiner evidently made a study of some key fifties/early sixties films in preparing "Mad Men," including "The Apartment" and "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" and "The Best of Everything" and "North by Northwest"(about Madison Avenue ad man Cary Grant ROGER Thornhill) and other fifties films about New York City corporate lifestyles.

But, having recently seen it, I can't help believing Weiner didn't take a GOOD look at the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy "Lover Come Back" of 1961.

The comedy is about Madison Avenue, and posits Doris Day as a hard-working woman in one ad agency who is feuding with Rock's hard-drinking, womanizing ad man at another agency. In 1961's male world, Rock keeps landing accounts by wining and dining male clients...and plying them with women. Doris works hard on producing smart and interesting advertising campaigns, and gets nowhere in landing those male clients.

It's all light and spoofy and broad. But consider:

Edie Adams plays the curvaceous dancer Rock uses to woo men into signing with his ad firm. And in red hair and tight green dresses, Edie Adams here is a dead ringer for...Joan. Particularly in a scene in which Edie walks along a row of older men, leaning forward so they can see her "necklace."

Rock Hudson is paired with Tony Randall (of course) as his erst-while boss, a rich man who is running the firm that his late father started. Rock is a "self made man from the streets," Tony a rich kid heir to an ad firm,whose attempts to "boss Rock around" don't carry much weight. Why, its...Don Draper and Roger Sterling!

At the same time, Tony Randall's rather small and thin frame and snooty manner is somewhat reminiscent of...Pete Campbell! In fact, Tony's character here is named...Pete!

Ad woman Doris Day has an art director on staff who is pretty clearly...a gay man. (Hello, Sal!)

And Doris herself is a somewhat older version of Peggy: determined to make it in a man's world on the strength of her ideas and work ethic.

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It's all a bit too broad for a direct thematic match with the dramatic "Mad Men," but I know this much: Edie Adams' redhead is as visual a match for Joan as you can imagine in certain scenes.

So I figure Weiner got some inspiration from this movie.

While you wait for "Mad Men" to come back, watch "Lover Come Back" some time. Its...educational.