Mad Men @ the Movies: Charlton Heston Starkers and "A Star is Born"
Monday, April 9, 2012 at 9:01PM 
In "Mad Men @ the Movies" we look at the best show on television through the lens of its movie-loving ways. Obviously there are spoilers.
5.3 "Tea Leaves"
In the third episode of the season Betty Draper Francis (January Jones) returns and there's more of her to love to hate! She's been packing on the pounds. At first there's a thyroid scare but it turns out Betty is just depressed and fat. The episode ends with Betty helping herself to a second ice cream sundae (to the tune of The Sound of Music's "I Am Sixteen"). Why not?
One of the themes of the new season is aging and the rise of youth culture is evident. Betty is referred to as middle-aged by her doctor. Don, previously an icon of cool, is now 'so square he's got corners' to both his younger wife (she's 20, he's 40) and the young teenagers he meets at a Rolling Stones concert (he's there with Harry Crane on business). When the teens hear that the men are in advertising they instantly think of Bewitched. "You're Derwood and He's Mr. Cravitz."
Later after smoking a joint Harry is trying to impress the teens with celebrity stories.
Charlton Heston and Esther Blodgett after the jump
Harry Crane: You know who has the best stuff? Charlton Heston!
Teen Girl: Who's that?
Harry: We went to his house. He came out naked. He's a very good looking man. I guess if I looked like that I'd be naked a lot, too. In fairness I don't think he knew we were there. It was kind of an impromptu meeting. We wanted him to be the voice of Vapo-Rub. Isn't that perfect?
Don Draper: She just said she didn't know who that is.❞
While it's true that the mega hit The Planet of the Apes was two years in the future from this episode, it seems odd that the teens wouldn't even know who the movie star was. Charlton Heston was a major star of the 1950s -- Ben Hur himself! -- when these teenagers would have been kids. Perhaps the point is that the star of biblical epics was even more square than Don Draper.
Still the reference to Charlton Heston having the best weed and being naked is funny to those of us in the 21st century who tend to remember him as an icon of the gun-loving right wing rather than a male sex symbol. But in truth Charlton Heston was often on display in movies, even if he was not always conscious of the way his manly image was exploited; he was famously oblivious to the gay coding of Ben-Hur and this unfortunate shot from Apes has always cracked me up.
5.4 "Mystery Date"
The new episode is surely a pivotal point for the series though we can't yet know how it will affect things. But it played boldly as it literalized Don Draper's reputation as a ladykiller in a dream sequence that wasn't coded specifically as such. Speaking of lady-killings the rest of the cast obsessed over the 1966 nurse killings in Chicago.
For all the references to violence against women, it was the female cast members who gained the upper hand: Joan Harris finally showed her doctor husband the door but not before referencing the time he raped her during their engagement; Sally's new grandmother stole all her scenes; Megan Draper put her foot down with Don about his previously loose morals (she will not be as easily fooled as Betty); Peggy robbed Sterling blind when she saw she had the upper hand in a negotiation. Indeed the only man who was revealing his power at all was the new copywriter Michael Ginsberg (played by Drop Dead Diva's Ben Feldman) who also reframed the Cinderella story as a fairly creepy woman-in-danger narrative while pitching an ad he wasn't supposed to pitch "Too dark?"
The show has hinted that he'll be a threat to Peggy (Elisabeth Moss, still just great in this role) but Peggy is ever resourceful and interesting to watch. She tries to forge a new friendship with the firm's new secretary, its only black employee Dawn.
I was his secretary, you know. I didn't even ask for it. Sometimes they drag the secretaries in for focus groups to try things. And I was discovered.
...like Esther Blodgett!❞
The girls giggle together at that. Esther Blodgett is of course the Star who was Born... and who surpassed the man who birthed her in movie after movie; this analogy is getting away from me! But Peggy's A Star is Born reference is instantly understood (the mutual giggle).
It's also instantly interesting. Despite Peggy ending the brilliantly disconnected scene (Peggy and Dawn are having different conversations) wondering if she even wants the life she's been fighting for this seems to be yet another moment where we as the audience are invited to think of Peggy as the younger female counterpart to Don Draper. Will this Mad Men version of A Star is Born end with the young starlet eventually surpassing her man even as she yearns like a good martyr to still be defined by him? That's how the other versions end whether Esther is played by Janet Gaynor ('37), Judy Garland ('54), Barbra Streisand ('76) or presumably Beyoncé Knowles should Clint Eastwood ever make that fourth feature film version he's been threatening us with.
Esther Blodgett / Vicki Lester through the years.
Are you watching season 5 of Mad Men?
What do you make of the season so far and do you ever think of Peggy as the new/improved/inverted Don Draper?
Reader Comments (10)
Peggy certainly seems the heir apparent to Don's artistic head position (or whatever it's called). But the entrance of Ginsberg might challenge that--the Cinderella stunt he pulled with the corporate guys is totally reminiscent of a young Don (not to mention his general scrappiness), and Don would have fired him if he didn't see himself in the kid.
Peggy doesn't seem to have the ambition--or the raw talent--to beat out someone as hungry as Ginsberg.
I'm thinking that Peggy might burn a few too many bridges to advance much further. Even she mentioned how uncomfortable she is acting like a man. She's stepping on toes when TPTB at SCDP want the women to be sassy but submissive. Even Harry Crane knew when to not push the Roger bribe attempt too far. Peggy didn't and Roger was fuming.
Nothing good can come of Peggy doing the Mohawk campaign for Ginsberg. She'll do something incredible and not get the credit, while Ginsberg won't know how to commit to and continue what Peggy started.
I also found it very strange that they wouldn't know who Charlton Heston was. It made me wonder if going to the movies was seen as a cool thing to do during this era. Anyone know?
I really like season 5 so far! 'Zou BisouBisou' remains the highlight, although that shot of Betty eating a sundae to the tune of 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen' nips at its heels. (Will she ever grow up?)
Episode 4 was great too: Not only is Joan single, but Peggy is becoming more like Don every episode... a cynical workoholic who drinks too much. (I feel like something bad is going to happen to her soon...)
Also: tuned into SMASH for the past 2 weeks. It's great! Thanks for convincing me to tune in!
Because I don't have cable/proper internet access I can't watch Mad Men but since I already read the IndieWire posts on it I might as well read everything, including MM@M. And I have a bad feeling of how Peggy's love life will go.
The Esther Blodgett line was genius because all I could think about when Sally was taking the those pills was of a young Judy Garland, who was about the same age when she got started on the pills.
Anyway, I thought making Betty fat was also a wonderful way of handling January's pregnancy. It's meaty for the actress and makes sense for the character since she has always struggled with her past a chunky girl--and also, clearly had some kind of eating disorder. I mean, have we ever seen Betty eat before this season? Seemed like smoking and wine, mostly.
Megan isn't 20, she's 26. Betty was exaggerating because she wants to stress what a pervy goat Don is.
I distinctly remember seeing Planet of the Apes in the movies (I was 8) and being hot hot hot for naked Charlton Heston.
I've enjoyed S5 so far, particularly the offbeat storylines (including Don's 'Play Misty for Me'-esque fantasy [?] sequence) that traditionally haven't been this show's hallmark. But, although they rarely ever appear in the same scene, what I've not liked is the episodic rationing of Betty and Joan. (I don't like my divas in split doses like that!)
Mareko -- i concur. I'd gladly take an all Joan/Betty episode :)
Hear, hear. Can we commission Matthew Weiner to do a Very Special (Joan/Betty) Episode please?