Mad Men @ The Movies: Born Free, Feeling Trapped
Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 11:00AM In this series we explore the connections between Mad Men and the cinema. Season five has, thus far, not used the movies as much as they have in previous seasons. Though it's also possible that blogging concurrently with airings could result in missed references. Needless to say, I am behind so let's discuss the past couple of weeks of Mad Men.
Driving lessons for sad Pete Campbell
5.5 "Signal 30"
This episode focused on Pete, one of the show's least likeable characters who has, over the course of five years, grown more sympathetic and even more admirable while not really becoming more likeable per se. It's a nifty balancing act that actor Vincent Kartheiser performs tremendously well. Other than fame and fortune, this has been a thankless character for him as his fellow cast members have reaped abundant nominations (if strangely no wins) and increased big screen traction. If they have any sense this will be Kartheiser's Emmy submission episode for Season Five. A repeating motif in which Pete had to watch those old scare-tactic car crash documentaries they used to show in Drivers Ed courses was also stealthily employed. (Now that he's a suburban husband, he has to learn to drive.) Even though Pete was foolishly attempting to cheat on his wife Trudy (so charming even Don Draper is a fan!) with a teenager, and even though he got a well deserved beat down (literally) from Lane, the episode managed the miraculous feat of making you feel altogether bad for him as he struggles to grow up; Pete still looks like a little boy but he no longer feels like one.
Mrs Ken Cosgrove, Mrs Pete Campbell, Mrs Don DraperAging has been a theme of this season, from fatigue to illness to a widening gap between the younger and older characters mindsets. Great, great episode that even managed to thread in a B plot for the oft underused Ken Crosgrove (Aaron Staton) and also a key one for Janie Bryant's always thrilling costume design. (Fact: Janie Bryant never winning the Emmy for Mad Men should be a true embarassment to the entire television industry.) A
5.6 "Far Away Places"
Movie Theater Scene Alert! It's always a delight when Mad Men takes us inside a movie theater. Don Draper used to play hooky there in the early seasons and last year he and Lane got drunk and went to a monster movie together. Strangely the very next movie theater scene within the series also involves a character behaving badly. The cinema corrupts them!
The episode begins with Peggy fighting with her boyfriend who wants to see a movie that night.
PUBLIC INDECENCY AFTER THE JUMP ... The Naked Prey indeed.
Abe: How about tonight we go see that stupid movie about the guy being hunted in Africa, The Naked Prey
Peggy: I don't know, Abe.
Abe: If it was just a chance to see Cornel Wilde naked. I heard he wrestles a boa constrictor. Sounds pretty dirty.
In exasperation after a heated argument that she takes him for granted (she does), Peggy agrees to see the movie.
The movie in question, The Naked Prey (1966) was a hit action film at the time and went on to an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Abe may or may not be exaggerating about the boa constrictor and the nudity (has anyone seen the movie?) but it is in fact about "The Man" (Hungarian American film star Cornel Wilde) being hunted in Africa. The 40s noir actor turned 50s swashbuckler actually directed the acclaimed film as well and it proved to be his last big success. He had been an Oscar nominee for Best Actor twenty years earlier with the Frédéric Chopin biopic A Song To Remember (1945) and Peggy and Abe who grew up in the 40s and 50s would've totally been familiar with him though you don't hear his name dropped so often anymore.
Later at work Peggy botches a big presentation -- well, the client botches it but Peggy reacts badly -- she leaves work in exasperation.
Bertram Cooper: Everyone's got somewhere to be today.
Peggy: I'm going to the movies."
But instead of meeting Abe later she passively-aggressively hits the movies alone and sees the lion-raising classic Born Free (1966) instead. Racial awareness is growing for the characters and 1966 apparently had an Africa fixation in the movie theaters, too. Peggy talks back at the screen. On the lion cub Elsa...
she's not going to make it out there alone."
...which is, if you think it over, a pretty great single line summation for so much of what ails Peggy. She takes weed from a fellow moviegoer and when he attempts to feel her up, she refuses and (uh) takes matters into her own hands. I'd include a screen cap but it's not working, perhaps to shield your virginal eyes from Peggy's public indecency. She's continually testing the waters of how much she can be like the men who surround her.
Oh my god. Angela Chase's mom pushes LSD!This was the halfway mark for the season and many of the characters are losing their grip. The episode uses a looping time structure to follow the same single day in Peggy, Don and Roger's lives: Peggy is faltering at work, Don can't control new much younger wife Megan the way he's used to controlling women, Roger tries LSD and will soon be bleeding alimony money twice over. B
P.S. We'll catch up with "At the Codfish Ball" and "Lady Lazarus" early in the week. Stay tuned and tune in Sunday nights to the best show on TV.
Africa, Mad Men, Mad Men at the Movies, Shirley Temple, TV, TV at the Movies, cats
Reader Comments (7)
If you ask me the least likable characters are performed by the actors who gave the best performances in Mad Men: Betty and Pete. Strangely, January Jones was a juggernaut in the first season (so many great episodes, from that return to modeling episode from the flirting among the horses and the end of her marriage) and now is gone; Pete has been there all the time in the shadows, and usually grows in only episode for season.
I love that they never meet: you can't handle both of them at the same time!
Thought the same thing about Patty Chase in MSCL! Angela would have been mortified about it, then...jealous? But Rayanne and her mom probably would have been there and done that already.
"If they have any sense this will be Kartheiser's Emmy submission episode for Season Five."
IF he's even nominated. The odds makers have him in a list of 30 but he's at 100/1. According to those who've followed the Emmy's for a while the problem is:
- John Slattery steals the spot-light; he's so likeable, is older, and "it's about time he was recognized"
- Supporting actor is an incredibly tight competition to get a nomination
- Peter Dinklage (who is actually the Lead on Game of Thrones) is taking a spot and is likely to win (as the Best Actor category is a race b/w Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm)
- Although 33 and acting for 27 years, he's still "too young". They like older for Best Supporting
- Mad Men is in it's 5th year, lazily people overlook performers who haven't been nominated in the first couple of years.
- And, most importantly, the nominations are voted on based primarily on "rep" and not on the actual episodes itself. The odds have been out for weeks and are not really adjusting due to weekly performance. They vote for the "names" they know. Vincent Kartheiser gets press but he's not a late-night celebrity and if you google Pete Campbell there is an awful lot of hate spewed towards his character.
So... it's a tragedy that he's constantly ignored. It IS a thankless role. He would have to turn more heroic and Matt Weiner would have to stop feeding Slattery all the good one-liners. Neither of these are likely.
I DO hope "Signal 30" gets recognition so that come speech time they will call out Vincent as important. My hopes for his actual personal Emmy recognition are dim.
When the hell is Elisabeth Moss going to get her long overdue Emmy for this show? She should have two, in my opinion. Season 2 and last season gave her two of her greatest moments.
I hated Signal 30, mostly because I'm bored by Pete. But I agree that Vincent is underrated. I think a large part of that, though, is he just avoids publicity like the plague.
Far Away Places was so much fun. I loved the scenes between Peyton List and John Slattery on LSD...I can't say enough good things about those performances.
I don't know what to think of Jessica Pare--she's good, but I feel like I'm getting Megan fatigue. I don't like that Joan and Peggy are being sacrificed in favor of her so much this season. I'm sure both actresses were not expecting that since JanJo was going to be on maternity leave.
Katie -- lol. true.
Bia -- yeah, I'm surprised at Megan's dominance but at least she's an interesting unstable molecule for the show (*she's* not unstable... but her presence with the other characters is) and most shows get worse when they just repeat themselves
Sarafina -- well. yeah. I guess i didn't mean it literally. I know all these things about Emmy (sigh) but I totally think he deserves a nomination.
IMPORTANCE OF CHOOSING