References/Similarities to The Apartment (1960)

I love both of these movies. Seen them both a number of times, and feel like I know them pretty well. But I happened to watch them both over the weekend in fairly quick succession - I didn't plan on it or anything, just the way it worked out, DVR-wise. Anyway, it didn't really hit me until these most recent viewings how similar these movies really are. I noticed that the Apartment is listed in the Movie Connections section here, but it doesn't list anything specific. I thought I'd list a few I noticed and see if there are any that I missed. Here goes.

First of all, the obvious: both movies take place in New York City, in basically the same time period. Hudsucker in December of 1958, the Apartment in December of either 1959 or 1960, I don't think it specifies.

Both movies have male protagonists who work in tall office buildings and rise rather quickly up the corporate ladder for reasons unrelated to their actual job performance - Norville because the company needs a president and he's seen as a perfect patsy, Baxter for allowing the executives to use his Apartment.

Multiple characters in both movies deal with the theme of suicide: Waring Hudsucker kills himself by jumping out of a window, board room exec with the awesome eyebrows tries to do the same thing, but is thwarted by the recently installed Plexiglas, Norville tries to kill himself the same way, but is unsuccessful by perhaps the greatest (and most literal) deus ex machina in all of film history. Miss Kubelik tries to kill herself with sleeping pills, but luckily is discovered by Baxter and Dr. Dreyfuss pumps her stomach in time. Baxter tells the story of how he bought a gun to kill himself, but accidentally shot himself in the knee. Not sure that this counts, but as a bookend to that story, and played as almost a joke at the end, Fran hears what she thinks is a gunshot, but is actually Baxter popping the cork off a campaign bottle.

Both movies end in the wee hours of New Years Day. Norville runs from the office through the streets of New York to find Amy in a bar, and Fran runs from a bar through the streets of New York to find Baxter in his apartment.

Visually, both movies have a lot of fun with the art deco architecture of the time period, and display the cavernous, almost un-ending interiors of the office building.

Both movies draw attention to the act of the names of the newly-crowned being painted on the doors of of their respective offices - possibly to draw attention to the impermanence of their positions and those that held them before (or will replace them after they are gone).

The relationships each protagonist has with the female lead is not remarkably similar, although one common thread is that there is something she is keeping secret from him that ultimately (albeit temporarily) undoes the relationship: Fran and her relationship with Mr. Sheldrake, Amy and her real job as a reporter for the Argus. Amy's duplicity is much more intentional compared to Fran's, but the dual nature of both of these characters is what makes their relationships so complex and interesting.

And, perhaps my favorite similarity - when Sheldrake threatens Baxter not to screw around with the key to his apartment, he says that it only takes 30 seconds to be out on the street again. 30 seconds is exactly how long it takes Waring Hudsucker to literally fall to the street after jumping from the 44th floor (not counting the mezzanine).

I'm sure I missed a bunch. What else you got?