I feel like you're the right person to ask about this: if I "hypothetically" wanted to do a Hawkeye Pierce Adjacent Movie Marathon what would be on the list. so like specifically movies that are featured in canon (tales of manhattan, gaslight, etc) but also generally movies from the era that he might have seen and enjoyed. 👀appreciate any help in my quest to watch things that are not strictly speaking mash but still remind me of mash 🙏🏻
first off someone on IMDB was way ahead of the curve and made a list of many of the films that are referenced throughout the show; while it’s not complete it’s a fantastic starting point (also stay turned for my MASH book that i write in five years when i’m up for tenure when i do a dramaturgical analysis of every pop culture reference made in this show but anyways)
second, if you’re working with the timeline that hawkeye was born in 1920-ish and was part of the “movie generation” as he talks about with margaret in “carry on, hawkeye,” he was likely seeing a lot of pre-code era films (which makes sense given the everything about him and his sense of humor). in terms of specific films of the mid-30s i could see hawkeye liking (that i also recommend), i’d go for things like it happened one night, bringing up baby, the thin man (and all the sequels), mr. smith goes to washington, swing time, dead end, the milky way, baby face, artists and models, and design for living
third, some 1940s films that he might have seen in undergrad/med school that could also be up his street are cover girl, the palm beach story, his girl friday, the philadelphia story, you were never lovelier, sullivan’s travels, meet me in st. louis, the harvey girls, and ESPECIALLY anchors aweigh and on the town
lastly, hawkeye also mentions joel mccrea in multiple episodes which makes me think that he makes up hawkeye’s equivalent of BJ’s errol flynn feelings; he’s in a few of the films i mentioned before but i also recommend foreign correspondent, bed of roses, and the more the merrier