I keep trying to think of a movie that might have influenced DS. But gosh darn it, I just wasn't alive before DS, during DS, or even right after DS. So that pretty much disqualifies me from this category.
That's not much of an excuse.
Your qualifications have less to do with age than with your familiarity with movies.
There is one film that had a major lasting influence on later DS strorylines, and I'm surprised no one has thought of this idea before! The film is one the DS writers probably saw during its original release in 1958: Vertigo! The whole bit about Barnabas trying to recreate Josette by molding Maggie Evans in the image of his lost love is a definite homage to the Hitchcock classic. Substitute Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak with Jonathan Frid and KLS and you'll get the point. Barnabas was always trying to find a new Josette for most of the show's run: Maggie, Vicki, Rachel, Lady Kitty- it's amazing he stopped when Roxanne entered the picture.
It's been thought of before.
I used
Vertigo a few years ago in my freshman English class, and I remember having discussions with my DS friends at the time about the similarities. I didn't post about it here because I can't remember a lot of the specifics from the film, and, frankly, it was such a rotten teaching experience that I probably blocked it purposely. Unfortunately, the typical freshman can't seem to deal with the deliberately slow pacing of portions of the film.
Another DS connection here . . . Kim Novak appeared on
Falcon Crest with David Selby as a character pretending to be someone she wasn't, someone who was dead. There were several references to her
Vertigo role, including a scene shot in front of the Golden Gate bridge.