The portrait at the center of Gifford's wall of paintings of his romantic conquests is the one of Gene Tierney from Laura (1944), which was Clifton Webb's first full-length talking picture, and the first for which he earned an Oscar nomination.
The connections to automotive companies of the era are both obvious and subtle. The "obvious" is Ford Motor Company which supplied Fords, Mercurys, Lincolns, "Dream Cars", and styling models for the film. There even are scenes of the Ford test track in Dearborn, Michigan. The "subtle" is the company name Gifford Motors, which is close to General Motors (i.e., GM). Also many shots of the New York skyline feature the Chrysler Building.
The Ford Motor Company concept cars or "dream cars" that appear in this film are the black Ford X-100, the white Mercury XM-800, and the red Lincoln XL-500. As the X-100's novelty wore off, it was eventually retired from the promotional circuit and in 1958 the car was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, where it lives to this day.
At the beginning when Clifton Webb first walks into his office building, the camera focuses briefly on the last four letters of the "Gifford" plaque (Ford), as a subliminal reference to the Ford Motor Company.
June Allyson had just completed Executive Suite (1954), in which, like this one, she played the wife of a man (William Holden) who is contender for an executive position with a major company due to another man having died.