The lesson is this: Social attitudes change. The cultural antenna of the writer must be alert to these movements or risk writing an antique. For example: In FALLING IN LOVE the force that opposes love is that the lovers are each married to someone else. The only tears in the audience came from yawning too hard. One could almost hear their thoughts screaming, “What’s your problem? You’re married to stiffs. Dump them. Does the word ‘divorce’ mean anything to you people?” Through the 1950s, however, a love affair across marriages was seen as a painful betrayal. Many poignant films—STRANGERS WHEN
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