From the 1940s through the early 1970s, a company called Cornet Films produced instructional films primarily intended for teenaged audiences.
This 1950 example (via Mental Floss) addresses the question: How can you tell if you’re in love?
The video is an entertaining watch, primarily due to its quaint plot, dialogue, and mannerisms. When was the last time you saw teenage guys dressed up in suits to eat in a restaurant?
But once you get past the ’50ishness of it, the film does offer a more timeless message–on love. It touches on several types of attraction, then tasks viewers to ask the following questions to determine if they’re in “mature” love:
- Are we really interested in the same things?
- Do we feel at ease together?
- Are we proud of each other?
- Do we agree on the basic things (religion, marriage, children, money)?
This self-examination may seem crudely simple, but how many couples–even those in their 20s and 30s–gloss right over it when they get caught up in the emotion of romance? More than a few.
How Do You Know It’s Love? reminds us that while some things change over the years, others don’t.