ABSTRACT

I n films, romance often begins with the leading man offering a clever conversational open-ing gambit to the leading lady. The woman may not be immediately smitten. In An Affair to Remember (Wald & McCary, 1957), Terry McKay, played by Deborah Kerr, responded to Nickie Ferrante with the sarcastic comeback “Tell me, have you been getting results with a line like that?” Nonetheless, her interest was piqued, and the scene ended with the two going to dinner together, which ultimately escalated into a love affair. As a result of such media scripts, many males believe that the secret to romance is to use a good pickup line. Or, as stated with boundless optimism by Will Smith as Alex Hitchens in Tennant’s (2005) Hitch, almost half a century after Cary Grant, “No matter what, no matter when, no matter who, any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom.”