Ah, love triangles—is there anything more deliciously excruciating to watch onscreen? Even America’s first full-length film, an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, featured the age-old romantic triad. While that film may not be remembered by audiences today, depictions of the classic story set-up go back at least as far as Homer’s Iliad , and have proved dependable throughout cinematic history —just take a look at Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or The Philadelphia Story and you’ll see what we mean.

Of course, the drama has only gotten more supercharged in the modern era—first, by the sexual revolution , and then in the Golden Age of TV . As boundaries shrink and conventions blur, romantic rivalries continue to erupt—as do their possibilities onscreen, from the partn

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