Love triangles in classic films: What if?

After we last talked about where the fascination with threesomes comes from, you wrote to us saying you're seeing them everywhere now. Upon reflection, we realized: You're right! These classic films would have been less dramatic with a hot threesome, but significantly more spicy!

1. Casablanca

“Look into my eyes, little one”

According to my grandma, the best romantic film of all time. Plot: During World War II, Rick's Café Américain in Casablanca is a meeting place for Europeans fleeing to America. Rick Blaine, the owner, meets his former lover Ilsa Lund here, but a rekindling of their romance seems hopeless. She is in Casablanca with the famous resistance fighter Victor Laszlo. The two are being pursued by Major Strasser, who wants to arrest them. Blain helps them escape, and the film ends with the words, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship."

Is this the beginning of a hot ménage-à-trois?

2. Like a single day

Before Ryan Goesling became Ken, he starred in this moving 2004 tearjerker. We begin in a retirement home where a husband reads to his wife from her diary. It tells the love story of Allie and Noah over the decades. The two meet one summer: he is the country boy with the abs, she the rich city slicker with parental responsibilities. Despite social obstacles and a wartime separation, they find each other. Years later, when Allie is about to get married, she visits Noah again, which rekindles old feelings. Allie ultimately chooses Noah, but her love is tested by her Alzheimer's disease. Noah, reading to Allie in the present as Duke, ultimately reveals his true identity and their deep, unforgettable love.

Instead of calling off the wedding, they could have just had an open marriage, good for their tax bracket and fun!

3. The Dreamers

Almost like a lockdown
In "The Dreamers," twins Isabelle and Théo take American exchange student Matthew home from the cinema. The two form a strange shared apartment in the apartment of Isabelle and Théo's parents, who are typically away on a long vacation. Since the cinema is closed due to the student unrest in 1968, and Netflix wasn't yet an option, the three have no choice but to find another pastime. Along with tenderness, politics, and film knowledge, there's also a touch of BDSM, shame play, and punishment—although also incest.

4. Water for the elephants 

Not the only Robert Pattinson film that comes to mind in terms of love triangles; Twilight could have easily fit in here, too. I think every poly person can relate to the scene between Bella, Edward, and Jacob in the cinema. But if we can include a film about a married couple and a stable boy with a fat trunk, then of course we'll do it.

This film is also told via flashback: In the 1930s, 23-year-old Jacob, the son of Polish immigrants, learns of his parents' death and their debts while taking his veterinary exam. Fleeing his hopeless future, he jumps aboard a circus train run by the "Benzini Brothers" and befriends Polish circus helper Camel. Thanks to his knowledge of veterinary medicine, he gets a job as a circus veterinarian for the despotic circus director August. Jacob discovers the secret of the elephant Rosie and becomes her trainer, thus becoming a star tamer. But not only Rosie succumbs to his charm, but also Augustus' wife Marlena, who, fittingly, is an equestrian. The affair between Jacob and Marlena is passionate, but August is violent and the circus is on the verge of bankruptcy. Jacob is fired, flees with Marlena, but is attacked by August's men, and she is kidnapped. Jacob returns to save Marlena, and Rosie kills August. Jacob and Marlena get married—peace, joy, elephant shit. Imagine this movie with wild, circus-style kink parties; only then would it be better.

5. Vicky Christina Barcelona

Before Scarlett Johansson fought aliens and villains in spandex, she was deeply in love: with Barcelona and with the same man as her best friend.

Vicky and Cristina from the USA are spending the summer in Barcelona. The friends, Vicky and Cristina, have different views on love: Vicky is engaged and focused, while Cristina is seeking adventure. Vicky's relatives host them in Barcelona. There, they meet the painter Juan Antonio, who invites them to a weekend in Oviedo. Cristina agrees, and Vicky accompanies them. While Cristina and Juan begin an affair, Vicky and Juan also fall in love. After the weekend, they return to Barcelona.

Juan and Cristina begin a relationship and move in together. Vicky marries her fiancé but pursues Juan. After Juan's ex-wife, Maria Elena, attempts suicide, she moves in with Cristina and Juan. A love triangle develops between everyone involved. Cristina breaks up with them both, and Juan and María Elena enter a turbulent relationship. Vicky reunites with Juan, and things take a dramatic turn.

What are your favorite love triangle movies? And which ones were missing from the list? Of course, all of these movies would be even hotter with Naturally Naughty !