"As film reviewer Patrick Goldstein points out, “Many of the best buddy films spring
into high gear when the filmmaker introduces a dramatic irritant, usually in the
form of a beautiful, free-spirited woman who sparks the flame of romantic conflict.
... That John endured a largely unhappy marriage to May, especially in
comparison with Max's happy years with Amy, whom he meets on the rebound,
makes no difference in terms of the feud ..."
The Not So Tender Trap Romantic Comedy and Revolt in the Fifties and Fifty Years Later by JennaWeinman 437 Pages, Published 2016 ISBN-13: 978-1-339-52875-5, ISBN: 1-339-52875-4
"The Hollywood romantic comedies of the 1950s and early 1960s fashioned sex and marriage from the struggle between dapper playboys and prudish career women."
"In the middle of this century's first decade, "bromance" emerged as a term denoting an emotionally intense bond between straight men. Yet bromance requires an expression of intimacy that always toys with being coded as something other than "straight" male behavior, even as it insists that such intimacy must never be misinterpreted. In Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television, editor Michael DeAngelis has com ..."