What a Way to Go!

MacLaine gets a huge workout in this episodic comedy about a woman from humble beginnings who is satisfied with the smaller things in life, but who keeps marrying men who make a fortune and then die, leaving her a wealthy widow four times over! Each one of the marriages sees MacLaine experiencing a new level of frustration and enveloping herself in an increasingly over-the-top super-glam wardrobe. As she relates the marriages to the rather manipulative psychologist Cummings, each relationship is seen as if it were a certain movie genre. Van Dyke lives a simple existence as a small-time store owner and their sequence contains an old silent-movie vignette. Newman is an expatriate artist living in Paris, so theirs is a slightly naughty French art film. Mitchum is a businessman loaded with dough which lends itself to a parody of the fur-and-fashion Ross Hunter women's pictures. Then marriage to small town hoofer Kelly includes a big song and dance number out of a 1940's musical. Also on hand is loutish playboy Martin, who plays the man her mother (Dumont) wanted her to marry in the first place. MacLaine gives a worthy performance with lots of physical comedy and an impressive dance sequence. She's occasionally a little shrill, but that's the character. Van Dyke is solid, Newman is sexy (and shows more skin here - albeit G-rated - than in the bulk of his other movies), Mitchum is charming, Kelly is appropriately self-involved and Martin is his usual suave, laid-back self. All of the actors establish a nice chemistry with MacLaine (who lived many a gal's dream when she got to pair up with all the leading men of this film!) It's fun to see these actors hamming it up and having fun with their unusual roles. The real star, however, apart from MacLaine, is the eye-popping, jaw-dropping parade of costumes and wigs. Some are breathtakingly glamorous, some are atrociously eye-assaulting, but they really steal the show, especially during the Mitchum sequence. Edith Head clearly had a field day (but lost the Oscar to equally-gifted Cecil Beaton for his "My Fair Lady" gowns.) There are also some attention-getting set designs. It's the kind of frothy, harmless, yet beautiful film that rarely gets made today. Some modern movie-goers will note MacLaine's uncanny resemblance to Renee Zellweger at times in this film. She gave this type of frothy flick a go in "Down With Love", but no one came (of course, it wasn't as good, so it isn't surprising!) The pattern of the movie threatens to become tiresome, but the changes in stars and venues and the clever scripting of Comden and Green help keep it afloat.

A 1960's slightly dark comedy with a whole host of massive names but there is only one star, that is Shirley MacLaine, who is one of the most under-rated actresses of any generation. The main idea of the film is Shirley MacLaine's character is only interested in finding love and hates wealth, and this being a comedy, you can imagine the rest. Well acted with good humour, this is a good comedy film, though not one of MacLaine's best.

I love when I sit down to an older film and the first question I find myself asking is "Where has this movie been all my life?" What A Way to Go is the kind of silly romp I would have expected my Dad to introduce to me early in life. We've always shared a similar sense of humor, and the goofy farce that this black comedy utilizes is exactly the style he would love. In fact, I wasn't even 20 minutes in before I decided this was a DVD I'm going to loan to him before returning it to the library. I laughed, and I laughed a lot at the silly buffoonery of What a Way to Go! It has moments where it plays like a ZAZ comedy in the vein of Airplane or The Naked Gun, but years before those movies ever came around. The entire premise is hilarious in itself because it focuses entirely on a woman who DOESN'T want wealth, which flies directly in opposition to what most people would consider common sense and is diametrically opposed to your traditional Hollywood script.

What makes it even more surprising that I'd never heard of What a Way to Go, is the unbelievable cast. Shirley MacLaine acts opposite a cavalcade of legendary actors that I never would have guessed had all appeared in the same film. Each one of them lends their own unique flavor to their scenes, and I could not get enough of it. They even have several homages to different styles of cinema throughout, and I was delighted by each one. Of course, as a lover of musicals I was particularly enamored with the Gene Kelly section because he choreographed a big bombastic song-and-dance that felt straight out of a Rodgers & Hammerstein film. The story can get a little repetitive at times, which makes it so you are several steps ahead of the action waiting for the movie to catch up, but I was still laughing and enjoying myself through most of that, so it wasn't a big deal. I won't say What a Way to Go is my favorite comedy of its era, but it's a highly effective one that I will seek out again.

Oh yes, absolutely. Just go to the movies to see a flick done with all the nerve in the world and for what? "To make a buck" I have an idiot sitting next to me, he is the pseudo intellectual who killed movies like this. I envy my parent's generation, as far as movie going habits are concerned. Doris Day comedies and Belle de Jour. Tell me who could be so unself conscious today to make "What a Way To Go" for what it is. The world has changed so much, women, us, that it would be impossible not to make it feel satirical,"Down with loveish" "What a Way to go" maybe satirical in its own way but it's not self conscious. If we cold only disconnect the micro chip implanted in our brains during the 70's we could have a wider spectrum of our lives without passing judgment, learning or re learning to enjoy. Shirley Mac Laine is priceless. Adorable. Superb. Paul Newman, lovely and very funny. Robert Mitchum plays it hysterically straight. The Gene Kelly episode has a life all of its own. Robert Cummings plays Robert Cummings beautifully as usual. Dean Martin plays himself and a softer version of himself, Dick Van Dike plays a sort of Rob Petrie who wants to simplify. Directed by J Lee Thompson, a Brit, with "Guns of Navarone" to his credit. He had signed a few odd gems like "Woman in a Dressing Gown", "Tiger Bay" and "Return from the Ashes". I thought I mention that. Listen to me, disconnect the micro chip, lay back and enjoy!

This was a film which, like many in the old days, used to come on 'regular' commercial television as a weekend matinée. Now, of course, it is nowhere to be found on television and is just itching to be released on home video. In retrospect, it impresses even more as a dark comedy; how much darker can you get when the central character is a four-time widow? And what a cast: Dick Van Dyke at the height of his TV popularity; Paul Newman (one of the biggest movie stars of the 1960's); and veterans Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, and Gene Kelly. And the fantasy vignettes!! Some viewers have commented that they don't like them, but I think they add to the insane atmosphere of the film: MacLaine's union with Newman viewed as a black-and-white, slightly X-rated, Italian film or her life with Kelly imagined as a Hollywood musical (a clever way, incidentally, to show off her own talent as a dancer- not to mention those long, magnificent legs). My favorite one (isn't it everyone's?) is the fantasy sequence with husband Robert Mitchum- which shows off a spectacular Edith Head fashion show. I don't know who is sitting on the rights to this film, but it would be a wonderful gift for the movie-loving public to see this released to the masses ASAP.