What a Way to Go!

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!

"WHAT A WAY TO GO" is the epitome of the lush mid 60's style comedies. Great cast. Shirley MacLaine as Louisa, is a simple girl who longs for the simple life. Although her mother, played by the great Marx Brothers straight woman Margaret Dumont, pushes her to get with the money, Louisa marries for love. Once a little prosperity has touched hubby # 1, he works himself to an early grave. Poor Louisa goes through 3 more husbands who also are devoured by their various forms of greed leading to their demise(s). Finally with husband # 5 , Dean Martin as Leonard Crawley, she has found the simple life...or has she ? As Louella Parsons would have put it : Shirley was never lovelier than in this picture ! Edith Head clothes, and hair by Guilaroff, MacLaine looks wonderful wallowing in her chicest mourning weeds...Best Segment : Hubby #3 Bob Mitchum ........

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.

If the fans of the various leading men and Shirley MacLaine just attended this film, What A Way To Go was certainly guaranteed to be a hit at the box office. It would have to be to justify the salaries of the cast involved.

It was that and more. What A Way To Go is a bright comedy showing the talents of Shirley MacLaine to full advantage, including her dancing talents in the segment involving Gene Kelly. Shirley relates in flashback to a lecherous psychiatrist, Bob Cummings the incredibly rotten luck she's had with her marriages. Widowed four times Shirley is worth over $200,000,000.00.

Her pattern is to marry men who are poor with one exception and they become rich and then meet with bizarre deaths. Her husbands in order were Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Kelly. Mitchum was already rich, but became incredibly much richer while married to Shirley. He also met the most bizarre death in the film which you'll have to see because it's too funny to reveal.

Kelly played a song and dance man who played in a clown makeup. Each of the segments involved a dream sequence where Shirley relates to Cummings that in her ideal stage of the marriage it reminded her of some happy movie genre. In the Kelly sequence it involved a musical and we get to see Shirley dance which she didn't do enough of on the big screen.

There is another man in her life in Dean Martin, but how he figures in you have to see What A Way To Go. This was the farewell film appearance for both Margaret Dumont who played Shirley's mother and for Tom Conway who had a bit role.

What A Way To Go still retains a lot of the good humor for today's audiences. I could see a remake of it with someone like Julia Roberts being married to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, etc. They'd have to go some to replace a dancer like Gene Kelly though.

In the 1960's, you could not argue with the star power of Shirley MacLaine. She was probably in at least twenty movies in that decade. This is a worthy showcase to her talent and hold ups well for the most part. The movie is very funny in parts and when its not out-and-out funny, you are still smiling. Its nice to see Paul Newman and Robert Mitchum in a light comedy, and Dean Martin and Dick Van Dyke were good also.

Margaret Dumont as Shirley's mother was very funny and I was sorry she was not in more scenes. All those years of sharing a screen with the Marx Brothers certainly rubbed off.

I would love to know which men were offered parts but did not appear in the movie - like, where is Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford?

Edith Head must have billed 20th Century Fox for a million hours of OT. She creates about six hundred costumes for Shirley and the guys. I think she got a nomination for this, but then again, in her case that's not saying anything special.