What a Way to Go!

The premise is amusing - a woman who seeks the simple life, yet inadvertently ends up four times widowed and fabulously wealthy. There is also the charming conceit of each marriage being represented by a stylized mini film within a film. (Alas, these bits are often cut in network airings.) In the end, though, the whole thing devolves into little more than a lavish fashion parade of Edith Head's reported $500,000 worth of creations. And many a time everyone seems to be trying just a bit too hard to be amusing (except for the ever cool Robert Mitchum).

But if there is no real "there , there" cinematically, it doesn't much matter. Not every movie needs to be another "Citizen Kane". Just relax and have fun.

This is a great film. Some have said it epitomizes the 1960s glamour comedies but what it cleverly does is parody them, and other film genres, through its movie dream sequences and the ridiculous and gorgeous costumes Shirley wears. It has a great cast and everyone is in top tongue in cheek form. Dick Van Dyke plays his usual neo-Marx brothers physical comedy schtick (with Margaret DuMont, no less!) at the height of his powers. Paul Newman is great playing against type as a tortured artist, a perfect sendup of Kirk Douglas' portrayal of Van Gough in *Lust for Life* (he even wears the same beard). Mitchum is suave and cool as a kind of Cash McCall gone wrong, but far more slick then Jim Garner ever was. To top it off, Gene Kelley does an incredible spot on parody of himself in the Holywood story, with iconic images taken straight from his greatest triumph *Singing in the Rain,* turned on their head and twisted into a grotesque commentary on the evils of Hollywood as opposed to its dreams and glamour. The scene where he is trampled to death by his fans holds up a hilarious mirror to the similar scene in *Singing in the Rain* where he has his clothes torn off by them. This film elevated parody to a high art form before anybody had even heard the term "post modernism!" And those gowns she wears! The best one is the one which is just a string of pearls down Shirley's sexy back (she faces away from the camera for the shole scene because she is obviously topless). They must have cost a fortune! this is obviously a film with a very Lush Bugett!

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.

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.

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.