What a Way to Go! (1964)

Sorry, this movie sucks

So much average

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Blistering performances.

What a lineup of top male stars to interact with Shirley MacLaine. There is Bob Cummings, as her psychiatrist, recommended after she tried to give the Feds a hundred million $ or so, that she could once again be poor and happy. She would periodically return to his couch, which could be elevated quite high(why?).....Dick Van Dyke plays her first husband. She married him because he had no ambition other than to remain the proprietor of a small store, and owns a simple little house. Shirley thought she would be happy in that life, with Dick home a lot with her. Her mother, played by Margaret Dumont, had wanted her to marry Lennie Crawley(Dean Martin) , but she didn't love him, and was afraid he would spend all his time trying to expand the local family business empire. For a while, life with Dick went as she hoped, until one day he suddenly got the ambition to greatly expand his business. Thereafter, he became rich, and bought out the Crawleys, but she saw little of him. Eventually, he died of a heart attack.....Next, she took up with a mad artist(Paul Newman), who invented a series of machines that did his primitive painting for him. Eventually, he became rich from these paintings, but then his machines rebelled and collectively beat him to death, leaving Shirley with another unwanted fortune. This was an especially interesting segment, Paul being very funny. Next, she marries a superrich guy(Robert Mitchum)(why?). Eventually, he decides he wants to live a simple farmer's life, and liquidates all his other properties. But, pretty soon, he meets with a fatal accident with his bull. .....Shirley surmises she must be a jinx, and swears she won't marry again. But, she runs into a struggling entertainer(Gene Kelly) and marries him. She gets to do some dancing and singing with Gene, showing off her long slim legs. Her association with Gene is one of the most interesting parts of the film. Gene's character is known as Pinky. Presumably, , this is the reason for the all pink images during the prologue and credits, including a slippery casket that careens around, chasing the pall bearers. Eventually, Gene attracts nationwide devotion. Unfortunately, at one event, the fans stampede and trample him to death......She returns to her hometown and meets up with Dean Martin(Lennie Crawley) again. He's been reduced to serving as a janitor. He's OK to do some farming and share a small farmhouse. But Shirley's now idealic life is almost destroyed by a sudden indication of wealth under their farm. But, it's a false alarm......Shirley wears a countless number of outfits and wigs throughout production......Margaret Dumont, who played Shirley's mother, was in her 80s, and would die the next year. Back in the '30s, she was often a foil for the Marx Brothers.

This movie makes fun of wealth, poverty, all sorts of theatrical genres and humanity itself. Giving away my age, I saw it at the theater when it came out and being a fan of just about everyone in it, was NOT disappointed. I would love to see it again and share it with my grand-kids who have discovered they love the old films. I really think the industry would be shocked at how well the sales of this one (and several others) would go. The movie itself takes nothing seriously and is absolutely hilarious. One comes to believe that being married to this woman is tantamount to taking cyanide, only much, much funnier. There's not much to be said about it that isn't already in print, but to experience it is to experience all these stars at their funniest and seemingly, most ingenious!

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.

With eye candy galore, this movie is funny, funny, funny! It starts out with the a widow on the couch, explaining to the psychiatrist why she does not want her fortune.A simple lady, who just wanted to live on love, for some reason whomever she marries, becomes insanely driven, filthy rich workaholics, that work themselves to early graves with hilarious results.The costume designer had lots of fun, working with thirty-year-old Shirley Maclaine at her physical peak.It looked like the entire cast had a blast. It was fun to watch A-list actors clown around.Does Louisa May ever find what she is searching for? You have to watch this light hearted black comedy (an oxymoron yet an apt description of the movie) and find out.