What a Way to Go! (1964)

Sadly Over-hyped

Memorable, crazy movie

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Copyright 14 May 1964 by APJAC Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening simultaneously at the Sutton and Criterion: 14 May 1964. U.S. release: 14 May 1964. U.K. release: 13 July 1964. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,968 feet. 110 minutes.SYNOPSIS: From a little pink palace in the rich green hills of Beverly, heralded by a butler in pink livery, flanked by a staff uniformed in pink, bearing a mass of pink luggage, emerges a lovely lady clad in widow's weeds, who, after bidding farewell to a pair of Afghans, is conducted to a pink Rolls Royce and driven off. The Rolls fades into a pink plane, flying fast as the credits conclude.The lady is Louisa (Shirley MacLaine). She proceeds to the Department of Internal Revenue where she attempts to give the United States Government her not inconsiderable worldly wealth, a check for $211,568,000.79. When startled officials refuse this donation, the distressed lady consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Stephanson (Bob Cummings), and tells him the strange story of her life. She is distressed because every man whose life she touches... and there have been a few... withers! She was born Louisa May Foster in Crawleyville, Ohio... She never wanted money; all she ever yearned for was the simple life, with one man to love and to love her... This idea did not coincide with those of her mother, a money-hungry gorgon who bullied Louisa's father unmercifully. Mrs. Foster is bent on Louisa marrying the town's richest man, Leonard Crawley (Dean Martin). On a date with Crawley, Louisa meets the indolent storekeeper, Edgar Hopper (Dick Van Dyke), admirer of Thoreau. After an idyllic courtship conducted by Louisa, they are married, much to the chagrin of Ma Foster and Leonard Crawley. They live happily the simple life in Edgar's shack beside the lake... until Leonard visits them and so stings Edgar that he goes to work, much to Louisa's distress. Edgar repairs to his hardware store and by use of every modern sales gimmick and dint of unremitting hard work, becomes a merchant prince, ruining Crawley in the process and becoming, as far as Louisa is concerned, unbecomingly rich.NOTES: Nominated for Academy Awards for Color Art Direction (losing to "My Fair Lady") and Color Costume Design (also losing to "My Fair Lady"). Final film appearances of Margaret Dumont and Tom Conway. The movie placed in the final five of the top thirty domestic money- makers of the year.COMMENT: An ingenious portmanteau story spoofing various film genres compensates for a lot of static dialogue. Hilarious take-offs include silent slapstick, sexy French films, LeRoy Prinz production numbers, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, and over-budgeted costume pictures. The overall tone is even brasher and noisier than the average American comedy, even though it is directed by an Englishman, J. Lee Thompson.With a negative cost of $5 million, all the money is right up there, crowding every corner of the vast CinemaScope screen. Unfortunately the movie proved too clever for its own good. Despite its rich settings and equally attractive cast, it failed to recover its costs at the box-office. Moviegoers alas just simply don't like to be made fun of. We don't mind laughing at the tastes of our parents (as in Comden and Green's Singin' in the Rain) but that our own passions should be mocked and ridiculed — that's something else again!ANOTHER VIEW: "What a Way to Go" is the legendary fairy godmother brought up to date. Shirley MacLaine is a Cinderella who makes poor men rich and rich men poor. Betty Comden and Adolph Green) have a good inventive script, but unfortunately they lack the ability to write interesting or witty dialogue so that the film sags badly in places. However, it is still well worth seeing for its inventive touches. I particularly like the idea of treating each episode as a type of film. This works very well in the first two, particularly the silent film take-off and the French film with its long speeches translated in skimpy subtitles, subtitles given for the most obvious ejaculations, and to crown it all when they say "To your health" in English the subtitle appears in French. I thought the Lush Budgett was a little overdone, perhaps they were unwilling to take off well- known personalities here though. I like the idea of the 20th Century film music. Finally the musical take-off of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. These are excellent in themselves. The trouble is they are not incorporated into the script in at all the same manner as the first two — particularly the Gene Kelly episode. It is difficult to imagine life on his houseboat as a production extravaganza a la Roy Del Ruth and LeRoy Prinz, but I liked the send up of Variety headlines such as "BENSON BOFFO BISTRO BALLADER", "BENSON CLIX STIX IN SLIX PIX".As an American comedy it might be said to be a-typical. In fact it's noisier and brasher than usual — probably because J. Lee Thompson didn't want to be criticized for giving it an English flavor. He wanted to show the boys that he could direct an American comedy with the best of them. The cast, however, does not always seem to be at home, perhaps because of some of the poor lines they are required to deliver.

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!

So I saw that it was nominated for best costumes by the legendary Edith Head and I was thinking, after watching this frothy, fun, star studded piece of fun, how could this have not won....oh 37th annual Academy Awards....and the Winner is My Fair Lady...but these costumes through her many lives are so much fun. Stones by Harry Winston, Costumes by Edith Head, and Shirley McLaine showing what makes her now a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors....just pure entertainment....big name big cast...before the years of the blockbusters.....I bet this was great on the big screen case in the house it was delightful. Each of the husbands that she has, expand the story, and actually take the viewer on a film history lesson. First it is the silent era, then the French Art film that was all the rage to the in crowd, then the costume/lady man film, then the over the top movie musical where production numbers rise from nothing. Ms. McLaine must have been beyond thrilled to be able to work with this top of the line cast of leading men.

I've just watched "What a Way to Go!" and I must confess I was seduced by its cast for some time, and that was the reason why I've wanted to watch it. By the end of the screening, I was a little disappointed perhaps more due to its dull plot than to anything else: Shirley Maclaine plays Louise May Foster, the heiress of a inheritance of more than 200 million dollars who intends to donate all of it to the government. Before she donates it she goes to a psychologist (Robert Cummings) and tells him where all this money comes from: from her ex-husbands, who turned out to die from unexpected (but at the same time funny) causes, all of them in the peak of their careers; a new millionaire who was Loiuse's first love and became her first husband (Dick Van Dyke); a painter(Paul Newman) that she met in Paris and that got rich selling paintings created by his own machinery; a fancy tycoon (Robert Mitchum) and a singer (Gene Kelly) who has got rich getting into the movie business. The only guy she dumped in her life was a spoiled businessman (Dean Martin), that she happens to meet again later on in the movie. Although its a high-quality production, with good moments (the comparisons that Louise makes about her relationships to different ages in the film history are the highlight), the result is a few laughs, and a feeling that such good actors were miscasted (Newman, Mitchum, Martin) maybe except for Gene Kelly, that steals the movie at the moment he is on it. By the end, the feeling is: it could be funnier and bolder. It is not.