weezeralfalfa 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.

ferbs54 In the star-studded 1964 comedy "What a Way to Go!," we make the acquaintance of one of the world's wealthiest women, Louisa May Foster Hopper Flint Anderson Benson, wonderfully played by Shirley MacLaine in a role originally conceived for Marilyn Monroe. When we first meet her, Louisa is at the IRS' central office in Washington, D.C., attempting to give away her fortune in the form of a check for $211 million! The feds, reasonably enough, appoint a psychiatrist (amusingly played by Robert Cummings) to analyze Louisa, and thus we learn, told via flashbacks while on the couch, her sad story. Apparently, her previous four husbands had all died--suddenly, bizarrely and prematurely--while in the pursuit of accumulating their fortunes, leaving Louisa progressively richer and richer. There had been small-town grocer Edgar Hopper (played by Dick van Dyke), who had prevailed over the slimy courtship of local millionaire Leonard Crawley (Dean Martin), to the great chagrin of Louisa's mother (Margaret Dumont, in her last screen role). He was followed by a Parisian artist (Paul Newman), a business magnate (Robert Mitchum) and a terrible vaudevillian turned Hollywood superstar (Gene Kelly); no wonder poor Louisa looks on her vast fortune as a curse, and deems herself a "witch" whose touch will cause any man's life to "wither"...."What a Way to Go!" doesn't just boast a string of "big names" in FRONT of the camera. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, a filmmaker of great versatility, it would seem, who had recently helmed two superb action thrillers--"The Guns of Navarone" and "Cape Fear"--and now proved himself equally adept at comedy; featured music by the great Nelson Riddle, whose "Route 66" theme song was still something of a sensation; sported typically fine cinematography from Leon Shamroy, Jr., striking hairstyles from Sydney Guilaroff, jewelry from Harry Winston and costumes by the legendary Edith Head (by my rough count, Shirley changes costume 50 times in the film, and some of Head's gowns are eye-poppingly spectacular); and, most importantly, perhaps, showcased another sparkling script from Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who had previously been responsible for such masterpieces as "On the Town," "Singin' in the Rain," "It's Always Fair Weather" (yes, all with Kelly) and "The Band Wagon." With such an array of actors and filmmakers, a successful product was practically assured, and happily, such indeed is the case here. Consistently hilarious and imaginative from beginning to end, the film really is pure entertainment. Most impressive, perhaps, are the four imagined cinematic interludes with which Louisa describes her four marriages: a black-and-white silent film for Hopper, a French film for her Parisian artist (Newman, by the way, is very amusing here; one almost wishes that this great dramatic actor had ventured into comedy more often!), a superlush Hollywood production for the magnate, and a spectacular Broadway megamusical (choreographed by Kelly) for the vaudevillian.Still, having said all this, the picture remains, first and foremost, a total triumph in demonstrating the great talents of Shirley MacLaine. In it, she gets to validate her claim as the decade's foremost screen comedienne (how very funny she is throughout; I just love the look on her face the first time that machine gun goes off!) and excel in both singing and dancing (observe how well she keeps up with the great Gene Kelly), all while looking as sexy as can be. To modern generations, Shirley may merely be that oddball redhead who's into "ditzy New Age stuff" and reincarnation, but her older fans will surely recall that she was once a total sexpot, with a cute pixie face and a dancer's body to match (no surprise there, as she had started her career as a dancer in the mid-'50s). Although I still love her best of all in 1960's "The Apartment" (my favorite comedy, dark as it sometimes gets), "What a Way to Go!" yet remains the superior showcase for her multithreat abilities. Indeed, she is so very appealing here that any male would probably be willing to risk a "withering" just to be with her...even without the $211 million!

didi-5 'What a Way To Go' centres on Louisa May Foster (Shirley MacLaine), a widow in black who is committed to a psychiatrist after trying to cash a million pound cheque. She tells the psychiatrist (Robert Cummings) about her 'curse' and bad luck with men, and the remainder of the film is in flashback.With co-stars like Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, and Gene Kelly, it is amazing that MacLaine still shows star quality throughout this film, but she does, and in some fantastic costumes and set-pieces.This is a delightful light comedy, full of colour, energy, and some inspired demises for MacLaine's hapless husbands. Highly recommended.

MARIO GAUCI This is another all-star film I came across in my childhood, albeit of a more vintage and satisfying nature than the two CANNONBALL RUN outings that I've watched on the preceding days. It's a witty black comedy by Betty Comden and Adolph Green – of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) fame – which has a woman (Shirley MacLaine) who marries a succession of men, except that these always seem to die soon after achieving the height of success and happiness thus leaving her increasingly wealthy but obviously guilt-ridden! Wanting to give away the fortune she's accumulated ($211 million!) over the years, the heroine's referred to a psychoanalyst (Robert Cummings) who's willing to hear her life-story. She began in modest surroundings, a poor girl whose parents (including regular Marx Bros. foil Margaret Dumont), proud of her beauty, want her to marry eminent bachelor Dean Martin; however, he's a heel and she prefers the mild-mannered Dick Van Dyke. Still, the latter soon demonstrates to harbor ideas above his station – thinking himself able to wipe out rival Martin's business – but, in so doing, he works himself to death! Off to Paris for a breather, she bumps into bohemian artist-cum-taxi driver Paul Newman (in what is arguably his most satisfying comical performance): they're idyllically happy at first, until he hits upon the idea of creating machines to accelerate the pace of his work but, driving even these to a frenzy, they rebel and crush him to death! Next comes wealthy but bored industrialist Robert Mitchum: for love of MacLaine, he gives it all up – fatally – for the simple life; this is perhaps the least interesting segment in the film. Widowed and distressed once again, the heroine finds herself at a bar where minor cabaret artist (Gene Kelly, who, naturally, gets to sing and dance) cheers her up: yet, as ever, when the opportunity for celebrity as a movie star comes along – ironically, when he decides to be himself – Kelly grabs it with both hands…with MacLaine already waiting for the inevitable come-uppance (he ends up mobbed by fans at a premiere!). Just as it seems there's no hope for the heroine (especially since Cummings himself offers to marry her, which shows how much he understood her problems!), Martin suddenly re-appears as a lowly janitor. Having been humbled, he now proves the ideal partner for MacLaine (incidentally, this was the fourth of five films in which the two stars appeared together): they raise a family together and live happily ever after but, even here, the writers taunt us with a prospective new jinx (they strike oil on their Texas farm), but it ultimately proves a false alarm.WHAT A WAY TO GO! is a lavish Twentieth-Century Fox production – including a plethora of costumes for the female lead (allegedly worth half-a-million dollars alone!) and outlandish sets (especially a bed in the form of a champagne glass during the Mitchum episode!) – which is surprisingly but competently directed by action film expert Thompson (in itself, a testament to his versatility); depicting the progress of the heroine's accident-prone marriages as a series of amusing movie pastiches was a particularly inspired touch. For the record, MacLaine would soon make a similar episodic comedy (teaming her with another roster of male stars) in WOMAN TIMES SEVEN (1967) for Italian director Vittorio De Sica.