Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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.

wlcdsla If you look carefully at the flashing computer display in "What A Way To Go!", you'll notice that the center of it says "THE END" - - - which indicates to me that it is indeed the SAME computer prop used in Fox's 1957 "DESK SET", with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn!! Also, the swimming pool set covered entirely in pink for "What A Way To Go!" is the SAME set originally utilized in the uncompleted "Something's Gotta Give" with Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, which was being filmed at Fox when Marilyn suddenly died in 1962. 20th Century Fox studio execs in 1964 must've decided they had a ton of money wrapped up in that pool set and computer prop, so they were recycled for use in "What A Way To Go!"William Carroll Denham Springs, Louisiana

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.

Aristides-2 I wondered when it would happen. When I was in my twenties I would occasionally get to see silent films. With the exception of Chaplin, almost all of them were difficult to watch. Acting styles were florid and the stories were mirroring (more than the film producers could know) late 19th Century and the first quarter of the 20th Century's societal 'ideas'. I don't know of any of them (except Chaplin) that ever reached me emotionally or in a thoughtful fashion.Friends and me who had the same reaction would fancifully say, "Gee, someday our films will appear to be as dated as those same silents.With 'What A Way To Go', seen in the perspective of my 21st Century eyes, that time has come. The so-called comedy of it, not subtle in the least and broad/broad/broad is painful to watch. But it's the falseness of as much of the film as I could bear that has the deepest impact, just like those silent films. There's a 'kidding', a winking at the audience that takes what's supposed to be true sentiment and turns it inside out. (Voltaire could do this but the screenwriters of this are not operating at his talent level.) So ultimately, nothing is satirized and everything becomes pap.