What a Way to Go!


What a Way to Go! is a 1964 American black comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke.

Plot

In a dream-like pre-credit sequence, Louisa May Foster, dressed as a black-clad widow, descends a pink staircase in a pink mansion. As she reaches the bottom, she is followed by pall-bearers carrying a pink coffin. As they round the bend in the staircase, the pallbearers drop the coffin, which slides down the stairs, leading into the opening titles.
Louisa tries to give away more than $211 million to the US government Internal Revenue Service, which believes it to be a joke for April Fools' Day. Louisa ends up sobbing on the couch of an unstable psychiatrist, Dr. Steffanson, tring to explain her motivation for giving away all her money, leading into a series of flashbacks combined with occasional fantasies from Louisa's point of view.
We meet Louisa as a young, idealistic girl. Her mother, fixated on money, pushes for Louisa to marry Leonard Crawley, the richest man in town. Louisa instead chooses Edgar Hopper, an old school friend who, inspired by Henry David Thoreau, lives a simple life. They marry and are poor but happy, shown through a silent film spoof with the underlying motif that "Love Conquers All". Their life is idyllic until Hopper, hurt and angry by Crawley's ridiculing how they live, decides to aim for success. Neglecting Louisa in order to provide a better life for her, he builds his small store into a tremendous empire, running Crawley out of business. In so doing, Hopper literally works himself to death.
Now a millionaire, Louisa vows never to marry again. She travels to Paris, where she meets Larry Flint, an avant-garde artist who is driving a taxi. Louisa falls in love with Flint, and they marry, living an idyllic life and bohemian lifestyle, shown through a foreign-film spoof. Flint invents a machine which converts sounds into paint on canvas. He plays eclectic sounds producing random art. One day, Louisa plays classical music, and it produces a beautiful painting which Flint sells. Buoyed by success, he creates more and more paintings, becoming hugely successful. Obsessed now, he builds larger machines to do the painting. Flint relentlessly produces art until, one night, the machines turn on their creator and beat him to death.
Even richer and even more depressed, Louisa decides to return to the United States. She misses her flight, but meets Rod Anderson Jr., a well-known business tycoon. He offers her a lift on his jet. At first, she finds him cold and calculating, but Louisa sees his softer side on the flight. They are married shortly after landing in NYC, and they live a lush and idyllic life, depicted through a fantasy sequence spoofing the glamorous big-budget films of the 1950s. Fearful of losing him like her first two husbands if he throws himself back into his work, Louisa convinces Rod to sell everything and retire to a small farm. After sharing a jug with a few locals, an inebriated Rod mistakenly attempts to milk a bull, who kicks him through the wall of the barn, leaving Louisa a widow again.
Now fantastically wealthy, Louisa wanders the country. In a small-town café, she meets Pinky Benson, a performer who does corny musical numbers in clown makeup and a costume. Management is happy with him because Pinky's habitually routine act never distracts the customers from eating and drinking. Once again, Louisa falls in love and gets married. They live an idyllic life on Pinky's run-down houseboat on the Hudson, depicted through a film sequence spoofing big Hollywood musicals. On her husband's birthday, Louisa suggests that Pinky perform without makeup and costume to save time. Never noticed before, Pinky's now discovered by the customers when he sings and dances beautifully. Virtually overnight, he becomes a Hollywood star, and ends up neglecting Louisa in pursuit of fame. Everything in Pinky's life is pink, including Louisa's hair-dye and their pets. He is such a beloved star that, despite being warned about the crowd, he goes to see his fans after the premiere of one of his films, and his adoring public tramples him to death.
After listening to her story, Dr. Steffanson proposes to Louisa, assuming that she'll say yes as she's agreed to marry four men already. She turns him down, which he declares to be progress, and he falls and is knocked unconscious. In comes the janitor, whom Louisa recognizes as Leonard Crawley, no longer the wealthy man he used to be. He credits her and Thoreau for his life being successful, as it's simple.
Leonard and Louisa marry and live a poor but idyllic, simplified life on a farm with their four children. The story ends when Leonard apparently strikes oil with his tractor. Louisa becomes distraught, thinking that her curse has struck again, until oil company representatives drive up and inform them that Leonard has merely punctured the company's pipeline. They rejoice, as they're still poor and happy.

Cast

;Dean Martin–Dick Van Dyke sequence/silent film spoof
;Paul Newman sequence/foreign art film spoof
;Robert Mitchum sequence/lush budget spoof
;Gene Kelly sequence/musical spoof
;Dean Martin sequence/end scene

Development

Publicist Arthur Jacobs wanted to move into film production. One of his client was Marilyn Monroe who said she would appear in a movie Jacobs produced if she liked the story. He found I Love Louisa based on a story by Gwen Davis about a woman with six husbands. In June 1962 Daryl Zanuck reportedly told Marilyn Monroe that she would made two films for 20th Century Fox : a re-vived Something's Got to Give and What a Way to Go. Monroe's fee would be a million dollars for both films. In July Monro reportedly approved J. Lee Thompson as director after watching Tiger Bay and Northwest Frontier and she was going to meet Gene Kelly to discuss him being her co star. Monroe died in August 1962.
In September 1962 Jacobs said that J. Lee Thompson, who was another client of his, would direct the film following The Mound Builders. Jacobs wanted one of the "top three" stars in the world to play the lead, and "important names" to play the six husbands. No distributor had been signed. Later that month Thompson said he would make I Love Louisa with Elizabeth Taylor. In October the Los Angeles Times reported that the Mirisch Company, who had a long-term deal with Thompson, would finance. That month Betty Comden and Adolph Green signed to write the script. In December Thompson said Comden and Green wanted to call the movie What a Way to Go and that he hoped Frank Sintra and Marcello Matroianni to play husbands.
In January 1963 Thompson said he was confident of Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and David Niven playing husbands. In April 1963 Hedda Hopper reported that Steve McQueen would star in the film opposite Shirley MacLaine.
MacLaine was formally signed in July 1963. Also that month Jacobs announced he had signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the latter to finance and distribute. The production companies would be Jacob's Apjac and Thompson's Malibu Productions. The stars would be MacLaine, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dick Van Dyke and Gene Kelly. Filming would start 8 August. Jacobs called the project "a sad comedy - a farout picture that has both loudness and pathos."
According to Mitchum, Frank Sinatra had wanted $500,000 for two weeks worth so they offered the film with him. He agreed to do it because he liked working with MacLaine and Thompson.
MacLaine said, "There is - I hope - pathod, anyway that's what I'm trying to do. It's funny for a girl to go through five husbands, getting wealthier with the death of each one - but it's sad, too, because she didn't want them to die and she hates money."
Gene Kelly reportedly originally had the rights to the story, intending to direct, but relinquished it to Jacobs. Kelly agreed to appear in a single sequence. He choreographed the dance as well, calling it "a kind of gentle spoof of old movie musicals, though not as much of a parody, really, as 'Sing Along with Mitch'."
The budget was a reported $5 million.

Shooting

Except for one scene at Los Angeles Airport, the entire film was shot on the Fox backlot on 73 sets. Because of the limited availability of the stars, the movie was shot over 45 days, which was considered short for a movie of this scale.
The swimming pool set in the Pinky Benson sequences is the same set used for Something's Got to Give.
MacLaine was quoted as saying that she was happy to work with "Edith Head with a $500,000 budget, 72 hairstyles to match the gowns, and a $3.5-million gem collection loaned by Harry Winston of New York. Pretty good perks, I'd say."
Robert Mitchum's role was originally meant for Frank Sinatra, but Sinatra suddenly wanted several times more money than what the other male leads received. The studio refused Sinatra's demands; Gregory Peck was sought but he was unavailable. The previous year, MacLaine co-starred with Mitchum in Two for the Seesaw, and recommended him to director J. Lee Thompson who passed the endorsement to the studio.
Cummings signed in September 1963.

Reception

Box office performance

What a Way to Go! premiered on May 12, 1964, and grossed $11,180,531 at the US box office, earning $6.10 million in the US.
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $8.5 million in film rentals to break even and made $9.09 million, meaning it made a profit.

Awards

What a Way to Go! was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design by Edith Head and Moss Mabry, a BAFTA Best Foreign Actress Award for Shirley MacLaine, a Laurel award for Best Comedy and Best Comedy performer for Paul Newman, and an American Cinema Editors Eddie award for best editor for Marjorie Fowler. It won a Locarno Film Festival award for Best Actor for Gene Kelly.