What a Way to Go!

1964 Directed by J. Lee Thompson

What A Cast!... What A Past!... What A Show!...

A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.

Shirley MacLaine Paul Newman Robert Mitchum Dean Martin Gene Kelly Dick Van Dyke Robert Cummings Teri Garr Jane Wald Margaret Dumont Tom Conway Gari Hardy Reginald Gardiner Lou Nova Fifi D'Orsay Maurice Marsac Wally Vernon Lenny Kent Fred Aldrich

Alternative Title

La señora y sus maridos

romance comedy

111 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Mike Mariano ★★★ 2

Paul Newman is murdered by robots.
Review by MaryAnn 🦒 ★★★★

Can you believe this film invented the color pink?
Review by mary🦋 ★★★★

I know this isn’t perfect but honestly I’m physically unable to hate a movie in which queen shirley conquers everyone‘s hearts, owns every look™ and reenacts almost every classic movie genre
(also this is underrated af)
Review by panos75 ★★

The comitragic story of a four-time widowed woman whose husbands became incredibly wealthy after marrying her, in large part due to her positive influence, only to fall victims after a while of their obsession with money and fame.
"What a Way to Go!" wants to be a movie that along with laughs also delivers a serious message about greed, consumerism, and life's simple pleasures. Unfortunately, it fails spectacularly on both fronts. The comedy is too broad to have any satirical bite, and the film overall is too silly to effectively convey anything of substance to the audience.
J. Lee Thompson might have been a good director when it came to action and spectacle, but it's painfully obvious here that comedy…
Review by Anna Imhof 🌸 ★★★★½ 6

Completely nuts and utterly original, What a Way to Go has to be seen to be believed!
Shirley MacLaine, in a wonderful role, is at a psychiatrist’s office and, episodically, she walks us through her life with different husbands…
The Paul Newman segment is the most hilarious one, probably because he's absolutely brilliant as this bearded, bohemian American in Paris/taxi driver/artist, and according to himself one of only five great living painters—and that includes Frieda, the pet monkey from next door. Success turns him into an obsessive maniac, until he eventually completely loses his shit, and Newman performs with an energy that seems almost operatic in its grandeur. We've never seen him like this!
Gene Kelly is surprisingly good, maybe…
Review by Jenna Ipcar ★★★★ 3

Holy shit, did I straight up conjure this movie with my hopes and dreams?! Shirley MacLaine in my dream role, making out with all of my boyfriends(!!!), in my wardrobe, in my decade, making my jokes about murder and capitalism, in my fantasy film????????????? I might be blinded by the cast here but this was such a blast to watch. I didn’t laugh so much as I just loved every dumb minute of it.
No kidding, MacLaine is literally living my dream kissing all of these men in one film, Christ. I know that makes me sound shallow but I’ll be damned if I’m not legit ticked off at the luck some girls have. Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, and Paul frickin shirtless Newman?!? C’MON. The absolutely insane Edith Head wardrobes, Harry Winston jewelry, silly movie montage asides and batshit sets don’t hurt either.
Review by Olivia Gallup ★★★★½ 2

Pure LUNACY and I loved every minute of it! The originality! The humor! The costumes! The dance scene! Paul Newman!!! Dick van Dyke!!!!! SHIRLEY MACLAINE!!!!!!
Review by Carlo V 3

Shirley MacLaine marries a bunch of A-list actors, all of whom get rich and consequently die in increasingly preposterous ways: Dick Van Dyke drops dead cause he's too HOPPED up on making bank, Paul Newman gets killed by his own painting-robots, Robert Mitchum gets kicked 50 feet in the air because he got drunk & grabbed a bull's schwanz, and Gene Kelly died from shock after seeing Shirley MacLaine's vagina. Oh come on! There's no way that man was ever remotely interested in girls.
Review by maddy ★★★½

anticapitalist camp excellence!!!
Review by Smidvin ★★★★ 6

What a cast! What a past! What a show! What a Way to Go!
This movie made me smile so much! I even cried a little at the musical number on the boat because it was so joyful and I'm a crybaby.
At first the humour seemed too silly, but I learned to go along it. Shirley's husbands get better as well, don't be scared off by Dick Van Dyke! He'll be followed by Paul "I've got some erupting to do" Newman and Robert "What are you doing after the orgy?" Mitchum.
I am so jealous of Edith Head right now, I would kill to do the costume design for such an insane project. Watch this if you need a fun, colourful break that's frothier than a matcha latte.
Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★ 2

Paul Newman speaking French is The Hottest Thing I've Ever Seen
Review by SylvainL ★★★★ 5

Oh que je m'attendais pas à ça. Le casting est fou, je pensais qu'il y avait une raison pourquoi le film n'est pas plus connu, genre c'est pas très bon, mais non, mais non. C'est aussi délicieux que ça paraît. Faque dans ce film-là Shirley MacLaine fait un pastiche de burlesque muet avec Dick Van Dyke, de film français, vaguement Nouvelle vague, avec Paul Newman (hilarant en artiste qui fait de la peinture avec des marteaux piqueurs et un chimpanzé), elle se marie aussi avec Robert Mitchum en tycoon qui ne sourit pas avant de rencontrer Gene Kelly qui improvise des rimes et des pas de danse dans un café avant de faire ensemble un gros numéro musical (ah ça…

Recent reviews

Review by Piroska ★★★★

All these stars are for the sensational Edith Head costumes, the storyline is quite daft.
Review by maddy ★★★½

anticapitalist camp excellence!!!
Review by angela ★★★★

2019’s met gala theme of camp has literally NOTHING on the campiness of this film. don’t even know why everyone struggled on what to wear when this film was here the whole time.
Review by Patrick Mulcahy ½

An absolute monstrosity of a movie, ostensibly a 'wacky' comedy to showcase Shirley Maclaine, in which the joke is that she marries a series of men and indirectly makes them all fantastically rich - and then they die. Maclaine's character, Louisa, isn't a gold digger - indeed she turns down a rich guy (Dean Martin) early on, preferring the town loser, Mr Hopper (Dick Van Dyke). From then on, Louisa marries a succession of other men played by a bearded Paul Newman (as a Parisian taxi driver-slash-artist), Robert Mitchum (as a disenchanted playboy) and Gene Kelly (as, well, an entertainer wearing the nose of Cyrano and the tail of Bottom). All the men die in slapstick ways, hence the title.…
Review by David Dougan ★★★½

The tone is all over the place and the film is wildly inconsistent, but Shirley MacLaine is unbelievably wonderful and sexy in it.
Sony Movies Classic
Review by Paul D ★★½

Check this out. Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly and Dick Van Dyke, Music by Nelson Riddle, choreography by Mr Kelly and all presented by the man who brought us 10 to Midnight, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown and Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.
I know that in between his low-key start in British cinema with stuff like Ice Cold in Alex and Tiger Bay, and ending up with Cannon and Charles Bronson, he had a bit of a run in Hollywood, but even so, seeing this film open with the words 'A J.Lee Thompson Production' is pretty weird.
The story is that of Louise May Foster (MacLaine) who resists her mother's desire to see her marry for…
Review by Robert Gardiner ★★★½

“I'm reminding you to remind me to tell you that I love you.”
Had a chuckle watching this lighthearted comedy from J.Lee Thompson, staring Shirley MaClaine as four time widow. Who tells the story of the demise of her husbands , Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum and Gene Kelly along with a camo from Dean Martin. It’s the great cast that keeps this entertaining, especially Mitchum and Kelly.
Review by panos75 ★★

The comitragic story of a four-time widowed woman whose husbands became incredibly wealthy after marrying her, in large part due to her positive influence, only to fall victims after a while of their obsession with money and fame.
"What a Way to Go!" wants to be a movie that along with laughs also delivers a serious message about greed, consumerism, and life's simple pleasures. Unfortunately, it fails spectacularly on both fronts. The comedy is too broad to have any satirical bite, and the film overall is too silly to effectively convey anything of substance to the audience.
J. Lee Thompson might have been a good director when it came to action and spectacle, but it's painfully obvious here that comedy…
Review by jackdorf

I think this movie was just written to be as high budget as possible
Review by 𝒫 ★★★½

it was a treat to watch shirley maclaine wed all those gorgeous men but i just simply can’t get over shirley’s glittery silver dress sis for real ate that look up ugh edith head snapped again me thinks.
Review by angela ★★★★

if all louisa wanted to do was marry a failure then why didn’t she marry me? 💔
Review by Leandson ★★★½

Vendo esse filme quase entendo a galera nostálgica de várias gerações atrás que falam do cinema de entretenimento quando tinha algum encanto, um discurso que soa muito boomer mas What a Way to Go! é despretensiosamente delicioso de ver como poucos, bem poucos filmes recentes lançados que vi, que na época não era considerado grande coisa (segundo o RT é uma porcaria) e agora soa ótimo por ser um exemplar (quase/talvez/provavelmente) extinto de Hollywood, Shirley MacLaine e seus vários homens (incluindo Paul Newman) com quem casa que são atingidos por fatalidades entregam uma comédia/tragédia terrivelmente divertida, um guilty pleasure instantâneo musical e colorido.