ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Myriam Nys Louisa May Foster is a modest and unassuming woman. She knows just what she wants : a little house and a happy marriage with a man who shares her liking for the simple, uncluttered life. Sadly, this inoffensive life ambition is difficult to fullfil... Poor Louisa is to encounter a succession of ever more ambitious and driven men. Enjoyable black comedy with a fine performance by lead actress Shirley MacLaine. The movie is also notable for its stellar cast and its many references (under the form of pastiches and parodies) to other films and film genres. Poor/rich Louisa tells her life story to a psychiatrist and many of her explanations turn into pastiches : there's a "silent comedy" sequence, a "Gene Kelly musical" sequence, and so on. My personal favorite is the "Lush Budgett" sequence, where Shirley MacLaine, evolving in the world of the super-super-rich, wears ever more expensive and outlandish costumes. There's many a clever dig at movie costumes and movie costume-making here. The main target of the movie is, of course, the dark side of the American Dream : work, work harder, pour all your energy into your work, become a captain of industry and die young of a heart attack, estranged from family and friends. As a result the movie is required viewing for all workaholics, both potential and actual.

daamama 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!

Hitchcoc There were several wonderful comedies in the sixties, exclusive of the Doris Day fluff. In this one, Shirley MacLaine has a problem with marriages. Well, not so much with the marriages, with the husbands. You see, marrying her is a death sentence. Each of the husbands starts out as a good catch, but over time they feel they must go for financial success. And succeed they do. As a matter of fact, they become incredibly rich. Unfortunately, through their greed or carelessness or some cosmic force, they meet their individual ends in some creative way, leaving Shirley with another fortune. She longs for the simple life without all the frills and is trying to find real love. The strength of this offering is the clever direction, the outlandish events, and the utter humor (the black kind) as the world collapses on these guys. I saw this film in high school and it was just as captivating today as it was then.

Andre Bortolon 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.