What a Way to Go!

Louisa May Foster, played by Shirley MacLaine, has been widowed four times, her husbands played by Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly and Dean Martin. Each grows rich after marrying her and the wealth kills each of them. The film builds this as a series of episodes recounted from a psychiatrist's couch, and each episode imitates a different kind of film: silent comedy, French art cinema, lavish musical. The real spectacle is the costumes. Edith Head was given one of the largest budgets of her career, over five hundred thousand dollars, and the script called for more than seventy changes; the clothes grow more extravagant as it goes, which is precisely how the satire on wealth operates. Harry Winston supplied roughly three and a half million dollars' worth of jewels. Head was nominated for the Oscar for Best Costume Design. J. Lee Thompson directed. Who it is for: viewers who like ostentatious sixties Hollywood comedy and costume display. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a coherent narrative, since the film is deliberately episodic and changes register each time.