WHAT A WAY TO GO

US, 1964, 111 minutes, Colour.
Shirley Mac Laine, Paul Newman, Robert Cummings, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont.
Directed by J. Lee Thompson.

What a Way to Go is one of those spectacular comedies that was lavishly conceived and lavishly presented but which might not be quite good as its parts.

It was designed as a show case for Shirley Mac Laine at a time of her popularity and she acquits her self very well in the central role. She is an attractive comedienne as well as a good serious actress. This was the period of Irma La Douce and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (which was also directed by J. Lee Thompson, a British director of such fine films as Tiger Bay who went to America and made many, many films from the Guns of Navarone to Charles Bronson’s St Ives and The White Buffalo).

One of the interesting and attractive features of this film is the line up of male stare who do guest roles. They are all enjoyable in their way but there is some satire in the roles they take - Paul Newman as an eccentric artist in Paris, Dick van Dyke as an egotistical man who makes only money, Gene Kelly doing a parody of himself as a famous actor. It is hard not to find this kind of comedy enjoyable.

What is enjoyable in the tone of parody about the whole film, about the American way of life, making money. Various modes of film making are also satirised - the silent films in the Dick van Dyke episode, the lush Hollywood fashion dramas with Robert Mitchum, the musicals with Gene Kelly.

1. The title and its significance, its presentation in the credits? The good taste of Joe’s death and funeral? The whole film and its joking tone?

2. The tone of the film? The nature of the humour? And the farce and the satire? Moralising? How effective was the overall impact of this humour?

3. How much was the film a comedy of American manners? Of American morals? The focus on money, on life, death, as centre? What values?

4. How important for the film’s impact and success was the wide screen, colour, the use of so many stars, the variation in theatre styles, the emphasis on entertainment? How much cinematic value was there in recollection of film styles?

5. The importance of the structure of the film, starting with Louisa’s wealth? was the psychiatry well conveyed, the flashbacks, the meeting again of Cawley, the happy ending? What impact did this structure have?

6. How attractive a heroine was Louisa? Shirley MacLaine’s? personality and style? Her flair for comedy? Audience identifying her as the ordinary American girl? The irony of her becoming rich? The need for psychoanalysis? Her memories of herself as a typical girl, her mother's ambitions, the dominant mother? Her mother and the myths of American money and climbing? The effect of this on Louisa?

7. Why did Louisa love Hopper? His idealisation of the Huckleberry Finn style of existence? The quoting of Thoreau? The simple life, the myth of the happy life? The contrast with Thoreau? Why did Hopper change? What motivated him? the satire of his ordinary life with Louisa? the four stories, the satire on his money-making and his characters, hard work never killing anyone, the irony of his death? Points being made through this character?

8. How did this contrast with Cawley? Dean Martin's style? Was it credible? His attitude towards Louisa? The change in his life in losing his money? The contrast with Cawley? The irony of meeting him at the end? The marriage, the family? The threat with the discoverer of oil? The happy ending? What point was being made through this character and sequences?

9. How humorous were the Paris sequences? The satire on the city, modern artists, the art scene? The point being made by the French film style? The character of Flint, Paul Newman as appropriate to this role? The motivation when he became rich? His orchestrated painting? The humour and irony of his death by his machinery?
The point being made through this character?

10. Anderson: the reverse of previous marriages? Robert Mitchum’s appropriateness for this role? Society contrasting with Melissa Cawley, satire on their life as a Twentieth Century Fox Cinemascope film? The yearning for the simple life? The farcical death with Melissa and the bull? The point being made through this parody?

11. How was Pinkey Bibbon different from the others? his simple life and entertainment? What changed him? Why did he become so ambitious? How convincing was his transition: ordinary entertainer to great star? The satire on musicals? Hollywood, the irony of his death and the fans (and the jungle stampede noises)? The satire in the musical comedy with Louisa and Pinky? What point was being made through this character and situation?

12. How was the psychiatrist indifferent from the other men? His fainting? attraction to Louisa? His being refused? Louisa’s fear that she was the cause of the death of all her husbands? The psychoanalysis background for Louisa’s quest for the simple life?

13. How important were the film styles for the film's entertainment? How successful were they and why?

14. Was the overall impact of the film successful? Did it succeed in what it intended to do?