WHAT A WAY TO GO! What a Crock!

WHAT A WAY TO GO! ranks as one of the great unsung bad blockbusters in Hollywood history. This is a truly terrible film on so many levels, from the bunch of big name stars with no talent for comedy to the lazily constructed sets, the terrible lighting, the downright dreary story, and the total lack of style.
This is a certified solid gold fiasco.

Shirley MacLaine is the glue holding this stodgy 1964 concoction together as Louisa May Foster, a small town girl with the King Midas touch.  Every man she falls in love with becomes incredibly successful and even more incredibly wealthy before dropping dead, leaving the distraught Louisa May an incredibly wealthy but unhappy widow.
This premise plays out no less than four times, each one less amusing and more drawn out than the one before. Quite how J Lee Thompson can justify his screen credit as director is beyond me given the ragbag collection of performances he elicits from his stars. Far from being directed they all appear to have been left to their own devices. MacLaine shrieks and wails her way through most of the story, Paul Newman mistakes overacting for comedy, Robert Mitchum sleepwalks through his part, while Dean Martin plays his character like a Las Vegas parody of Dean Martin on stage at The Sands. Gene Kelly is the only one who emerges with any shred of decency thanks to a song and dance number which bears faint traces of his great routines from his 40s and 50s musicals.
Interminable, leaden, misguided and just plain painful to watch, WHAT A WAY TO GO! is a masterclass in how to squander talent and twenty million dollars and produce a polished turd.