Line #23 Film/WhatAWayToGo


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whatawaytogo01.png]]
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3	''What a Way to Go!'' is a 1964 BlackComedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Creator/ShirleyMacLaine as Louisa May Foster, an unwilling BlackWidow who falls in love with, marries and loses four husbands through the course of the movie, amassing an unwanted and ever-expanding fortune in the process.
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5	As Louisa relates her life-history to a psychiatrist, each of her marriages is depicted as a parody of a different film genre: with Creator/DickVanDyke as a SilentMovie, Creator/PaulNewman as a pretentious [[FrenchFilms French film]], Creator/RobertMitchum as a Hollywood romantic blockbuster and Creator/GeneKelly as TheMusical. And then there's Music/DeanMartin's Leonard Crawley...
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7	----
8	!!''What a Way to Go!'' provides examples of:
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10	* ActorAllusion: There is a reference to Creator/ShirleyMacLaine's ''Irma la Douce'' in the scene where Louisa arrives in Paris. On the bus, she passes "Maxim's", which is featured prominently in the beginning montage of that film.
11	* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler: One of the signs that Louisa and Leonard's marriage will actually last.]]
12	* BlessedWithSuck: [[spoiler: Leonard, who is such a failure at life that even Louisa's husband-killing "curse" can't affect him.]]
13	* CartwrightCurse: Gender-flipped and played for BlackComedy with Louisa's curse that has taken multiple husbands already. [[spoiler:It takes, ironically enough, TheJinx to end it.]]
14	* CostumePorn: Thanks to the famous costumer Edith Head, Louisa runs the gamut during the movie, wearing everything from furs to near-rags. Explicitly parodied during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RGGZmgINQA Mitchum sequence]].
15	* CoveredInGunge: At the very end of the movie, [[spoiler: Louisa and Leonard end up covered in crude oil, after he accidentally severs an oil company's pipeline with his attempt at farming.]]
16	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Each of the husbands' deaths.
17	** Edgar Hopper suffers a heart attack due to excessive overworking. Ironically, it happens just as he tells Louisa "a little hard work never killed anybody".
18	** Larry Flint is [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill attacked and blown up]] by his own painting robots.
19	** Rod Anderson Jr. gets kicked almost into orbit by an angry bull.
20	** Finally, Pinky Benson is trampled to death by a mob of his crazed fans, complete with elephant noises and stock footage.
21	* DarkestHour: A sort of anti-HopeSpot occurs at the very end of the film, when as noted above [[spoiler: Leonard appears to have struck oil while attempting to farm, leaving Louisa standing there in despair as she gets drenched with the stuff.. until it turns out he's actually severed an oil company's underground pipeline.]]
22	* {{Fanservice}}: Louisa wears a lot of outfits that show off her figure.
23	* FirstGirlWins: Another gender-flip, [[spoiler: with Leonard being Louisa's original hometown boyfriend.]]
24	* FreudianCouch: Louisa lays on one while telling her life-story.
25	* FunWithSubtitles: During Larry's segment parodying French cinema, the subtitles seem to be slightly delayed and suspiciously short compared to the French dialogue. The reason? The spoken lines are actually quite sexual in nature while the subtitles translate it with a simple "She's pretty."
26	* GoldDigger: Averted with Louisa, to her money grubbing mother's chagrin, she just wants a simple life with a husband and children but ends up marrying men who became wealthier and distracted from the marriage and it ends up killing them.
27	* GroupieBrigade: Causes the death of Kelly's character, trampling and crushing him to death.
28	* HollywoodHeartAttack: The possible medical cause of Louisa's first husband's death after overworking himself.
29	* ImagineSpot: All of the film-parodies are examples of this on Lousia's part. Also a brief one where she pictures her then-rich boyfriend Leonard as a literal snake behind the wheel of his convertible.
30	* InsufferableGenius: Newman and Kelly's characters both come to embody this trope.
31	* KillerRobot: A group of them ''paint'' Newman's character to death... and explode.
32	* LogoJoke: The 20th Century Fox logo is pink, because Kelly's character has ''everything'' painted that color.
33	* NeckSnap: Mitchum's character dies by getting kicked into mid-air by his bull and it's assumed the impact after hitting the Earth and splashing into a trough broke his neck (as well as possibly his spine and multiple other bones in his body).
34	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Newman's character ends up on the receiving end of this by his painting machines before they finish the job by exploding.
35	* OhCrap: This is the last expression that both Mitchum and Kelly's characters display before their demise.
36	* OverlyLongName: Following her numerous marriages, Louisa's full name by the end of the movie is Louisa May Foster Hopper Flint Anderson Benson [[spoiler: Crawley]].
37	* PunnyName: Lush Budgett.
38	* SanitySlippage: The guy who has been hired to do all the painting mentioned under LogoJoke starts chasing after Louisa because she's NOT PINK!
39	* SexyBacklessOutfit: Parodied in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RGGZmgINQA Lush Budgett production]] scene where Louisa reveals a lot of back with a ridiculously long cigarette holder.
40	* {{Slapstick}}: The film indulges in this a few time, such as when Louisa [[SlapstickKnowsNoGender almost falls off]] the elevated Freudian Couch.
41	* SexyShirtSwitch: Louisa is seen wearing one of Rod's shirts during the Mitchum sequence.
42	* SpinningNewspaper: Parodied.
43	* SpitefulWill: Van Dyke's character leaves everything to Louisa, except for a one roll of chicken-wire to the now-bankrupt Leonard, referencing a confrontation between the two earlier on.
44	* SpringtimeForHitler: Louisa can't get rid of her money, no matter how hard she tries. And pretty often her attempts unfortunately end with her husband du jour dead.
45	* ThunderingHerd: Kelly's character gets trampled to death by one.
46	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Again, parodied during the Mitchum sequence, with Louisa running through five or six extravagant costume changes in as many minutes.
47	* UnluckilyLucky: Dean Martin's character [[spoiler:and final husband Leonard is an extraordinarily unlucky fellow, but by the end of the film he married Louisa (who is rich so no problem on that end for some time to come... maybe... or at least it isn't by the time the movie ends) and his own immense unluck cancels out her CartwrightCurse.]]
48	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Louisa, who can't offer even the tiniest and most well-meaning suggestion or bit of advice without it somehow snowballing into killing her current husband.
49	* {{Workaholic}}: Louisa's first husband becomes one and relentlessly turns his small-town general store into a national business empire. And then finally...
50	-->"Which all goes to prove, a little hard work [[TemptingFate never killed anybody]]!" ''[thud]''

Context Film / WhatAWayToGo