What a Way to Go!

What a Way to Go! is a 1964 American black comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke. Plot In a dream-like pre-credit sequence, Louisa, a black-clad widow, descends a pink staircase inside a pink mansion. She is followed by pallbearers carrying a pink coffin. The pallbearers slip and drop the coffin, which slides down the stairs, leading into the opening titles. Louisa wants to give her $211 million to the U.S. government Internal Revenue Service, who believes it is an April Fools' Day joke. Sobbing to her unstable psychiatrist, Dr. Stephanson, Louisa tries to explain why she wants to give away her money, leading to a series of flashbacks, interspersed with fantasy sequences. Louisa describes her childhood as being a young, idealistic girl. Her money-grubbing mother pushed Louisa to marry rich local business owner, Leonard Crawley. Louisa instead marries Edgar Hopper, a poor shop owner who, inspired by Henry David Thoreau, prefers a simple life. They are happily poor until the jilted Leonard arrives and ridicules their rustic lifestyle, humiliating Edgar and motivating him to achieve success. Edgar transforms his small store into a tremendous empire, neglecting Louisa, ruining Crawley, and eventually overworking himself to an early death.