What a Way to Go! (1964)

The director of Cape Fear (1960) reunited with leading man Robert Mitchum just four years later but for a film with an entirely different tone. What a Way to Go! (1964) finds Mitchum playing one of many doomed lovers of leading lady Shirley MacLaine alongside Hollywood luminaries Paul Newman, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, and Dick Van Dyke! MacLaine stars as Louisa, a multi-millionaire and perpetual widow, whose first husband (Van Dyke) builds her a retail empire before working himself to death, she loses her artist second husband (Newman) to one of his own works, her tycoon-turned-rancher third husband (Mitchum) to a farming accident, and finally her entertainer fourth husband (Kelly) to the trampling feet of a stampede of overzealous fans! Pity the poor musician (Martin) who ends up with her at the film's close, as a similar fate likely awaits him. Of course, Paul Newman is the real draw here, right on the doorstep of his forties, showing off his sensationally sexy upper body throughout his portion of the flick! What a Way to Go? More like What a Way to Grow... and then Blow!