#2: Fashion In Film | "What A Way To Go!" (1964) & Other Stylish Hidden Gems ft. Alex McMullin

On this episode of Cinematic Breadcrumbs, it's all about the campy fashion in the 1960's underrated hit What A Way To Go! starring Shirley MacLaine, Dick Van Dyke, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Kelly, about a woman who is searching for love, but can't stop finding money instead.

This week, we have special guest Alex McMullin, who gives us her favorite styles from the movie, but also passes on the opinions of her dad, mom, and 92 year old grandmother who served as her watch buddies! 

Episode details can be found at https://ingloriousbaguettes.com/

Cover art by https://www.instagram.com/isisdraws/

Transcript

So the VERY brief summary of this movie is that a young woman Lousia May Foster played by Shirley Maclaine is desperate for love, but despite all her attempts to live a happy, simple life with a husband, continues to find herself in a situation where she is losing her lovers in their pursuit of money, and gets richer with each husbands tragic and unexpected death.

Maclaine in an interview about the film, talked about how the film evokes pity or sadness within the comedy, saying, “It's funny for a girl to go through five husbands, getting wealthier with the death of each one – but it's sad, too, because she didn't want them to die and she hates money."

It’s a black comedy with a campy aesthetic & a packed cast. Her list of husbands include Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly & other cast members also include Dean Martin and Bob Cummings.

The costume designer is the renowned Edith Head who was responsible for the iconic looks seen classic old Hollywood starlets such as Grace Kelly in Rear Window & To Catch A Theif, Audrey Hepbrun in Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Roman Holiday, and Sabrina, Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park, Gloria Swanson in  Sunset Boulevard, and that is only the tip of the iceberg from her 50 year career. You might also know her without realizing you know her if you’ve seen PIXARs THE INCREDIBLES & THE INCREDIBLES 2 - the visual appearance of Edna Mode, the fashion designer who creates the superheroes unique attire, was inspired by Edith Head as a tribute to the late designer's work in Hollywood.

There is a lot to love about this film, but the reason why we are here is to appreciate ALL THE COSTUMES worn by Shirley Maclaine alone – I am going to be starting a research project/petition to not only TRACK DOWN all of these costumes but also get them showcased in a museum – hey curators of the MET are you listening!?!?

There is an estimated 72 full outfits, typically gowns, each with its own customized WIGS or strategically orchestrated hairstyles, jewelry and accessories. 

Edith was given a $500,000.00 budget and $3.5-million gem collection, on-loan from Harry Winston. The value of the gems alone (adjusted for inflation) would be $23.5 million (according to an estimate made in 2016).

Each time Louisa May finds a new husband, it usually comes with a set of circumstances that provide her with an aesthetic she can subscribe to & she does so with FULL FLEDGED commitment which is why the fashion in this movie tells a story of its own. Namely that Louisa May is a bit of chameleon, but also that she just wants to be in love dammit & will live whatever lifestyle required to maintain a happy marriage to whichever husband she has at that time!

Each husband she has is recounted through a series of vignettes which are designed to comedically pay homage to various television shows or films that embody the tropes that define these characters. First, she’s a country girl – donning dainty dresses similar to Vivienne Leigh’s Gone With The Wind looks and it is depicted with an heir of Beverly Hillbillies. Next, she’s with an arteeeest & embraces the avant garde and progressive way of life that the French are known for. She wears a lot of NOTHING, which feels like a nod to French New Wave films of the 1960s, specifically giving a direct tribute to Jean Luc Godards 1963 movie starring Brigitte Bardot called Contempt which begins with the bombshell star lounging around butt naked with her sheets almost artistically placed around her body to censor her but just barely with a scene where Louisa May casually greets her husband when he comes home, laying in various positions in bed the same way. The next and my favorite portion of the film is when she is married to larger than life wealthy tycoon who allows her to live a life of luxury and prestige with NO INHIBITIONS. This guy is not going to die CHASING wealth because he already has it, so what could go wrong?

There is at least 20 gowns in this one alone, many of which are shown as she is trotted around her husbands lavish parties like a show pony each ensemble outdoing the one before it. They at one point have an entire BED that sits atop a giant champagne flute, an image so striking that it surely inspired plenty of kitschy hotel honeymoon suites since. Another moment, they playfully mock the obscenity of it all when Louisa May, wearing an elaborate lingerie set, complains about a party they have to attending, saying “but I’ve got nothing to wear!” Cut to her sitting at a dining table, scene shot from behind, where she seems to be wearing nothing but a string of pearls, which runs down her open back, a platinum blonde wig, and jewelry. Incredible.

The final and most memorable section features Gene Kelly, so of course, it is depicted through very Kelly-esque dance numbers in the same vein as Anchors aweigh and singing in the rain, but his character is named PINKY BENSON, so when he hits it big, they end up painting every square inch of their mansion bubble gum pink & at one award show, Louisa May arrives in a luxury vehicle, wearing a floor length fur coat, another beehive wig, gloves, shoes, jewelry all the same gaudy bright pink color from HEAD TO TOE.

-          Though, it is surprising we haven’t seen this ensemble emulated more often – especially by celebrities on Halloween, we did get to see it once – when Lizzo wore an exact replica of the look for the 2019 MET GALA which had the theme “CAMP” – an aesthetic that this movie EPITOMIZES. 

-          Despite the fact that this movie feels like a complete hidden gem, totally underrated and often unrecognized, with the rise of social media platforms like Instagram, archived looks like this one are getting more and more opportunity to see the late & I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing more imitations of this look in the next few years. Like literally on Euphoria where their whole bread & butter is giving their characters DEEP CUT film references to use for their Halloween fashion – the kind that typical high schoolers of this generation definitely wouldn’t know about or care about but none the less, it’s a lot of fun! I am NOT much of a trend predictor but I’m just saying, if this starts happening – you heard it here first!!!

-            Another note about this section of the movie, the ALL PINK mansion was actually originally a piece of set design based off of George Cukor’s actual Hollywood home that was intended for a 20th Century Fox movie that was supposed to star Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin called “Something’s Got To Give” that went unfinished. 

-          Which brings me to my next interesting production note about this film: As of June 1962, Marilyn Monroe was the original Louisa May. This & Something’s Got to Give was designed to be a sort of double feature career release for Marilyn, where she was set to make 1 million dollars PER film.

-          She passed away in August that year. 

-          After that, they considered bringing Elizabeth Taylor on for the role of Louisa before it ended up going to Shirley Maclaine.

-          But that wasn’t the only recasting that occurred behind the scenes: 

-          The fully stocked cast of big names was almost even bigger – originally names attached to this project included Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and David Niven. Sinatra was going to play the wealthy tycoon Rod Anderson which ended up going to Robert Mitchum. Ironically, Sinatra and Monroe had a romantic relationship in real life & the two who ended up in the role Maclaine and Mitchum did too! A prophetic on-screen couple apparently!

-          For those of you who know a little about Shirley Maclaine, yes, she was married at this time (for about 30 years to businessman Steve Parker whom she had a daughter with) but they were in an open relationship, so her public affair with Robert Mitchum was completely acceptable though it may have seemed scandalous at the time.

Something of a phenomenon that I’ve noticed with the movies that have the most emulated costumes over the years – it seems like many of them are cult classics which were box office flops at the time and gained traction later – movies like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate factory or big Lebowski. Conversely, the ones that go collecting dust later on were major hits at the time of release. I would give examples that I found but like me you probably haven’t heard of them! 

What a Way to Go! was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Jack Martin Smith, Ted Haworth, Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss) and Best Costume Design by Edith Head and Moss Mabry but LOST Best Costume to My Fair Lady which is wild but ok.

Now before we dive into the episode with our guest, I will go through a quick countdown of underrated costume picks for every decade from this film in the 1960’s to now:

1)      1970s – Mahagony starring Diana Ross who ALSO did the costume design herself!

2)      1980s – Troop Beverly Hills with costume design by Theadora Van Runkle who also did Bonnie & Clyde

3)      1990s – Jawbreaker – costume design by Vikki Barrett, who is also responsible for a few other ICONIC 90s picks – Romy & michelle & Clueless!

4)      Early 2000’s – The Hot Chick with very of-the-times costumes by Alix Friedberg who went on to work on several major HBO shows like Big Little Lies (remember the costumes of in that!?!?!), Sharp Objects & True Detective

5)      And then pick of the 2010’s – The Handmaiden – by Sang-gyeong Jo & Choi Sang-kyung 

Alright so let’s dive into WHAT A WAY TO GO!