Name That Movie

January 13, 2009 9:20 PM

[Oldmoviefilter]: What is this movie?

When I was a girl, I saw a movie that (at the time) I found hilarious. I believe the movie was made in the 1950s, maybe 1940s, in color. A woman has relationship problems because every man she falls in love with becomes wildly successful, then dies a tragic death (or leaves her?)?

Then afterward, the men she tells her woes to invariably fall in love with her, and the pattern repeats. She begins to gain more and more riches as a well-to-do widow (one of her husbands was Gene Kelly, as a beatnik entertainer), but all she wants is the simple life.

Finally she marries a farmer, is happy and pleased...then her farmer husband discovers oil.

What is the name of this movie?

posted by whimsicalnymph to media & arts (8 comments total)

Sounds like What A Way To Go!.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:30 PM on January 13

It's almost definitely What a Way To Go! I haven't seen it, but the plot description is very close to what you'd said, and I've seen so many of Gene Kelly's movies that there aren't very many other ones it could've been.
posted by SoftRain at 9:33 PM on January 13

I didn't know that, btw. But IMDB has a nifty keyword search I just this moment discovered, which could come in pretty handy for people in the future.

Sounds like a helluva film, too. Mitchum. Newman. Kelly. Martin. And the quite gorgeous 60s MacLaine.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:38 PM on January 13

I've seen it. That's definitely it. It was an OK movie, but less than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed looking at it more than watching it, if that makes sense.
posted by julen at 11:28 PM on January 13

it's What a Way to Go! Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum... what a a great movie.
posted by kidsleepy at 6:42 AM on January 14

Nathan Rabin of the Onion's A.V. Club wrote a pretty good My Year of Flops entry on it.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:11 AM on January 14

It is indeed that film. One of my favorites as a girl too.
posted by jadepearl at 7:30 AM on January 14

Thanks everyone! And Julen, I completely agree. The color is so vivid...and the plot? meh. But it was still a favorite as a child.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 7:10 AM on January 15