Furs with Louisa May and booze with Matt Helm

It's been a while since I've watched What a Way to Go! with Shirley MacLaine and all her leading men so I convinced Karen to come over and watch it with me. As the movie progressed, I realized that it would be more fun to try wear some of my vintage furs while watching the movie to emulate Shirley and her many fur changes...
(This blog has a great post about all the different furs in the movie, with lots of pictures.)
Surprisingly, I do have many vintage furs that kinda match the movie. (I have not bought any furs in years and years and I would never buy a new fur so please no comments about that.) During this scene, I ran out of the living room and then ran back in and sat on the sofa with this very fur wrapped around my head (sans the bow.) Karen freaked.
This is a picture I took after the fact with some of the furs. The one on my head is the one that started it all.

Here are two that prompted me to get out my blue marabou.














Then I just brought them all out and Karen got into it as well!








So the plot is cute but not great and the movie is slow in areas but if you haven’t seen this movie, I’d highly recommend it IF:

a) you enjoy fashion! The budget for all the wardrobe changes was fantastic for the time ($500,000) and all of Ms. MacLaine’s outfits were designed by Edith Head. This youtube video gives you a glimpse of some of them but there is a fantastic, very risqué outfit that isn’t in this preview that you must see!

b) you love men! Paul Newman, OMG, Paul Newman. This is reason enough for me to watch the movie again and again. All the men are more attractive then I seem to remember them – even Gene Kelley! (But then by this time, I was suffering a mild case of heat exhaustion underneath all my furs so don’t take my word for it!) Dean Martin was also dreamy, which caused me to immediately rent The Silencers.

The Silencers is the first in a quartet of movies featuring the main character Matt Helm. He is supposedly a spoof of James Bond. Since Dino was so dreamy in What a Way to Go, I figured he’d have to be even better as a womanizing spy.

Ugh! This movie was awful! I think he must have been drunk throughout the whole thing. There was no plot and the acting…I hasten  to even call it acting.

Oh Stella (Stevens), you annoyed me more than any female ever has on the screen.
And Cyd (Charrisse), why were you even in this movie? Your singing was dubbed and you wore one of the most ridiculous outfits I’ve ever seen.
And poor Daliah Lavi, you look gorgeous through most of the movie but your character takes such a bizarre turn. At least you went on to Casino Royale.


Would I recommend this movie?
Believe it or not, YES!  The first 15 minutes are CLASSIC.
There’s a funny bit about the radio with old blue eyes. Just beware that there is almost no plot and the acting is atrocious. And if you’ve seen Austin Powers, you’ll definitely pick up some similarities. But there’s eye candy for everyone so settle in, don’t think, oh, and by all means drink lots of booze – you know – to get into the character of Matt Helm.