How to Commit Marriage (1969)

Another movie that incorporates a large cast of famous major stars and it is still terrible. This is supposed to be a comedy, but it is mind-numbingly dull, and we don't even know what the point of it all is.Bob Hope and Jane Wyman play a long-married couple who get in each others' way, and they mutually agree to a divorce without complications. But trouble comes when their daughter visits them with a man she wishes to marry-and the parents hide their divorce from them. On top of that, the man is a son of a highly cynical, selfish record producer (a miscast Jackie Gleason) who does not believe in marriage and wants his son not to marry, but travel with a hippie band, despite the son's interest in classical music.This had the makings of a screwball comedy, but the laughs aren't there, and everyone seems in a hurry to get things over with. No surprise; the whole movie feels unpleasant rather than amusing.

An awful movie. Another Z-grade comedy starring Bob Hope. This time, Hope is joined by Jackie Gleason and Jane Wyman, but even their combined talents aren't enough to raise this dud above the level of a sitcom...a bad sitcom. Hope and wife Wyman plan to divorce, but decide to stay together when they find out their daughter plans on marrying Gleason's son. Hope is insufferable and Wyman has little to do. Gleason, as a rock-n-roll record producer, does seem to be having a good time and he clearly has some fun with sexy co-star Tina Louise. Beyond that, HOW TO COMMIT MARRIAGE has little to offer. The supporting cast includes future National Lampooner Tim Matheson, who plays Gleason's son, stuffy Leslie Neilsen, and "Professor" Irwin Corey --- it's hard to believe people really thought HE was funny!

In the intended generation gap comedy, Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason play bickering not-quite-in-laws. I say "not-quite" because Gleason's son and Hope's daughter are cohabiting without benefit of matrimony.Living in sin.Shacking up, don't you know.The kids have a baby out of wedlock and put it up for adoption so they can concentrate on performing in their Top Ten psychedelic rock group, The Comfortable Chair (Cue Cardinal Fang: "The COMFY CHAIR!?!") Hope and estranged wife Jane Wyman (whose real-life ex-husband was governor of California when this film was made) adopt the tot using fake identities and, after a round of 3 a.m. feedings, grudgingly reconcile.Jackie discovers that Hope & Wyman have the grandchild, revealing the info during a golf match between Hope and a chimp. (You're ahead of me. Bob loses.) But Ol' Ski Nose solves everything by impersonating the youngsters' guru, a Maharishi-like religious leader, at a huge concert. In disguise, Bob tells the kids to forget nirvana and perfect happiness and get married instead. By the time everyone figures out who's who, the rock stars have their baby AND wedding rings, Bob and Jane are back together and the new house Bob just sold Jackie gets destroyed in a mudslide.Even for a wacky 1960s comedy, the events in this movie defy logic: What adoption agency would instantly hand over a newborn to a decidedly over-the-hill couple? Wouldn't Hope and Wyman face prison sentences for using phony names to get the baby? And how could Jackie Gleason attract Tina "I Trained at the Actors Studio, But They're Going to Put 'She was Ginger on Gilligan's Island' On My Tombstone" Louise? Hope's probably the LAST guy in Hollywood to have been defending monogamy, given his notorious unfaithfulness to wife Dolores over a seven-decade marriage, and it's doubly offensive that he spoofed an Eastern religious figure to do so. Imagine the justifiable outcry had he impersonated a priest or a rabbi.Gleason's in decent form but is given little to do. HOW TO COMMIT MARRIAGE isn't as utterly bizarre as another Gleason '60s vehicle, SKIDOO (1968), but simply one of Hope's worst starring films -- a pity, because for around 25 years Hope WAS a legitimately great movie comedian. At least it's interesting to see Leslie Nielsen play the straight man in this film, and the young lovers are JoAnna Cameron (who set the hearts of seven-year-old boys aflutter as ISIS in the 1970s) and Tim Matheson (who, FIFTEEN years after this movie, would still be playing a collegian in UP THE CREEK).

When you see the names Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason, you pretty much expect and instant classic. Well this film was just the opposite, an instant dud. This film was obviously somebody's idea of trying to poke fun at the hippie culture of the 1960's and the whole idea of free love. Unfortunately, by the time this film was made, everything was out of date, even the music and the fashions. You could pretty much tell by this film that Bob Hope's film career was pretty much at an end and that he was ready to concentrate on television. Also, Jane Wyman is pretty much a waste in this film as well as Tim Matheson (its hard to believe he would survive this film and make one of the great comedies of the 70's, Animal House). Also, you pretty much can tell that everyone was just in it for a paycheck. This is one film that definitely hasn't aged well.Also, WHO THE HELL WERE THE COMFORTABLE CHAIR?