How to Commit Marriage

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?

Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason do spew a few really funny one liners, but the movie has the look and feel of a TV sitcom. Jane Wyman wears the same hairstyle here that she has had since the early 50's and I think she is still wearing it the same way! This movie is harmless fluff, but it is fun to watch Bob & Jackie insult each other. Many famous faces in this movie, Tina Louise, Tim Matheson, Joanna Cameron who later went on to the Saturday morning kids show "Shazaam & Isis". Maureen Arthur is quite funny as a big breasted client of Bob. After Jane gives her the once over staring at her cleavage, Maureen gets off the barb, "Well, it's nothing you couldn't buy"! Many fat jokes at Jackie's expense. Too bad the whole movie couldn't have been as funny as some of the jokes. Still, not as hard to watch as all the garbage they pass off as entertainment today! (Friends, Survivor, etc)

America's favorite comedian gets all caught up in the Age of Aquarius when his free-thinking daughter drops out of college to join a rock group and search for spiritual enlightenment under the guidance of a bumbling Persian mystic. But there's a twist to the usual generation gap scenario. Bob's wayward kid wants to do the "establishment thing" by tying the knot with her composer boyfriend while her parents have (secretly) decided to call it a day on the marital front.

Hope's shot at impersonating the aforementioned guru, complete with flowing robes, turban, fake beard and a drooping orchid which he uses to "bless" his "disciples" provides plenty of chuckles. Another change of costume sees him decked out in a Nehru jacket and sporting a groovy hairstyle as he takes a "space trip" to some pot-filled Go- Go joint down on Sunset.

Although a few of the gags fall flat others work just fine as Bob and Jackie Gleason team up to add some real sparkle to the film's better moments.

Hope to the perpetually loaded Gleason: "And about your breath... you could start the windmill on an old Dutch painting".

Bob had just about lost interest in the big screen by this late stage, having decided to concentrate on his top rating TV shows instead. This was, in fact, his second last theatrical release. And , although it won't be remembered as being one of his best, it's actually a pretty sharp satire of some of the more nonsensical, new age clap trap what was permeating western culture at the time. Even the Beatles quickly realized that they were being taken on a one way elephant ride to fantasy land by their own giggling guru.

As for this one, it's a low key walk - thru which doesn't demand much of its stars but it still generates enough laughs along the way to keep it going.

Not outstanding but fun

Comic giants Hope and Gleason try to breathe life into this comedy about a couple (Hope and Wyman) who plan on getting a divorce, but then change plans when they learn that their daughter is getting married. Gleason plays the father in law to be; an obnoxious rock and roll producer. There are some funny one liners but altogether the poor script drags them and the rest of the cast down. Tim Matheson co-stars.