How to Commit Marriage (1969)

Director:

Norman Panama

Writers:

Michael Kanin (writer)
Ben Starr (writer)

Release Date:

12 June 1970 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason request the honor of your presence at a swinging session on How to Commit Marriage.

Plot:

Young couple decide to live together and they wind up having a baby. They decide they should give the baby up for adoption. The baby's Mother's parents wind up adopting the baby using a fake name.

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Moby Dick | Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Cast

Bob Hope	...	Frank Benson
Jackie Gleason	...	Oliver Poe
Jane Wyman	...	Elaine Benson
Leslie Nielsen	...	Phil Fletcher
Maureen Arthur	...	Lois Grey
Tina Louise	...	Laverne Baker
Tim Matheson	...	David Poe (as Tim Matthieson)
Paul Stewart	...	Willoughby
Irwin Corey	...	The Baba Ziba (as Professor Irwin Corey)
JoAnna Cameron	...	Nancy Benson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Glenn Corbett	...	Detective Sergeant Charlie Bancroft (archive footage)
Victoria Shaw	...	Christine Downs (archive footage)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG

Company:

Naho Productions

Trivia:

Last theatrical movie appearance of Jane Wyman.

Quotes:

Oliver Poe: [taking phone call from Pevney] I got your offer. It's an insult for such a distinguished musical group like The Post-Nasal Drip. However, you can look at the Uncollected Trash, the Five Commandments, the Kumquats, the Horny Toads, or the Slime Benders.
Pevney: Are they any good?
Oliver Poe: They haven't taken a bath in three months.

Movie Connections:

Features The Crimson Kimono (1959)

The Chimp Makes Them Look Like Chumps

The daughter of Bob Hope and Jane Wyman and the son of Jackie Gleason are in love and ready to wed. What they don't know is Hope and Wyman are considering divorce. Gleason has some rather negative view on marriage in the first place. They find out and it shatters some illusions.

Since it's the Sixties, what to do but go live together. Of course with a blessed event arriving that does complicate things.

Now the young folks, Tim Matheson and JoAnna Cameron are presented as fairly intelligent people. So why anyone would listen to religious faker Irwin Corey and give the kid up for adoption is beyond me. But that's what the film asks you to believe.

Two of the funniest men of the last century were Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason. So why they got stuck with a mediocre story idea like this is beyond me. I can't believe that the two of them had they looked could have found a better story idea.

When a golf playing Marquis Chimp steals the film you know you've got trouble.