SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

moonspinner55 Amusingly salty farce brings Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason into the swinging 1960s--and just in time! Hope and Jane Wyman agree to end their stale marriage after 19 years, just as their daughter decides to drop out of college and join a rock group with her boyfriend. Turns out she's also pregnant, and has been persuaded to put her baby up for adoption by a (bribed) Indian guru, so Hope and Wyman conspire to adopt the child under the guise of an Irish couple (don't ask). Gleason is Hope's would-be in-law, a rock music promoter who holds a grudge against Bob for a years-old real estate transaction that ended up in the mud. Tatty-looking comedy (with unflattering hairstyles) stays afloat on some funny one-liners, but loses momentum during two pointless sequences: a golf match involving a chimpanzee and the slapstick finale, an endless dig at the Maharishi. Despite this, Hope, Gleason and Wyman (and Tina Louise as Gleason's main squeeze) manage bright performances, and director Norman Panama excels with a romantic fantasy scene and also the opening montage, a cynical jab at married life. **1/2 from ****

tavm Well, one of my curiosities was settled when I watched this movie starring for the only time Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, and Jane Wyman together. This one turned out to be Ms. Wyman's last theatrical feature and Hope's penultimate one as leading man. Hope has some pretty funny lines in the beginning and has some good rapport with Ms. Wyman up to the scene when they both dress in the '60s fashion style at a club their daughter (JoAnna Cameron) performs in with her partner Tim Matheson who's the son of Gleason here. Gleason himself also seems pretty funny when performing with Hope in trading insults but after a while, the plot goes in nonsense places like having a monkey play golf with Hope that really gets lame. And don't get me started with Professor Irwin Corey as an Indian-style wise man who Hope later imitates. I did like Hope when he faked a stereotypical Scottish man in another plot point though I don't feel like wasting time recounting that one here. There's also a mixture of film styles like the undercranking of some scenes and the split screen usually presented in these '60s movies that didn't work comically. Still, it was interesting enough for me to see other players like Tina Louise, formerly of "Gilligan's Island", and Matheson-years from his iconic teaming with John Belushi in Animal House, not to mention Leslie Nielson way before his legendary teaming with Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker for Airplane! and the "Police Squad" TV shows/Naked Gun movies. So on that note, How to Commit Marriage is worth a look for those curious of all of the above.

bkoganbing 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.

Hoohawnaynay 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)