How to Commit Marriage

How to Commit Marriage is a 1969 comedy film directed by Norman Panama and starring Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason in their only movie together. The supporting cast features Jane Wyman as Hope's wife, Tina Louise as record-producer Gleason's love interest, Leslie Nielsen as the straight man, and Professor Irwin Corey as a Middle Eastern guru named "the Baba Zeba." Tim Matheson also appears in an early role. This was Jane Wyman's final film appearance. A rock band entitled The Comfortable Chair appears as a rock group, performing their song "A Child's Garden." The movie was filmed in the then-current version of Cinerama.

Nancy, the 19-year-old daughter of Frank and Elaine Benson (Bob Hope and Jane Wyman), wants to marry David (Tim Matheson), the 20-year-old son of Oliver Poe (Jackie Gleason). What the bride doesn't know is that her parents are about to get a divorce.

Poe, a music promoter, has a hunch something is amiss. He doesn't want the kids to get married, so before the wedding he exposes the Bensons' secret. Nancy and David decide marriage isn't necessary. They will live together instead, travel around the country with a rock band and heed the advice and wisdom of a Hindu mystic called the Baba Zeba (Professor Irwin Corey).

Frank and Elaine are seeing other people. He is involved with a divorcee, Lois Grey (Maureen Arthur), while she is developing an interest in Phil Fletcher (Leslie Nielsen), who also is recently divorced. Poe, meanwhile, continues to see his mistress, LaVerne Baker (Tina Louise).