Customer Reviews

Bob Hope: How to Commit a Marriage [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

this is a must see movie for any bob hope or jane Wyman fan.
the cast is great and jane is at her best here.
trading one liners with bob hope

America's favourite 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 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 some 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.

Contrary to what many critics would have you believe, this is not a totally bad movie. 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 fantasyland 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's still generates enough laughs along the way to keep it going.

Not outstanding but fun

Interesting Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason film. The DVD quality is pretty good for this release from the Bob Hope Film Collection. However, it is only presented in a full screen version. Probably the most notable aspect of this film is the opportunity to see the only film appearance I know of for the folk-rock group The Comfortable Chair.

For those who can't say anything bad about Bob Hope...watch this movie. Utterly unfunny, sometimes distasteful. Having seen Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit II and III, it's not hard to see how he was involved in such an awful movie. But I was surprised to see Bob Hope making a fool of himself as well.

About the only redeeming factor is seeing the decor, cars, etc. of the era. But you can get that in many much better 60's films. Pass on this one...unless you want to see the "other" side of Bob Hope.

Additionally, the transfer is awful. It is a pan & scan, cutting off valuable information on both sides. It is comparable to something AMC might show...except without the commercials.

Hope really should have stopped making movies after The Paleface. This one in particular is so mean-spirited and unfunny that all you can really do is gape. Its view of marriage is right up there with the Three Stooges (remember the short films in which the three of them were married?) and enough to swear a teen viewer off the institution for life. Yet it's one of those bad movies I like to turn on when it (rarely) shows up on TV, maybe because of the now-quaint 60s art decoration and costumes, maybe because rarely before or since have performers of such talent squandered it so egregiously. (To its credit, though, I have to add that "Cancel My Reservation" makes this one look like "The Magnificent Ambersons.")

This is a classic Bob Hope Comedy well worth watching!!Happy 100th Birthday,Mr. Hope we all love you!!