Tina Louise Starred In A Forgotten '60s Movie Featuring Two Comedic Legends

"Gilligan's Island" came to an end in 1967, and while Ginger Grant actress Tina Louise tried to break away from her best known role, she didn't swear off comedy altogether. Two years after the sitcom ended, she appeared alongside comedy legends Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason in "How to Commit Marriage," which unfortunately for Louise wasn't much more sophisticated than Sherwood Schwartz's unapologetically wacky sitcom.

As you might expect, some of the "Gilligan's Island" cast became frustrated with being typecast following the success of the show. Russell Johnson initially regretted playing Professor Roy Hinkley due to the typecasting and Tina Louise seemed to feel similarly, even though she later claimed to have "loved" playing the movie star. That's certainly how it seemed to Johnson, who aside from having mixed feelings about his time on "Gilligan's Island," also seemed conflicted about working with Tina Louise. 

According to him, the Ginger actor could be mercurial on-set and turned down offers to appear with the rest of the ensemble at live cast appearance events, despite being offered thousands. She was also the only member of the cast who refused to return for the two "Gilligan's Island' animated sequel series and the three TV movies — though, considering the quality of "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island," that was probably a wise decision.

But Louise was well within her rights to stay away from any of the "Gilligan's Island" follow-up projects. She had started to build an impressive film career prior to being cast on the sitcom and clearly wanted it to continued in the years after the show ended. That said, "How to Commit Marriage" didn't do much to help audiences move on from Ginger.

Tina Louise made her movie debut with a stunning performance in the Robert Ryan-led Western "God's Little Acre," introducing audiences to a true star in the making. After that she headlined the must-see bleak 1959 Western "Day of the Outlaw," which was yet another stellar early entry in her filmography that demonstrated her star power. It was both fitting and somewhat of a bad joke, then, that she played "the movie star" in "Gilligan's Island," especially considering she spent the years immediately after its cancellation trying to remind audiences that she did, in fact, have what it took to be just that.

Her post-"Gilligan's Island" journey would eventually see her take on darker roles such as an ill-fated junkie in a 1974 episode of "Kojak" and a callous prison guard in the 1976 TV movie "Nightmare in Badham County." In 1969, however, after having starred alongside Dean Martin in the spy comedy "The Wrecking Crew," Louise kept the laughs coming alongside Jackie Gleason and Bob Hope.

Directed by Norman Panama, who along with his longtime collaborator Melvin Frank used to write for Hope's radio show, "How to Commit Marriage" sees Hope star as real estate agent Frank Benson alongside Jane Wyman (in her final film role) as his wife, Elaine. The couple have decided to divorce, but their 19-year-old daughter, Nancy Benson (Joanna Cameron) is unaware. When Nancy announces her plans to marry her college boyfriend, David Poe (Tim Matheson), the Bensons resolve to keep their own separation a secret until after the wedding. But David's father, Oliver Poe (Gleason) — a record producer who isn't thrilled at the prospect of his son settling down — has other plans...

In "How to Commit Marriage" Jackie Gleason's Oliver Poe discovers the Bensons' divorce settlement and takes the opportunity to reveal their secret, thereby turning Nancy Benson and David Poe off the idea of marriage altogether. The pair then decide to join a rock band on tour while Frank Benson starts a relationship with divorcée Lois Grey (Maureen Arthur) and Elaine Benson shacks up with Phil Fletcher (Leslie Nielsen). But when Frank and Elaine learn that Nancy is pregnant and plans to give up the baby, they step in to adopt their grandchild, leading to let more hijinks in which Oliver tries once again to expose their secret.

It's a pretty convoluted affair for a comedy, which might have something to do with why "How to Commit Marriage" has been largely forgotten. If you're wondering how Tina Louise fits into the proceedings, she plays Oliver's mistress and live-in girlfriend LaVerne Baker, who ends up marrying the record producer by the end of the movie. Like comedy-legend-in-the-making Nielsen, she's not given a whole lot to do but still manages to radiate a movie star aura in her scenes, even if it's tough to buy the idea of her and Oliver being together. Jackie Gleason, meanwhile, is clearly having a great time as the slimy Oliver Poe, while Hope does a solid job in what was his penultimate feature film (barring some cameos and a TV movie).

Though it was hardly a major hit, "How to Commit Marriage" wasn't the end of Louise's film career by any means. Not only did she continue to work solidly after the movie's debut, six years later, Louise appeared in one of the most important 70s cult sci-fi movies, "The Stepford Wives."