''Big Business'' is a 1988 American comedy film starring
Bette Midler
Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...
and
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the varie ...
, each playing two roles, as sets of identical twins mismatched at birth. The
nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the balance between two competing factors which determine fate: genetics (nature) and environment (nurture). The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English h ...
farce adapts ''
The Comedy of Errors
''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It ...
'', but with female siblings in contemporary society: one of each twin being reared in a wealthy urban setting, while the others grew up in a poor rural environment.
Produced by
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...
, the film co-stars
Fred Ward,
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries ''Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...
,
Joe Grifasi
Joseph G. Grifasi (born June 14, 1944) is an American character actor of film, stage and television.
Grifasi was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Patricia (née Gaglione) and Joseph J. Grifasi, a skilled laborer. Grifasi graduated from Bi ...
, and
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supportin ...
, as well as siblings
Michael Gross and
Mary Gross
Mary Martha Gross is an American voice actress, comedian, and actress known for her four-year stint on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1981 to 1985. Her credits also include minor roles on ''Animaniacs'', ''Boston Legal'', ''That's So Raven'', '' ...
. Directed by
Jim Abrahams
James S. Abrahams (born May 10, 1944) is an American movie director and writer, best known as a member of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
Life and career
Abrahams was born to a Jewish family in Shorewood, Wisconsin, the son of Louise M. (née Oge ...
, critical reaction to the film as a whole was generally lukewarm. Both Midler and Tomlin were nominated for the
American Comedy Award
The American Comedy Awards were a group of awards presented annually in the United States recognizing performances and performers in the field of comedy, with an emphasis on television comedy and comedy films. They began in 1987, billed as the "f ...
for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture for their performances with Midler winning.
Plot
In 1948, wealthy businessman Hunt Shelton and his pregnant wife are lost in rural West Virginia when Mrs. Shelton goes into labor near the town of Jupiter Hollow. At the local hospital, they are turned away, because it is exclusively for employees of Hollowmade, the local furniture maker. Mr. Shelton purchases the company on the spot, and Mrs. Shelton is then admitted. The Ratliffs, an impoverished couple, arrive moments later with Mrs. Ratliff also in labor. Both women give birth to twin girls, and the elderly nurse attending the doctor
confuses and mixes up the sets of twins. Mr. Ratliff overhears the Sheltons deciding to name their daughters Rose and Sadie, and suggests the same names to his wife.
Forty years later, the Shelton sisters are now co-chairwomen of Moramax in New York City, a conglomerate that is the successor to their father's business interests. Sadie Shelton is focused on her career to the detriment of her family, while Rose Shelton wishes for a simpler life in the country. As part of her business plan, Sadie plans to sell Hollowmade, but must get stockholders' approval to proceed. In Jupiter Hollow, Rose Ratliff has risen to the position of forewoman at the Hollowmade Factory, and is also very career-driven. Meanwhile, Sadie Ratliff has always felt misplaced in rural life, and wishes for a more sophisticated life in a big city. Rose discovers Moramax's plans to sell Hollowmade, and makes plans to travel to New York City to stop the sale. Wanting to see the city, Sadie agrees to join her sister.
While Sadie Shelton makes plans for the shareholders' meeting, she learns from her employee Graham Sherbourne that "R. Ratliff" plans to come to New York with his sister to stop the sale. Sadie orders Sherbourne to locate "R. Ratliff" to prevent them from appearing at the meeting. A series of mixups at JFK Airport leaves the Shelton sisters stranded while the prospective buyer of Hollowmade, Mr. Fabio Alberici, takes their limousine back to the Plaza Hotel with the Ratliff sisters. The Ratliffs are checked into the Sheltons' suite, and the Sheltons take the suite next door, leading to a series of near-misses between the four sisters, and the men who are pursuing them romantically. In the meantime, Graham and his assistant/boyfriend assume that a visitor from Jupiter Hollow, Rose Ratliff's beau Roone Dimmick, is actually "R. Ratliff".
All sisters discover their mixup in the lobby bathroom. After Sadie Shelton acts like she will call off the Hollowmade sale, Rose Ratliff calls her out on the strip mining plans. Rose Shelton then realizes that Sadie has been lying to her, and helps the Ratliffs trap her in the broom closet. Rose Ratliff sits outside the broom closet to keep Sadie Shelton trapped, while Rose Shelton and Sadie Ratliff attend the shareholders' meeting and stop the sale of Hollowmade. Both sets of twins later leave the Plaza hotel with their newfound loves.
Cast
*
Bette Midler
Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...
as Sadie Shelton / Sadie Ratliff
*
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the varie ...
as Rose Ratliff / Rose Shelton
*
Fred Ward as Roone Dimmick
*
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries ''Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...
as Graham Sherbourne
*
Michele Placido as Fabio Alberici
*
Daniel Gerroll
Daniel Gerroll (born 16 October 1951) is an English theatre, television and film actor.
Life and career
Gerroll was born in London, the son of Kathleen Cordelia (née Norman), a fashion model, and Harry Gerroll, a clothing designer. Gerroll h ...
as Chuck
*
Barry Primus
Barry Primus (born February 16, 1938) is an American television and film actor, director, and writer.
Career
While Primus is primarily an actor, he has also worked as a writer and director in films in which he has acted. For the first decade ...
as Michael
*
Michael Gross as Dr. Jay Marshall
*
Deborah Rush
Deborah Rush (born April 10, 1954) is an American actress. She has worked in television, film and on Broadway. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Michael Frayn's comedy ''Noise ...
as "Binky" Shelton
*
Nicolas Coster
Nicolas Dwynn Coster (born December 3, 1933) is a British-American actor, most known for his work in daytime drama and as a character actor on nighttime television series, such as ''Wonder Woman'', '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'', '' T. J ...
as Hunt Shelton
* Patricia Gaul as Iona Ratliff
* J.C. Quinn as Garth Ratliff
*
Norma MacMillan
Norma MacMillan (September 15, 1921 – March 16, 2001) was a Canadian actress, best known for voicing numerous characters in animation and claymation, including Casper the Friendly Ghost on '' The New Casper Cartoon Show'', Gumby on '' The ...
as Nanny Lewis
*
Joe Grifasi
Joseph G. Grifasi (born June 14, 1944) is an American character actor of film, stage and television.
Grifasi was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Patricia (née Gaglione) and Joseph J. Grifasi, a skilled laborer. Grifasi graduated from Bi ...
as Desk Clerk
*
John Vickery as Hotel Manager
*
John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor o ...
as Older Harlan
*
Mary Gross
Mary Martha Gross is an American voice actress, comedian, and actress known for her four-year stint on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1981 to 1985. Her credits also include minor roles on ''Animaniacs'', ''Boston Legal'', ''That's So Raven'', '' ...
as Judy
*
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supportin ...
as Jason
*
Leo Burmester
Bernard Leo Burmester (February 1, 1945 – June 28, 2007) was an American actor. Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' Lone Star'' (1996), and also for directors such as John Sch ...
as Bum
*
Lucy Webb as Wenona
*
Roy Brocksmith as Dr. Parker
*
Carmen Argenziano
Carmen Antimo Argenziano (October 27, 1943February 10, 2019) was an American actor who appeared in over 73 movies and around 100 television movies or episodes. He was best known for playing Jacob Carter on ''Stargate SG-1''. He had recurring role ...
as Board Member (uncredited)
*
Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years. Hearn is remembered for his rapi ...
as Himself (uncredited)
*
Shirley Mitchell
Shirley J. Mitchell (November 4, 1919 – November 11, 2013) was an American radio, film, and television actress.
Early life
Mitchell was born in Toledo, Ohio, the daughter of Sam Mitchell & Mary Ann Daniels, Jews who emigrated to America to esc ...
as Stockholder (uncredited)
Production
The movie was originally written for
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
(Midler's role) and
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
(Tomlin's role). The plot playfully combines three recognizable stories: Aesop's ''
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse'', Mark Twain's ''
The Prince and the Pauper
''The Prince and the Pauper'' is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547 ...
'', and Shakespeare's ''
The Comedy of Errors
''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It ...
''.
The production company could not get the rights to film at the actual
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
in New York City, so it had the hotel replicated on a
Walt Disney Studios sound stage. To recoup construction costs,
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
built a sitcom titled ''
The Nutt House
''The Nutt House'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for five episodes on NBC from September 20 to October 25, 1989.
Overview
''The Nutt House'' was the creation of executive producers Mel Brooks and Alan Spencer and was a broad ...
'' around it.
Jim Abrahams
James S. Abrahams (born May 10, 1944) is an American movie director and writer, best known as a member of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
Life and career
Abrahams was born to a Jewish family in Shorewood, Wisconsin, the son of Louise M. (née Oge ...
said he staged one of the boardroom scenes based on an experience he had when a large agency used many employees to get him to sign with them.
Reception
Critical reaction to the film as a whole was generally lukewarm. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 42% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 19 reviews, with an average score of 5/10.
Sheila Benson from the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' called ''Big Business'' a "bright whirligig of a movie" and added: "As you watch its buoyant hilarity, the intricacies flow smoothly as honey off a spoon
..Like a sensational party the night before, "Big Business" may not bear the closest scrutiny in the cold light of day, but it gives an irresistible glow at the time. And when it gets on a roll, it's a movie with more wit to its lines and a more pungent array of them than much of the mishmash that has passed as Bette Midler's ''Greatest Movie Hits''." ''Philadelphia Daily News'' writer
Ben Yagoda
Ben Yagoda (born 22 February 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.
Early life
Born in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909-1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with ...
felt that the film was "big fun. Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler are a double dose of hilarity. Call out the
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
— ''Big Business'' is a laugh riot".
In his review for ''The New York Times'',
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
remarked that ''Big Business'', "though it never quite delivers the boffo payoff, is a most cheerful, very breezy summer farce, played to the hilt by two splendidly comic performers...Sometimes
he film's writersdo have trouble in characterizing the two sets of twins, allowing them to blend in such a way that the comic edge finally becomes blurred. Yet the film moves at such a clip, and with such uncommon zest, that it's good fun even when the invention wears thin." Roger Ebert, writing for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', gave the film two out of four stars. He declared the film "an endless and dreary series of scenes in which the various twins just barely miss running into each other in the Plaza Hotel," and found that it felt "unfinished" and missed a payoff. ''Variety'' called the film "a shrill, unattractive comedy." The staff felt that Midler's "loud brashness generally dominated
omlin'ssly skittishness".
John Simon of the ''National Review'' called ''Big Business'' a "dreadful film".
Box office
In the United States, ''Big Business'' debuted within the top three on the box-office chart and became a modest success, eventually grossing $40.2 million during its domestic run.
Home media
The film was released to VHS, Betamax, and Laserdisc in 1989 by
Touchstone Home Video, with a DVD release in 2002. In 2011, ''Big Business'' was among a selection of titles from
Touchstone
Touchstone may refer to:
* Touchstone (assaying tool), a stone used to identify precious metals
* Touchstone (metaphor), a means of assaying relative merits of a concept
Entertainment
* ''Touchstone'' (album), a 1982 album by Chick Corea
* T ...
and
Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Established on February 1, 1989, by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and then-studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood ...
to be licensed to Mill Creek Entertainment on behalf of Disney, and a DVD and Blu-ray disc were released of the film. The DVD is available on its own, as a double-feature with ''
Straight Talk
''Straight Talk'' is a 1992 American romantic comedy film directed by Barnet Kellman and starring Dolly Parton, Jerry Orbach, Griffin Dunne and James Woods.
Plot
Shirlee Kenyon is a dance instructor living in Arkansas. Fired for giving advi ...
'', and as a triple-feature with ''Straight Talk'' and ''
V.I. Warshawski''.
In December 2017, ''Big Business'' and ''
Scenes from a Mall
''Scenes from a Mall'' is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Paul Mazursky, written by Mazursky and Roger L. Simon, and starring Bette Midler and Woody Allen. The title is a play on Ingmar Bergman's ''Scenes from a Marriage'', and the film ...
'' were re-released on DVD and Blu-ray by
Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films ...
under license from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
Big Business / Scenes from a Mall Bette Midler Double Feature
/ref>
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Business (1988 Film)
1988 films
1980s buddy comedy films
1980s business films
1980s female buddy films
American business films
American buddy comedy films
American female buddy films
1980s English-language films
Films scored by Lee Holdridge
Films about twin sisters
Films based on The Comedy of Errors
Films directed by Jim Abrahams
Films set in hotels
Films set in 1948
Films set in 1988
Films set in New York City
Films set in West Virginia
Touchstone Pictures films
Twins in fiction
1988 comedy films
1980s American films