The golden age of the screwball comedy might have been the 1930s, but for one all-too-brief moment in late 1987, it was glimpsed once more.
Post-Private Benjamin, pre-Pretty Woman, Goldie Hawn and director Garry Marshall teamed up to make Overboard, a Preston Sturges-style clash-of-the-classes romp set off the coast of Oregon.
With Hawn’s real-life beau, Kurt Russell, as the blue-collar foil to her rich-bitch heiress, the film had that rarest of things – a real-life couple with as much chemistry onscreen as off.
Bored yacht-dwelling socialite Joanna Stayton (Hawn) throws local carpenter Dean Profitt’s (Russell) toolbelt overboard when he fails to construct her fancy cabinets from cedar.
He swears revenge, and when Joanna falls overboard herself in search of mislaid jewellery, hits her head and ends up with amnesia, he gets his chance.
Dean sees Joanna on the TV news and, with her husband (Edward Herrmann) denying he knows her, claims the heiress as his wife, setting her to work raising his four unruly children and running his ramshackle home.
Will this Park Avenue princess finally find her milieu, as a loving wife and mother? and can Dean prevent himself from falling overboard in love with her?
Joanna Stayton/Annie
Goldie Hawn Dean Proffitt
Kurt Russell Grant Stayton III
Edward Herrmann Edith Mintz
Katherine Helmond Billy Pratt
Mike Hagerty Andrew
Roddy McDowall Charlie
Jared Rushton Joey
Jeffrey Wiseman Travis
Brian Price Greg
Jamie Wild Captain Karl
Frank Campanella Dr Norman Korman
Harvey Miller Wilbur Budd
Frank Buxton Rose Budd
Carol Williard Adele Burbridge
Doris Hess Thud Gittman
Ed Cree Gertie
Mona Lyden Sheriff Earl
Bing Russell
Director
Garry Marshall
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Bored yacht-dwelling socialite Joanna Stayton (Hawn) throws local carpenter Dean Profitt’s (Russell) toolbelt overboard when he fails to construct her fancy cabinets from cedar.
