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
Related Posts
Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987) For young people hitting adolescence between 1984 and 1987, John Hughes was the name-brand self-appointed voice of a generation, churning…
Personal Services (1987) Christine Painter (Julie Walters) is a working-class single mother struggling to make ends meet who opens her own brothel with…
Prince of Darkness (1987) Although he never enjoyed much commercial success during the 80s, many of John Carpenter's films have garnered cult status over…
Fatal Attraction (1987) Michael Douglas made two films in 1987 that hit a nerve and captured the prevailing respective cultural sentiments of "Greed…
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) Steve Martin plays Neal Page, a put-upon businessman determined to make it home for Thanksgiving, but hampered at every turn…
Witches of Eastwick, The (1987) Nothing ever happens in the sleepy little New England town of Eastwick. But that's about to change when three bored,…
Creepozoids (1987) In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of deserting soldiers wander around in the acid rain avoiding mutants until they find…
Wish You Were Here (1987) Loosely based on the early life of notorious Streatham brothel madam Cynthia Payne, David Leland’s bittersweet directorial debut is an…
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.
