Big Business (1988)

My Review

“Big Business” is a comedy film starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, each playing two roles as sets of twins mismatched at birth. One set grew up in a wealthy New York City family, while the other two were reared in poverty-stricken West Virginia. Director Jim Abrahams (“Airplane!” 1980) and screenwriters Dori Pierson and Marc Reid Rubel have created a lively and hilarious comedy that has organized direction and well written lines for the entire cast. It is loosely based on William Shakespeare’s play “The Comedy of Errors.”

The supporting cast behind Midler and Tomlin includes Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann, Nicholas Coster, Seth Green, John Hancock, Mary Gross, Lucy Webb, Michele Placido, Daniel Gerroll, Barry Primus, Michael Gross, Deborah Rush, Norma MacMillan, and NBA announcer Chick Hearn as himself.

“Big Business” had modest financial success at the box office for Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners III, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, and The Walt Disney Company. It was filmed on a sound stage at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.