Can a 1988 comedy successfully blend Shakespearean farce with modern corporate greed?
In short: In the 1988 film Big Business, Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin portray two sets of identical twins separated at birth. One pair thrives in a high-stakes New York boardroom, while the other remains in rural West Virginia. Their paths collide in a chaotic, farcical struggle over a factory’s future.
Directed by Jim Abrahams and produced by Touchstone Pictures, the film reimagines Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors within a contemporary setting. The plot follows the Shelton sisters, ruthless executives at the New York conglomerate Moramax, and the Ratliff sisters, who grew up in the small town of Jupiter Hollow. The narrative hinges on a 1948 mix-up at a local hospital, where an elderly nurse accidentally swapped the infants. Forty years later, the sisters converge at the Plaza Hotel, leading to a series of mistaken identities and near-misses that drive the film’s frantic pace.
The film draws inspiration from classic literature, blending elements of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper with Aesop’s fable of the town and country mouse. Despite its ambitious premise, critical reception was polarized. While some reviewers praised the lead performances—with Bette Midler winning a top industry honor for her comedic role—others found the repetitive hotel sequences tedious. Roger Ebert criticized the film for feeling unfinished, while Variety described the tone as shrill. Ultimately, the production grossed $40.2 million domestically, proving a modest success for the studio.
Production challenges added an unexpected layer to the film’s history. When the team failed to secure permission to shoot at the real Plaza Hotel, they replicated the interior on a Walt Disney Studios sound stage. To offset these construction costs, the studio repurposed the set for a sitcom titled The Nutt House. The film has since seen various home media releases, including a 2017 Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber, and remains a curious artifact of late-1980s studio comedy, reflecting a time when high-concept farces dominated the box office.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Big Business (1988 film)
- Also: Art Institute of Chicago — Business · CC0 (data); description CC BY 4.0
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