OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE - Bette plays the Long game.
U.S. Release Date: JANUARY 30, 1987
Bette Midler was on a hit movie roll that had audiences hungry for more; Shelley Long was on course to superstardom, with the biggest show on TV. Surely putting them together on-screen in what promised to be a bubbly buddy action-comedy from the hitmakers at Touchstone Pictures was a good idea…right?
In Episode 4 of the BEST MOVIE YEAR: 1987, Dan and Simon check out OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE, a film that was one of 1987’s box office hits but which few have any lasting affection towards. Director Arthur Hiller - yeah, director of the miserable weepie LOVE STORY, but also the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor romp SILVER STREAK - had his work cut out for him on what was a tumultuous set. Despite an ideal match-up on paper, Long and Midler carried their on-screen bickering over into real world tensions. (Here’s Bette on Oprah, politely shutting down any notion of a reunion with Shelley…)
Check out a trailer (sorry for the quality, but this film has found scarce digital love):
Surrounded by a who’s-who of ‘Hey, it’s that guy!’ character actors (including Peter Coyote, from E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL), OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE proved a stepping-stone movie for Midler, who hit it big again with BEACHES a year later. But for Shelley Long, this was as a good as got at the box office; her next film, HELLO AGAIN (also, 1987) began the career slide.
The Podcast
Listen to the Bette Midler of film reviewers, Simon Foster, and the Shelley Long of media analysis, Dan Barrett, as they pick apart the shrill silliness that is OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE:
Simon and Dan have undertaken to watch 100 movies from Jan-Dec 1987 to answer mankind’s most pressing question: Was 1987 the best movie year ever?
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Start your journey back to the heady days of that year with Episode 1: WITHNAIL & I, Episode 2: THE KINDRED and (just quietly, our best yet), Episode 3: THE STEPFATHER.
Coming Soon, on BEST MOVIE YEAR: 1987…
