Severin Films' oddest release turns out to be the Hollywood romantic comedy OVERBOARD, now on Blu-ray.

While their yacht is docked in Elk Cove, Oregon, spoiled socialite Joanna Stayton (LAUGH IN's Goldie Hawn) decides she wants her closets redone, hiring roughneck carpenter Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA). She find distaste is in his very presence and thinks nothing of complaining about him to her sportsman husband Grant (Edward Herrmann, THE LOST BOYS) and long-suffering butler Andrew (Roddy McDowall, FRIGHT NIGHT) within his earshot. When she fires him without payment after he finishes her closet in oak rather than cedar, Dean finally vents all of his frustrations about her to her face, causing her to push him overboard. Joanna is nevertheless disturbed about his claim that she is so bored with her luxurious lifestyle that she invents things to "bitch about." Her mother Edith (WHO'S THE BOSS?'s Katherine Helmond) advises against considering motherhood ("Darling, if you have a baby, you won't be the baby anymore"). One night, she falls overboard while trying to retrieve her wedding ring, plunging into the cove and being picked up by a garbage scow with no memory of her identity. In spite of her amnesia, she is still unpleasant and demanding, so much so that that local doctor and police deputy are hoping that anyone will claim her. Her face is splashed across the local news, but Grant reconsiders picking her up in favor of a brief respite with some bimbos in the tropics.

When Dean sees Joanna on TV, he decides to make her "work off" the six hundred dollars that she owes him by claiming her as his wife and the mother of his four wild children, eldest Travis (Brian Price), firebug twins Greg (Jamie Wild) and Charlie (Jared Rushton, HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS!), and youngest Joey (Jeffrey Wiseman, HOME ALONE). Rechristened Annie, Joanna remains skeptical about Dean's claims that the squalor in which they live is domestic bliss in spite of his fictitious stories about her being backed up by his buddy Billy (Mike Hagerty, WAYNE'S WORLD). As much as Joanna has vague recollections of her real life, she becomes more enmeshed in her current family life, growing to love the children and Dean. Dean, on the other hand, starts feeling guilty about his plot and starts to treat her poorly once he loses his nerve about telling her the truth. His hand may be forced, however, when Edith threatens to take action against Grant unless he finds his missing wife.

Although director Garry Marshall was a seasoned pro on television sitcoms, OVERBOARD was only his fourth feature following YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE, THE FLAMINGO KID, and NOTHING IN COMMON and preceding his dramatic hit with BEACHES the following year. Although Russell and Hawn – who had been dating since his divorce from Season Hubley in 1983 – had previously appeared together in Jonathan Demme's SWING SHIFT, OVERBOARD is perhaps the film that comes to mind when people think of the couple who have not worked together on film since but are one of Hollywood's long-lasting couples. The absurd premise is rather disturbing in a modern light – so much so that the lambasted remake did a gender reversal with Anna Faris (SCARY MOVIE) playing working class cleaning woman to socialite Eugenio Derbez (GEOSTORM) – but the chemistry between Russell and Hawn is as charming as they are individually funny. The film is quintessentially eighties, from Hawn's fashions to the bright and colorful photography of John Alonzo (CHINATOWN) and the sprightly synth score of Alan Silvestri (ROMANCING THE STONE). Depending on one's age and penchant for nostalgia, OVERBOARD is either an iconic eighties film or a frothy comedy.

Released theatrically by MGM/UA, OVERBOARD has always been on VHS and laserdisc, including a widescreen disc in 1994 which was presumably the source for MGM's 1999 letterboxed DVD. The film bypassed an anamorphic DVD for a 2011 barebones Blu-ray edition. The Blu-ray looked good for the time, being a then-recent remaster, while Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from a new 2K remaster. Color timing looks pretty similar with perhaps the Severin looking a bit brighter and less contrasty, with grain more visible perhaps because of the brightness. It does not look appreciably sharper, although that may have more to do with Alonzo's use of some diffusion during exteriors (of a much more subtle variety than some cinematographers in the seventies and the MTV eighties). It is not a must-have upgrade for picture but buyers will not be missing anything if they pass on the MGM edition. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track boasts clear dialogue and buoyant scoring while the sound design is only truly busy during some crowd scenes and scenes on the cove and at sea. Optional English SDH subtitles are also included.