A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
“Trading Places” was one of Eddie Murphy’s funniest movies. He got to play zany and comical but also straightlaced and formal, showing both sides of his artistic range. Here, he plays Billy Ray Valentine, a homeless man living on the streets of Philadelphia. Dan Aykroyd plays Louis Winthorpe III, a wealthy investor who is at the top of his game and who lives in a lavish apartment, with a beautiful fiancée. When Billy Ray and Louis accidentally bump into each other on the street one day, Louis, scared for his life at the sight of a homeless man who he assumes is trying to assault him, calls the cops and has him arrested. When one of Louis’ bosses, Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy), bets his brother Mortimer (Don Ameche), that he could take Billy Ray out of jail, and turn him into a well-respected Wall Street trader, and turn Louis into a homeless vagabond, Mortimer accepts his wager.
The two brothers set Louis up in front of his co-workers and friends and implicate him in a dishonest act, a result of which he is arrested and thrown in jail, just as Billy Ray is bailed out. When they inform Billy Ray that they want to offer him a job to make up for what happened with Louis, he reluctantly agrees. At the same time, Louis is branded a thief, fired from his job, and dumped by his fiancée. He winds up on the streets and comes across Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), a hooker with a heart of gold and when he tells her that is actually rich but that he has been framed for a crime he did not commit, she takes pity on him and agrees to take him home to her place. While Bily Ray is flourishing in his new job, in the bathroom one day smoking a joint, he overhears the Duke brothers and quickly realizes that both he and Louis had been set up by the two men and that the next step in their plan, is to put Billy Ray back on the streets and return Louis to his former position. Billy Ray quickly tracks down Louis and tells him what happened and between them, they hatch a plan to become very rich and give the Duke brothers a taste of their own medicine.
“Trading Places” happened very early in both Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd’s careers and as a result, neither of them holds back. Murphy is at his best when playing the eccentric and imbecilic outcast while Aykroyd is perfect as the smug and arrogant investor, so much so that at times, you just want to reach into the screen and strangle the pretentiousness out of him. Jamie Lee Curtis is fine as the call girl who, against her better judgment, feels sympathy for the disgraced Louis and agrees to take care of him. The rest of the cast is filled out with wonderful supporting character actors including Denholm Elliott, Frank Oz, Robert Earl Jones, and Paul Gleason, who between them all, help elevate the film to classic status. Director John Landis was on a roll here, after the success of “Animal House,” “The Blues Brothers,” and “An American Werewolf in London,” and a few years later, he would re-team with Murphy on “Coming to America.”
Available on a Special Edition Paramount Presents: Blu-ray December 1st
