Trading Places

About Trading Places

Trading Places is an Academy Award-nominated 1983 comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It was produced by Aaron Russo.

The movie's premise features two immensely wealthy and patrician brothers, Mortimer and Randolph Duke (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy), who find themselves on opposite sides of the nature versus nurture argument. The brothers decide that the best way to resolve the argument is to ruin a successful man's life, dramatically improve the fortunes of a street hustler, and see how they respond. Mortimer believes that regardless of their shifting fortunes, the well-bred subject will rise to the challenge and the riff-raff will fail no matter what opportunities are presented to him. Randolph insists the well-bred subject will unravel in society while the hustler will take full advantage of his new situation and become a changed man. Both satisfied with the plan, the Duke brothers shake hands to seal a wager for their "usual amount".

Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is a respected senior employee of the Dukes who manages their Philadelphia commodities brokerage firm, Duke & Duke. His bona fides are impeccable, having attended Exeter and Harvard. Louis has reached the ideal level of detached self-satisfaction, complete with the superficial fiancée, Penelope. However, the Dukes arrange to shatter Louis' reputation by having one of their operatives, Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason), "expose" him as a petty thief. As Louis is processed in jail (in a scene featuring a cameo by Frank Oz), Louis finds that another item has been planted in his clothing — a cellophane bag containing angel dust. Louis does not fare well in jail — by the time Penelope arrives to post bail, he is disheveled, bruised, black-eyed and cut. When he finally appears to convince Penelope he has been falsely accused, a prostitute, Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), lustily kisses Louis and begs him for a dime bag, promising to "do all the things he likes".