Following his hit big-screen debut in 48 Hours, Eddie Murphy followed it up with another terrific comedy turn in Trading Places. Murphy is matched all the way by Dan Akroyd, Denholm Elliott, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche in this light-hearted financial caper, all of them breathing life and wit into a plot that has been done many times before. In fact, apart from the periodic nudity and foul language, Trading Places comes over as a very old-fashioned comedy story.
Ultra-rich businessmen Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche) run a successful firm in Philadelphia, buying and selling their way to ever-increasing wealth. One of their best employees is business executive Louis Winthorp III (Dan Akroyd), a pampered brat who lives in a huge house and has his every need tended to by his faithful butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott). The Duke brothers disagree that Winthorp's success is the result of good breeding and education. Randolph believes that Winthorp was born into an easy life and that anyone - even a lowlife from the streets - could do his job if given the chance. Mortimer is adamant that a lowlife would fail in the world of big business and etiquette, and that Winthorp would still find a way to succeed in life if he were cast out on the streets. The brothers place a one-dollar wager against each other to determine who is right. Via a series of engineered lies, Winthorp loses his job, his house, his fiancée, his butler and his reputation. Then, foul-mouthed street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is plucked from the gutter and put in Winthorp's place. Winthorp struggles to adapt to his new-found poverty, while Valentine proves a surprisingly perceptive and effective financier. But when Valentine discovers that the whole thing is just a wager - and that the Dukes eventually plan to fire him from their firm - he tracks down Winthorp, and together they plan an audacious sting on the scheming brothers, aided by Coleman the butler and Winthorp's new girlfriend, street-wise hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Trading Places is, in many ways, a 20th Century variation of the story of The Prince And The Pauper. The comic dialogue is expertly handled, and the casting is just genius. Who would have thought that old veterans like Bellamy, Ameche and Elliott would be able to bounce off a volatile, foul-mouthed fast-talker like Murphy to such brilliant effect? That's not to say the film is perfect. Others have pointed out, correctly, that the wit runs dry about two-thirds of the way in and the film becomes more caperish. The final third deals with the revenge plotted by Murphy and Akroyd against the Duke brothers - while it has some passable silliness (check out those stupid disguises they wear during the train journey to New York), it is all rather plot-heavy and seems disappointingly similar to those caper movies that were all the rage in the '70s (eg The Sting, Bank Shot, The Hot Rock, Silver Bears, etc.). Still, on the whole Trading Places is a lot of fun and, at least for two-thirds of the way, it is a comedy of real quality!
Ultra-rich businessmen Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche) run a successful firm in Philadelphia, buying and selling their way to ever-increasing wealth. One of their best employees is business executive Louis Winthorp III (Dan Akroyd), a pampered brat who lives in a huge house and has his every need tended to by his faithful butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott). The Duke brothers disagree that Winthorp's success is the result of good breeding and education. Randolph believes that Winthorp was born into an easy life and that anyone - even a lowlife from the streets - could do his job if given the chance. Mortimer is adamant that a lowlife would fail in the world of big business and etiquette, and that Winthorp would still find a way to succeed in life if he were cast out on the streets. The brothers place a one-dollar wager against each other to determine who is right. Via a series of engineered lies, Winthorp loses his job, his house, his fiancée, his butler and his reputation. Then, foul-mouthed street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is plucked from the gutter and put in Winthorp's place. Winthorp struggles to adapt to his new-found poverty, while Valentine proves a surprisingly perceptive and effective financier. But when Valentine discovers that the whole thing is just a wager - and that the Dukes eventually plan to fire him from their firm - he tracks down Winthorp, and together they plan an audacious sting on the scheming brothers, aided by Coleman the butler and Winthorp's new girlfriend, street-wise hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Trading Places is, in many ways, a 20th Century variation of the story of The Prince And The Pauper. The comic dialogue is expertly handled, and the casting is just genius. Who would have thought that old veterans like Bellamy, Ameche and Elliott would be able to bounce off a volatile, foul-mouthed fast-talker like Murphy to such brilliant effect? That's not to say the film is perfect. Others have pointed out, correctly, that the wit runs dry about two-thirds of the way in and the film becomes more caperish. The final third deals with the revenge plotted by Murphy and Akroyd against the Duke brothers - while it has some passable silliness (check out those stupid disguises they wear during the train journey to New York), it is all rather plot-heavy and seems disappointingly similar to those caper movies that were all the rage in the '70s (eg The Sting, Bank Shot, The Hot Rock, Silver Bears, etc.). Still, on the whole Trading Places is a lot of fun and, at least for two-thirds of the way, it is a comedy of real quality!