Having your life flipped upside down and needing to adapt to survive happens to people all the time. The difference in Trading Places is it’s orchestrated by two disgustingly rich brothers who use people as pawns to entertain themselves.
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, owners of a Philadelphia brokerage firm, argue over whether a person’s success is a matter of nature or of nurture. These are miserly, racist men who place a bet to settle their argument, smiling gleefully as they make their demented plans.
They have chosen their pawns, Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine. Using their obscene wealth and power they take everything from their employee Louis and give it to a man they deem a criminal, Billy Ray. Setting up Louis as a thief and handing Billy Ray wealth and power, the wager starts.
Billy Ray and Winthorpe’s sudden life shifts throw them both for a loop, but as clarity about the truth of their situation is revealed to them, they take the fight to the offenders. Randolph and Mortimer’s own wickedness could answer their brotherly debate, but these are not the kind of men who are introspective.
Humans tend to not always fit so easily into the boxes they are given. The simplistic views of humanity that the Duke brothers hold may be their undoing. They do not understand that we are complex creatures with our own dreams. Dreams that may not be what others define as success.
Spoilers ahead.
With help from Ophelia, a woman who knows her own worth, and Winthorpe’s servant Coleman, the men must come together to make things right for all four of them. A complicated scheme comes together on the trading floor of the stock exchange. With short sells and orange juice futures, this game of numbers must be played perfectly and our heroes are just the men to do it. Trading Places give us the satisfaction of the moneyed bad guys getting their just desserts, and it’s not the tasty Crepes Suzette that Coleman has flambéed for Winthorpe. A happy ending I hope to see more of!
A scene with young Al Franken and a gorilla does not age at all well.
Trading Places stars Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, Denholm Elliott, and Kelly Curtis. Directed by John Landis.
Trading Places is available with subscription on Paramount+, AMC+ and Philo. $3.99 in the usual places.
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The animated short is Piece of Cake, written and directed by Sophie Feher and produced by Emma Goeas at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
As a New Year’s gift, I have collected together 19 animated shorts from previous Movie Nights and put them in one place. Plus a poll that allows you to vote for your favorites.
