Trading Places
Trading Places is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis, featuring Dan Aykroyd as Louis Winthorpe III, a snobbish commodities broker, and Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler whose socioeconomic positions are deliberately reversed through a wager by the elderly millionaire brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke to test the primacy of heredity versus environment in shaping character.[1][2] Released by Paramount Pictures on June 8, 1983, the film depicts the ensuing chaos, including Winthorpe's downfall involving false arrest and addiction, Valentine's ascent in high society aided by Winthorpe's benefactor's manservant Coleman (Denholm Elliott) and love interest Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), culminating in the duo's revenge via manipulation of the frozen concentrated orange juice futures market on the floor of the Philadelphia Exchange.[1][3] A box-office hit, it grossed $90.4 million in North America alone, securing fourth place among 1983's top earners despite competition from blockbusters like Return of the Jedi and Flashdance.[4] Critically lauded for its sharp class satire and buddy-comedy dynamics, the movie holds an 87% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an Academy Award nomination for Elmer Bernstein's score, alongside BAFTA wins for Elliott as Best Supporting Actor and Curtis as Best Supporting Actress.[2][5]Synopsis
Plot Summary
The film opens on New Year's Eve in Philadelphia, where Louis Winthorpe III, a refined and successful commodities broker employed by the Duke Brothers' firm, maintains an opulent lifestyle complete with a mansion, butler Coleman, and fiancée Penelope. In contrast, Billy Ray Valentine, a cunning street hustler, survives by scams and panhandling until he is arrested after a foot chase with police. The next day, elderly multimillionaire brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke, owners of the brokerage, argue over whether heredity or environment shapes character; Randolph favors environment, prompting Mortimer to accept a one-dollar wager that they can transform a destitute criminal into a refined executive while reducing a privileged broker to ruin within six months.[6][7] The Dukes select Winthorpe and Valentine as unwitting subjects, planting evidence to frame Winthorpe for drug possession and theft using their associate Clarence Beeks; Winthorpe is arrested at work, fired, evicted, and abandoned by his social circle, spiraling into homelessness and despair, including a failed suicide attempt. Meanwhile, the Dukes bail out Valentine, install him in Winthorpe's former office and mansion, and provide tutors—including Coleman, now reassigned—to groom him for brokerage success, where Valentine quickly adapts by bluffing his way through trades. Valentine prospers but grows suspicious after glimpsing the Dukes' hidden surveillance and overhearing their bet; Winthorpe, aided by prostitute Ophelia (initially paid by the Dukes to monitor him), infiltrates Valentine's Christmas party, leading to a confrontation that reveals the scheme to both men.[6][2] United against the Dukes, Winthorpe, Valentine, Coleman, and Ophelia devise a revenge plot exploiting the annual frozen concentrated orange juice futures report, which influences market prices. They subdue Beeks (en route to deliver the real report) with a gorilla-suited henchman, substitute a forged disastrous report, and manipulate trades: short-selling while the Dukes, tipped by the fake data, buy heavily, causing the market to crash and bankrupting the brothers on New Year's Eve. The protagonists seize $394 million in cash from the Dukes' vault, flee via train, and redistribute scraps to the destitute Mortimer and Randolph, who suffer fatal cardiac arrests from shock and poverty. Winthorpe, Valentine, Coleman, and Ophelia relocate to a Caribbean island, toasting their victory with the stolen fortune.[6][7]Cast and Characters
Principal Cast
The principal cast of Trading Places features Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine, a quick-witted street hustler and con artist arrested for posing as a blind veteran and police officer on the streets of Philadelphia.[2][8] Dan Aykroyd portrays Louis Winthorpe III, a privileged commodities broker and director at Duke & Duke who enjoys a life of luxury until framed in a wager between his employers.[2][8] Jamie Lee Curtis plays Ophelia, a compassionate prostitute who shelters Winthorpe during his downfall and aids in his redemption.[9][3] Don Ameche stars as Mortimer Duke, the more aggressive and greedy of the elderly Duke brothers who orchestrate the social experiment bet worth one dollar, driven by disdain for the lower classes.[2][8] Ralph Bellamy appears as Randolph Duke, Mortimer's milder-mannered sibling who participates in the bet but shows occasional remorse.[2][8] Denholm Elliott rounds out the leads as Coleman, Winthorpe's loyal butler whose guidance and eventual alliance prove crucial to the protagonists' counterplot against the Dukes.[8][10]
Supporting Roles and Characterization
The Duke brothers, Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche), function as the film's chief antagonists, embodying aristocratic entitlement and moral detachment as elderly commodities tycoons who bet one dollar on the nurture-over-nature hypothesis by engineering a social experiment that swaps the lives of Winthorpe and Valentine.[11] Their characterizations emphasize pettiness and ruthlessness; Randolph appears more affable yet complicit, while Mortimer displays sharper avarice, culminating in their financial ruin and ironic reversal of fortunes depicted in a sequel cameo.[3] This dynamic underscores the film's critique of inherited privilege, with the brothers' manipulations exposing how unchecked power corrupts ethical boundaries.[7] Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), a streetwise prostitute, aids the destitute Winthorpe by providing shelter and later joining the counter-plot against the Dukes, portrayed not as a mere stereotype but with layered vulnerability—she hails from a "small, miserable little mining town" and leverages her profession pragmatically while demonstrating unexpected loyalty and resourcefulness.[12] Her arc evolves from opportunistic helper to committed ally, contributing comic and emotional relief amid the leads' turmoil, and marking a pivot for Curtis from horror roles to comedic depth.[13] Denholm Elliott's Coleman, Winthorpe's valet, delivers understated comic precision through his impeccably British reserve and subtle contempt for upper-class folly, initially serving dutifully before embracing the alliance with Valentine, which reveals his pragmatic adaptability and quiet subversion of servility norms.[14] His deadpan reactions and eventual complicity in the heist amplify themes of class solidarity, earning Elliott a BAFTA nomination for supporting actor.[3] Paul Gleason's Clarence Beeks, a sleazy security operative retained by the Dukes for illicit crop report access, represents opportunistic corruption in finance, facilitating insider trading until thwarted in a gorilla-costumed ambush that highlights the film's farcical edge.[3] His brief but pivotal role reinforces the narrative's exposure of market manipulations, with Gleason's portrayal evoking unctuous villainy akin to his later authority figures.[15]Production
Development and Writing
The screenplay for Trading Places was written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod, who conceived the core premise in the early 1980s. Harris drew inspiration from two affluent doctor brothers he knew, whose intense sibling rivalry and debates over nature versus nurture prompted him to envision a wager in which they would switch the socioeconomic positions of a wealthy broker and a street hustler to test environmental influences on success.[16] During a tennis game with Weingrod and producer Aaron Russo, Harris pitched the idea of such a reversal, leading to the script's development as a modern riff on class inversion, loosely echoing Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper but centered on racial and economic dynamics in commodities trading.[11] Initially titled Black and White, the project was sold to Paramount Pictures and developed as a starring vehicle for Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, with the Duke brothers' bet serving as the narrative engine to explore nurture's dominance over innate traits.[11] To ensure authenticity in depicting Wall Street culture, Harris and Weingrod conducted research by consulting industry professionals and observing traders' behaviors, including time spent with inebriated brokers in Los Angeles who devolved into chaotic antics by midday, informing the film's portrayal of the trading floor's frenzy.[11][17] Pryor's severe burns from a 1980 freebasing accident derailed the original casting, prompting director John Landis to take on the project in 1982; he retained the screenplay's structure without major rewrites, focusing instead on executing the con game and trading sequences with input from real commodities experts to ground the satire in observable financial practices.[16] A 1985 lawsuit alleging plagiarism of an unproduced script by other writers was filed against Paramount, Russo, and the screenwriters but ultimately dismissed, affirming the originality of Harris and Weingrod's work.[1]Casting Decisions
The screenplay for Trading Places was originally developed as a vehicle for Gene Wilder in the role of Louis Winthorpe III and Richard Pryor as Billy Ray Valentine.[18] Pryor's participation became impossible following his severe injuries from a freebasing cocaine accident on December 9, 1980, prompting a recasting.[11] Director John Landis, upon reviewing the script, rejected the Wilder-Pryor pairing and advocated for Dan Aykroyd as Winthorpe and Eddie Murphy as Valentine, citing their potential to bring fresh dynamic to the leads despite studio hesitations.[19] Landis initially unfamiliar with Murphy—having ceased watching Saturday Night Live after John Belushi's death—nonetheless approved him after strong preview reactions to Murphy's performance in 48 Hrs. (1982), with Paramount executives recommending the then-21-year-old comedian for the street hustler role.[11] Aykroyd's casting faced resistance due to the recent commercial failure of Doctor Detroit (1983), but Landis secured him at a discounted rate, emphasizing Aykroyd's comedic versatility from Saturday Night Live and films like The Blues Brothers (1980).[19] For the role of Ophelia, Landis insisted on Jamie Lee Curtis despite Paramount's opposition, as her prior work in horror films such as Halloween (1978) and its sequel had typecast her as a "scream queen," limiting perceptions of her comedic range. Landis, having collaborated with Curtis on a 55-minute Universal Studios documentary titled Coming Soon, recognized her "smart aleck" wit and flirtatious energy as ideal for the prostitute character, ultimately casting her for $70,000—far below her $1 million fee for Halloween II (1981).[19][20] The Duke brothers roles went to veteran actors Ralph Bellamy as Randolph Duke and Don Ameche as Mortimer Duke to provide authoritative gravitas to the antagonists. Bellamy, known for 1930s-1940s prestige films, accepted readily, while Ameche—absent from feature films since Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970)—was initially presumed deceased or unavailable by industry insiders; Landis located him via telephone directory and cast him after Ray Milland, the original choice for Mortimer, failed an insurance physical.[11] Ameche's performance marked a career resurgence, leading to an Academy Award for Cocoon (1985).[19]Filming and Locations
Principal photography for Trading Places commenced in December 1982 and concluded on March 1, 1983, with all scenes filmed on location without reliance on soundstages.[11][21] The production emphasized authentic urban environments to underscore the film's themes of social contrast, capturing the bulk of footage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which represented the story's fictional setting of that city. Notable Philadelphia sites included Rittenhouse Square for Billy Ray Valentine's arrest sequence; 2014 Delancey Place as Louis Winthorpe III's townhouse exterior; Boathouse Row and the Italian Market in the opening montage; Independence Hall; and areas near City Hall.[22][23] Interiors and supplementary exteriors were shot in New York City, such as Ophelia's apartment, Barney's Pawn Shop, and police station scenes, despite their narrative placement in Philadelphia.[24] The Duke brothers' mansion exterior utilized Mill Neck Manor on Long Island, New York.[25] Train sequences occurred on Amtrak routes between the two cities, while the ending beach confrontation was filmed in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.[26][23] This location-based approach, directed by John Landis, contributed to the film's grounded realism amid its comedic premise.[21]Music and Post-Production
Elmer Bernstein composed the score for Trading Places, marking a reunion with director John Landis following their collaborations on The Blues Brothers (1980) and other projects.[27] The music integrates motifs from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro with Bernstein's original cues, emphasizing comedic and dramatic shifts in the narrative.[28] Bernstein adapted and conducted the score, performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.[29] The soundtrack album, Trading Places: Music From The Motion Picture, was initially released in 1983, featuring tracks such as "Main Title," "Louis Winthorpe III Blues," and "Jamaican Bye-Bye," totaling around 48 minutes of music.[27] Later editions, including a 2011 expanded release by La-La Land Records and a limited 2021 Mondo vinyl pressing of 2,000 copies, preserved and expanded access to the full score.[30] This collaboration represented the first of three Bernstein-Landis pairings on comedy films, highlighting Bernstein's versatility in blending classical elements with lighthearted orchestration.[27] Post-production involved editing by Malcolm Campbell, who assembled the 116-minute film from principal photography completed in 1982.[31] The process emphasized rhythmic pacing to underscore the film's satirical tone, particularly in sequences depicting financial market chaos and character reversals, with minimal reliance on visual effects typical of early 1980s comedies.[21] Sound design focused on practical audio elements, integrating location-recorded dialogue and effects without advanced digital manipulation, aligning with the era's analog workflows.[31]Release and Commercial Performance
Theatrical Release Context
Trading Places premiered theatrically in the United States on June 8, 1983, with initial limited openings in Los Angeles and New York.[1] The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures, which handled its North American rollout following production involvement from Cinema Group Ventures.[32] Paramount positioned the comedy for a summer audience, capitalizing on the rising popularity of leads Eddie Murphy, fresh from 48 Hrs. (1982), and Dan Aykroyd, known from The Blues Brothers (1980).[3] The release occurred without significant pre-launch controversies, though the film's R rating reflected its inclusion of adult language, nudity, and satirical depictions of class and race dynamics typical of early 1980s comedies directed by John Landis. Internationally, it followed in markets like Sweden on September 16, 1983, as Paramount expanded distribution.[33] This timing aligned with a period of economic optimism under Reagan administration policies, mirroring the film's themes of commodities trading and social experimentation amid Wall Street's growing prominence.[1]Box Office Results
Trading Places was released theatrically in the United States on June 10, 1983, by Paramount Pictures, opening on 1,283 screens.[34] Its opening weekend generated $7,348,200 in ticket sales, marking a strong debut for a comedy amid competition from summer blockbusters.[35][34] The film ultimately grossed $90,404,800 domestically, representing a production budget of approximately $15 million and yielding a return exceeding six times its cost.[3][34] This performance positioned Trading Places as the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the U.S., trailing only Return of the Jedi, Tootsie, and Flashdance.[36] The movie's theatrical run demonstrated robust audience legs, with a multiplier of 12.3 times its opening weekend, indicative of sustained popularity through word-of-mouth and holiday-season play.[35]| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Production Budget | $15,000,000 |
| Opening Weekend Gross | $7,348,200 |
| Domestic Total Gross | $90,404,800 |
| Worldwide Total Gross | $90,404,800 |
| Theaters (Opening) | 1,283 |
Marketing and Distribution
Paramount Pictures handled the theatrical distribution of Trading Places in the United States, launching a wide release on June 8, 1983.[33] The film expanded internationally through various distributors, including United International Pictures (UIP) in territories such as Finland and the Netherlands.[37] Marketing efforts centered on the film's comedic premise of class reversal, highlighting the star power of Eddie Murphy—fresh off his breakout in 48 Hrs. (1982)—and Dan Aykroyd. Promotional materials included the official theatrical poster, which depicted the leads exchanging dollar bills to symbolize their swapped fortunes.[3] To engage theater exhibitors, Paramount produced an industry promotional short for ShoWest conventions, featuring Aykroyd and Murphy to pitch the film's appeal as a broad summer comedy.[38] The campaign packet distributed to promoters contained advertising assets reinforcing the satire on wealth and Wall Street excess.[39] Subsequent distribution encompassed home video releases by Paramount, including VHS in the 1980s and a 4K-remastered Blu-ray in 2020 under the Paramount Presents line.[40] Streaming availability followed on platforms like Paramount+.[41]Critical Reception
Contemporary Reviews
Upon its theatrical release in June 1983, Trading Places garnered generally favorable reviews from major critics, who highlighted its sharp satire, strong ensemble performances, and successful homage to screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.[16] The film's humor, driven by the class-swap premise and the contrasting styles of leads Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, was frequently praised for transcending formulaic setups to explore social and economic themes with wit.[7] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, commending its avoidance of "sitcom manipulations" in favor of deeper character work and noting the "engaging acting" that showcased the leads' intelligence alongside their quirks.[7] Ebert emphasized the detailed portrayals by supporting actors like Denholm Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis, which enriched the comedy without relying solely on obvious gags about wealth disparity.[7] Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film as an effective revival of 1930s-style role-reversal comedies adapted to 1980s financial excess, praising Murphy's "lithe, graceful, uproarious" performance for demonstrating his versatility beyond stand-up antics.[42] Canby viewed the narrative's focus on altered circumstances— from privilege to destitution and vice versa—as a clever vehicle for disguises and social commentary, though he noted its reliance on broad comedic contrivances.[42] Richard Schickel, writing for Time magazine, hailed it as "one of the most emotionally satisfying and morally gratifying comedies of recent times," appreciating its blend of farce with pointed critiques of class prejudice and market manipulation.[43] While some reviewers acknowledged occasional reliance on stereotypes for humor, the consensus affirmed the film's entertainment value and box-office appeal, contributing to its status as a summer hit.[16]Awards and Nominations
Trading Places received one nomination at the 56th Academy Awards on April 9, 1984, for Best Music, Original Song Score and/or Adaptation Score, awarded to composer Elmer Bernstein for his adaptation incorporating classical music themes.[44] At the 41st Golden Globe Awards in January 1984, the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Eddie Murphy's portrayal of Billy Ray Valentine.[45] The film secured two wins at the 37th British Academy Film Awards in 1984: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Denholm Elliott as Coleman, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Jamie Lee Curtis as Ophelia. These victories recognized the supporting performances amid competition from films like The King of Comedy and Tootsie. Eddie Murphy won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture at the 1984 ceremony, honoring his lead role in elevating the film's comedic and social commentary elements.[46]| Award Ceremony | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Music, Original Song Score and/or Adaptation Score | Elmer Bernstein | Nominated (1984)[44] |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Trading Places | Nominated (1984)[45] |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Eddie Murphy | Nominated (1984)[45] |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Denholm Elliott | Won (1984) |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Jamie Lee Curtis | Won (1984) |
| NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture | Eddie Murphy | Won (1984)[46] |