Trading Places is a 1983 comedy film starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy 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 film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Plot
Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer Duke (Don Ameche) are the snobbish heads of a successful commodities brokerage firm, hold opposing positions on the issue of "nature versus nurture". Mortimer believes that a well-bred individual will be able to conquer whatever challenges are presented to him, while an ill-bred one will fail even if he is given many advantages over others. On the other hand, Randolph thinks that the former will degenerate if stripped of his position, but the latter will become a changed man if given the proper opportunities. To settle the dispute, the Dukes decide to ruin a successful man's life, allow a poor man to take his place, and observe the results. They wager their "usual amount" on the outcome.
For the experiment, they choose their soon-to-be nephew-in-law, Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), Harvard educated, silver spoon manager of the firm's Philadelphia office, and street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy). To destroy Winthorpe's reputation, Duke operative Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason), publicly frames him as a thief. Winthorpe is promptly arrested and fired from his job, and he soon learns that his bank accounts have been frozen and he has been locked out of his home (as it is technically property of the Dukes). When his snobby fiancée Penelope, (Kristin Holby) who is also the Dukes' niece comes to post bail for him, a prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) kisses him and asks him to give her drugs, promising to do anything he wants her to do in return. Upset, Penelope calls off the engagement on the spot. Louis soon finds himself ostracized by Penelope and all of his friends and colleagues, who refuse to help him. Ophelia soon admits that someone paid her to act in this fashion, and later takes pity on Louis and allows him to stay at her apartment for the time being, on the agreement that if she helps him become reestablished in society he will reward her financially.
Valentine and Winthorpe had previously bumped into each other, leading to Valentine being arrested at Winthorpe's insistence because of a supposed robbery attempt. Valentine is soon bailed out by the Dukes, who claim to be running a program that provides assistance to "culturally underprivileged members of society". Installed in Winthorpe's former position, the streetwise hustler soon learns to use his experience of reality to predict the movement of futures contracts and thus make money for the firm. He is also given the use of Winthorpe's house, which he initially opens up to the customers at his favorite bar for a party. Upon seeing this unsavory crowd treat his new house like a zoo, though, Valentine condemns them all as freeloaders and kicks them out. Winthorpe's butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott) becomes friends with Valentine, who has already begun to act as a more upstanding person than he used to be, especially as he thanks Coleman for his services.
The two test subjects come face to face during the firm's Christmas party, which Winthorpe crashes, in order to steal food and plant drugs in Valentine's desk to get him fired. After Winthorpe flees the scene, the Dukes settle their wager in the washroom, with Mortimer conceding defeat to Randolph and paying him the "usual amount" — one dollar.
Valentine, who is hiding in one of the washroom stalls to smoke a joint (from the collection of drugs Winthorpe placed in his desk), overhears this exchange and the brothers' discussion of what to do with the two men: the Dukes plan to get rid of Valentine and yet will not be giving Winthorpe his job back, since they are disgusted with the idea of either man being in charge of the office. Outraged that both he and Louis have been used for such a petty bet and that, regardless of who wins, the two both end up on the streets (and when Mortimer makes a racist remark about him to his brother), Valentine follows Winthorpe back to Ophelia's apartment.
Winthorpe, finally hitting rock bottom after people look at him disdainfully on a bus and move seats when he sits down, is urinated on by a dog and it starts to rain, attempts suicide twice, first with a pistol (which jams, but fires when he drops it) and then with an overdose of sleeping pills in the bathtub. He is taken back to his own original house and nursed back to health, and Valentine, Ophelia, and Coleman tell him about the Dukes' full scheme. The enraged Winthorpe initially wants to cripple the Dukes physically by shooting them in the kneecaps, but Valentine points out that he would be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. Valentine instead suggests that breaking them financially would be the best revenge for both of them. A TV news report alerts them to Clarence Beeks' involvement in transporting a report on orange crop forecasts; Ophelia recognizes him as the man who paid her to accost Winthorpe in jail. The group realizes that the Dukes are planning to buy a copy of that report from Beeks — who turns out to be their partner in their insider trading scheme — and use its information to help them corner the frozen concentrated orange juice market.
Valentine learns of Beeks' travel plans by monitoring a phone call between the Dukes and Beeks, and the four sneak aboard his train during a rowdy New Year's Eve celebration. When they try to switch his genuine report for a fake, he sees through their scheme and attempts to eliminate them. When they get to the cargo hold, a drunk partygoer named Harvey (Jim Belushi in an early role), follows them in and Beeks knocks him out with the back of his gun. This enrages a gorilla being transported on the train and he knocks Beeks out just in time. They strip off Harvey's gorilla costume, put Beeks in it, and lock him and the gorilla (who immediately falls in love with him) in the same cage to get him out of the way. The fake report is delivered to the Dukes, who pay the agreed price without realizing Valentine is taking advantage of a darkened parking garage to disguise himself as Beeks.
Valentine and Winthorpe gather up as much money as they can, including the life savings of Ophelia (who has fallen in love with Winthorpe) and Coleman, and set out to bring the Dukes down. On the commodities trading floor at the World Trade Center in New York, they are able to short-sell orange juice futures and turn an enormous profit. At the same time, the Dukes — misled by the fake report — incur a loss of approximately $394 million, a value which they are unable to pay in cash to cover the margin call. As a result, their business and personal assets are immediately seized by the trading board to cover their debts. In the aftermath of the trading session, Valentine and Winthorpe reveal their own wager to the Dukes — whether or not they could get rich by making the Dukes bankrupt at the same time. Valentine, the winner, collects a dollar from Winthorpe, and Randolph suffers a heart attack.
As the film ends, a weary Beeks and the lovestruck gorilla are loaded onto a ship to be returned to Africa, while Valentine, Winthorpe, Ophelia, and Coleman enjoy a luxurious tropical vacation.
Postscript: While the films ends there, Mortimer and Randolph Duke are briefly seen again in Murphy's later film, Coming to America. In that film, Murphy's character Prince Akeem gives a large amount of money to two homeless men, who turn out to be the brothers Duke. The brothers celebrate that they are "back," suggesting a better future for the two. In the final scene with the brothers, when Akeem is on a date, the brothers yell through a restaurant window their gratitude for Akeem's genorosity, but fail to notice he bears a striking resemblance to Billy Ray Valentine.
Explanation of climactic scene
With the authentic orange crop report indicating the winter season was not harsh and resulted in a good harvest of fresh oranges, frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) would be less important to food producers and so would be likely to drop in price once traders heard the news. However, through the fraudulent report, the Duke brothers are led to believe that the orange harvest would be less successful, causing greater demand for stockpiled FCOJ in orange products in the coming year, thereby driving the price up. By capitalizing on this knowledge (and the Duke brothers' missteps), the protagonists are able to profit by manipulating the futures market as follows:
- Futures contracts can be sold even when the seller does not yet own any of the commodity. A contract to sell, for example, 15,000 pounds of FCOJ in April at $1.42 per pound, merely indicates the seller's obligation to deliver and the buyer's obligation to purchase the product at the specified price and time. It does not matter how or where the seller gets the product, as long as, one way or another, he is able to deliver it at that price at that time, even if it results in a sale at a loss to him.
- In this case, Winthorpe and Valentine first sell FCOJ futures at $1.42 per pound, a price inflated by the Dukes themselves (the Duke Brothers' buying leads other traders to believe that the Dukes are trying to corner the market, causing a buying frenzy). Then, when the price falls — first as a result of Winthorpe and Valentine's eager selling, then to a much greater degree upon the release of the real crop report indicating a good harvest — Winthorpe and Valentine buy futures for prices between $.46 and $.29 per pound. Thus, for every futures contract they had previously sold at about $1.42, they buy another back (for resale to those who bought the expensive contracts from them previously) for only $.46 to $.29, resulting in a profit of $.96 to $1.13 per pound. In actual markets, price limits – "limit up" and "limit down" – protect the clearinghouse from defaults and would preclude such a drastic price jump. However, "limit down" and "limit up" of 10 cents per day were not instituted until the late 1980s. As the film is set in 1983, Winthrope and Valentine were not impeded by the limits.
- At the same time that Winthorpe/Valentine sell their futures contracts, the Duke brothers are rapidly purchasing them, even at high prices, because they incorrectly expect that the crop report (falsely suggesting a greater need for stockpiled orange juice) will create a demand at even higher prices, securing them a profit. When it turns out that the leaked report they were given was fraudulent and the true report is revealed, the price begins to plummet before they are able to sell off their contracts. This leaves them with an obligation to buy millions of pounds of FCOJ at a price more than a dollar per pound higher than they can sell them for, bankrupting them. Although the legality of the actions of the Dukes, Winthorpe and Valentine can be questioned, commodities markets do not have insider trading laws as in the stock markets.
A more detailed explanation can be found at "How Winthorpe and Valentine Pulled It Off."[1]
Cast
Production
Most of the film was shot on location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Portions were set in New York City, at the World Trade Center and the New York Board of Trade exchange floor at 4 World Trade Center. Additionally, many of the interior office scenes of Duke and Duke were filmed within the historic rooms of the Park Avenue Armory.
The scene in which Winthorp is arraigned takes place in the New York City Police Department's 45th Precinct Police Station located at 2877 Barkley Ave in the Bronx. The brass capped metal fencing in front of the big desk is still polished every week. Additionally, the room in which Winthorp is ordered to undress while the police list his valuables is the room where the police officers from the 45th Precinct attend roll call.
The final scene was filmed in Saint Croix, in the United States Virgin Islands.
Television broadcasts
Trading Places made its network broadcast television premiere on NBC in 1986. Some elements are added or removed from the film for television.
- The only deleted scene, in which Clarence Beeks drugs a security guard and steals the crop report while Sunset Boulevard plays on television, was included in television versions.
- Occasionally broadcasts of the film will edit out either the entire scene of Louis and Billy Ray walking into the WTC or simply edit Louis's statement about the WTC "In this building it's either kill or be killed" out of respect for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In its September 23, 2007 broadcast (and continuing broadcasts), however, Comedy Central left the remark in, as has the DVD release of the film.
- The original film has a scene where Billy Ray cleans out his desk of the drugs (planted by Louis, dressed as Santa Claus), but claims a hand-rolled joint for himself, clandestinely placing it into his coat pocket. He then smokes it in an unoccupied bathroom stall. He is momentarily panicked when occupants come into the men's room; realizing he cannot discreetly exhale the smoke, until he stands on the commode, blowing smoke into a vent in the ceiling. This scene is also reinstated in the DVD release.
- Television broadcasts also use alternate takes, removing nudity from the film.
Reception
- Trading Places was a hit, accumulating $90,404,800 in the domestic box office.
- The film currently carries a 91% fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com, with the general consensus being that it is an immensely appealing social satire.
Awards
- Curtis and Elliott received BAFTA awards for their roles.
- The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score.
- The film is number 74 on Bravo's 100 funniest movies.
See also
External links
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