Trading Places (1983)

Director John Landis' popular lampooning 'screwball comedy' concerned the long-standing debate (or "eternal question") of hereditary-biological nature vs. environment-nurture. The social satire with mature content told about a reversal of roles, and "trading places" between two unequals, as part of a $1 bet and "scientific experiment."

Its taglines were: "They're not just getting rich... They're getting even," and "Take two complete strangers, make one of them rich the other poor... just watch the fun while they're... TRADING PLACES.

• in the film's opening, a wager was made between two owners of a Philadelphia commodities brokerage known as Duke & Duke - Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer Duke (Don Ameche); they decided to determine if a down-and-out and under-privileged street huster could become successful under the right circumstances, and if a privileged man could become destitute when set up and framed as a thief, drug dealer, and profligate, locked out of his townhome, and left with frozen bank accounts and repossessed credit cards
• shortly later, Randolph chuckled as he described their devious "guinea pig" test: "We took a perfectly useless psychopath like Valentine, and turned him into a successful executive. And during the same time, we turned an honest, hard-working man into a violently, deranged, would-be killer!"
• the two victims of their wager were:
  • Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy), an African-American, homeless yet wily street con artist, panhandler and hustler
  • Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), a snobbish, privileged, racist, well-mannered, Harvard educated, well-to-do businessman; Winthrope served as the managing director of Duke & Duke (the commodity brokerage in Philadelphia)
  • [Note: Murphy and Aykroyd were both cast members of Saturday Night Live, although at differing times.]
• Winthorpe was engaged to his pretty fiancee - Penelope Witherspoon (Kristin Holby) - the Dukes' grand-niece

Street Hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy)	Successful Brokerage Managing Director Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd)
The Results of the Switcheroo

• once the switch was made around Christmastime, Winthorpe lost everything he had, and misfortune, abandonment, and ostracization met him everywhere; Winthorpe (who had been fired from his job) was destitute due to the immediate loss of his previous identity and assets
• his wedding to Penelope appeared to be called off, and he was about to be charged with embezzlement and drug dealing; he was released from jail onto the street with fiancee Penelope, where 24 year-old hooker Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) - who had been paid to ruin him - pretended that she needed a fix from him and would pay him back with sex; Penelope reacted by immediately disowning him: "You lying, filthy, disgusting creep";
• even Winthorpe's loyal and devoted butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott) pretended not to recognize him at the door of his townhouse; Winthorpe asked himself why he was being framed: "Why is someone deliberately trying to ruin my life?"
• meanwhile, Billy Ray had already taken over Winthorpe's prestigious job at the firm, and was living in Winthorpe's home and hosting a Xmas party; Hooker # 2 (Barra Kahn) was waiting for him in his bedroom: ("I've been waitin' for ya, Billy Ray"), and two other hookers stripped topless during dancing in the living room, to the tune of "Do Ya Wanna Funk With Me" (by Sylvester); exasperated, Billy Ray kicked everyone out, calling the party "a damn zoo"
• shortly later, Ophelia - who was really a sympathetic lady-of-the-night (with a heart of gold), befriended the un-street-smart downcast loser and unsuspecting victim Winthorpe, and allowed him to stay at her cheap and clean "dump" of an apartment; she vowed she was drug-free and didn't have a pimp, and as a non-negotiable "business proposition," she said that she would be charging him five figures in cash to help him get back on his feet

Hooker Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis): "You sleep on the couch"

• after removing her top in a mirror, she turned, covered her breasts, and advised him: "By the way, food and rent are not the only things around here that cost money. You sleep on the couch"
• however, soon after, when Louis was sick (confirmed by first taking his temperature of 103 degrees F.), she stripped down to a thong and got in bed with him; as she massaged his head to make him feel better, she stated: "I'm just protecting my investment. That's all"; soon after, Louis read in The Financial Journal that Billy Ray Valentine had been appointed to Duke & Duke in his place
• the film ended with Billy Ray's and Winthorpe's vengeance toward their oppressors after Billy Ray overheard the Dukes in the men's room plotting to return Valentine to the ghetto, with additional plans to not restore Winthorpe to his previous position; Mortimer used an offensive racial slur to state his intentions: "Do you really believe I would have a 'n----r' run our family business, Randolph?"
• through a false report about the prospects of frozen concentrated OJ, the two (with Ophelia's and Coleman's help) misled the Dukes into making an unwise investment strategy that bankrupted them

Billy Ray's and Winthorpe's Successful Ploy Against the Dukes

The Dismayed and Bankrupted Dukes

• the two had also made their own $1 bet, won by Billy Ray, that they could enrich themselves at the Dukes' expense: (Billy Ray: "I made Louis a bet here. See, Louis bet me that we couldn't both get rich and put y'all in the poor house at the same time. He didn't think we could do it. I won")