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Trading Places
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Trading Places is an Academy Award-nominated 1983 comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It was produced by Aaron Russo.
hers Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche), the 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.
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Encyclopedia
Trading Places is an Academy Award-nominated 1983 comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It was produced by Aaron Russo.
Plot
Brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche), the 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. Randolph, on the other hand, thinks that the former will degenerate if stripped of his position, but the latter will become a changed man if given the proper chance. 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 Louis Winthorpe III (Aykroyd), the manager of the firm’s Philadelphia office, and street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (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 fiancé Penelope comes to post bail for him, a prostitute named Ophelia (Curtis) kisses him and asks him to give her drugs, promising to do anything he wants her to do in return. Ophelia soon admits that someone paid her to act in this fashion, and later takes pity on him 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. He is soon bailed out by the Dukes, who claim to be running a program that provides assistance to underprivileged members of society. Installed in Winthorpe’s former position, the streetwise hustler soon learns to use his experience 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 rightfully 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.
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. Mortimer pays the “usual amount” to Randolph: one dollar.
Valentine, who is hiding in one of the washroom stalls to smoke a marijuana cigarette, overhears this exchange and the brothers’ discussion of what to do with the two men: the Dukes plan to get rid of Valentine without giving Winthorpe his job back, since they are disgusted with the idea of either man being in charge of the office. Outraged at the thought of being manipulated over such a petty bet (and being called names behind his back), Valentine follows Winthorpe back to Ophelia’s apartment.
Winthorpe attempts suicide twice, first with a pistol (which jams, but fires when he drops it) and then with an overdose of sleeping pills. He is taken back to his own house and nursed back to health, and Valentine, Ophelia, and Coleman tell him about the Dukes’ full scheme. Initially, Winthorpe is enraged, and Valentine suggests that breaking them financially would be the best revenge for both of them. A television news report alerts them to 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 and use its information to help them corner the frozen concentrate orange juice market.
Valentine learns of Beeks’ travel plans, and the four sneak aboard his train during a rowdy New Year's Eve celebration. Beeks sees through their scheme when they try to switch his genuine report for a fake and attempts to eliminate them, but a gorilla being transported on the train knocks him out just in time. They strip a partygoer of his gorilla costume, put Beeks in it, and lock him and the gorilla 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 that Beeks is gone.
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, 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 such a huge loss that 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 at the expense of the brothers. Valentine, the winner, collects a dollar from Winthorpe, and Randolph suffers a heart attack.
As the movie ends, a weary Beeks and the gorilla (who has fallen in love with him) are loaded onto a ship to be returned to Africa, while Valentine, Winthorpe, Ophelia, and Coleman enjoy a luxurious tropical vacation.
Cast
Production
Most of the movie was filmed 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.
Rating
The film was rated R by the MPAA, for brief nudity and profanity.
Television broadcasts
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 drops a hand-rolled joint into his coat pocket. He then smokes it in an unoccupied bathroom stall. He is momentarily panicked when he realizes 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.
Awards
- Curtis and Elliott received BAFTA awards for their roles.
- The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score.
Explanation of climactic scene
With the authentic orange crop report indicating 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:
- Unlike a conventional stock transaction, 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.
- 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. Note that commodities markets do not have insider trading laws as in the stock markets.
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