Trading Places ***** (1983, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis) – Movie Review 5340

Director John Landis’s 1983 delightful movie is a wonderful old-style comedy with rousing star-making performances from Dan Aykroyd as Louis Winthorpe III, a rich, snobbish, well-bred American investor executive and Eddie Murphy as a poor, wily, low-born street con artist.

Good as they are, they are both outclassed by practised old-timers Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche as the conniving, callous, old rich cat bothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke, who settle a heredity-versus-environment argument by making Aykroyd and Murphy trade places. The title of course is also a play on words about their stock exchange place of work.

Then there is Jamie Lee Curtis as the streetwalker who helps destitute, desperate Dan, and Denholm Elliott as Coleman, the snooty English butler who shows Eddie how to be ready for riches.

Trading Places is notable for its sparkling performances from the huggable ensemble, a witty screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod with lots of laughs and a little spoonful of social comment, and the taut, snappy direction by the inventive, fired-up Landis.

Clever is one thing but it is also hilarious. What more can you ask from a comedy?

Also in the cast are Kristin Holby, Paul Gleason, Alfred Drake, Bo Diddley, Frank Oz, James Belushi, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Maurice Woods, Richard D Fisher Jr, Jim Gallagher, Giancarlo Esposito, Ron Taylor as ‘Big Black Guy’, James D Turner as ‘Even Bigger Black Guy’, and Philip Bosco.

Mel Brooks’s Life Stinks (1991) is a variant on the theme.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5340

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