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Trading Places
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Trading Places (1983) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.4/10   26,703 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 2% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
John Landis
Writers:
Timothy Harris (written by)
Herschel Weingrod (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Trading Places on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
8 June 1983 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy more
Tagline:
They're not just getting rich... They're getting even. more
Plot:
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(19 articles)
Michael Jackson Will Live On In Movie History
 (From MTV Movies Blog. 26 June 2009, 9:57 AM, PDT)

Imagine That Review
 (From Atomic Popcorn. 11 June 2009, 5:41 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Hilarious... best movie either Ackroyd or Murphy have done. more
US TV Schedule:
Sun. July 56:30 AMTBS   

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Denholm Elliott ... Coleman

Dan Aykroyd ... Louis Winthorpe III
Maurice Woods ... Duke & Duke Employee
Richard D. Fisher Jr. ... Duke & Duke Employee
Jim Gallagher ... Duke & Duke Employee
Anthony DiSabatino ... Duke & Duke Employee

Bonnie Behrend ... Duke & Duke Employee
Sunnie Merrill ... Duke & Duke Employee
James Newell ... Duke & Duke Employee (as Jim Newell)
Mary St. John ... Duke & Duke Employee
Bonnie Tremena ... Duke & Duke Employee
David Schwartz ... Duke & Duke Employee
Ralph Bellamy ... Randolph Duke

Don Ameche ... Mortimer Duke
Tom Degidon ... Duke Domestic
more
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Black or White (USA) (working title)
Die Glücksritter (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Un fauteuil pour deux (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
De mendigo a millonario (Argentina) [es]
Entre pillos anda el juego (Spain) [es]
Kolo srece (Serbia) [sr]
Ombytta roller (Sweden) [sv]
Os Ricos e os Pobres (Portugal) [pt]
Rollebyttet (Norway) [no]
Trocando as Bolas (Brazil) [pt]
Una poltrona per due (Italy) [it]
Vaihtokaupat (Finland) [fi]
more
Runtime:
118 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Several scenes were kept in the movie, even though they were considered either goofs or errors. The scene where Mortimer is trying to catch the money clip and having trouble wasn't supposed to happen that way, but both kept going with it and not breaking character, so it was kept in. Another, where Jamie Lee Curtis is doing her lines on the train and is questioned about her accent and outfit not matching, wasn't supposed to be shown either. Curtis couldn't do the correct Austrian accent. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: At the Christmas party when Winthorpe jumps on the table waving the gun, the clocks show that it is 1905 in Los Angeles, 2205 in Philadelphia and 0205 in London. Daylight Savings Time was not observed between late October and late April so London would be five hours, not four, ahead of Philadelphia. more
Quotes:
Ophelia: [Ophelia notices Louis watching her undress] By the way, food and rent aren't the only things around here that cost money. You sleep on the couch. more
Movie Connections:
References The Million Pound Note (1954) more
Soundtrack:
GET A JOB more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
35 out of 38 people found the following comment useful:-
Hilarious... best movie either Ackroyd or Murphy have done., 3 May 2005
10/10
Author: the-jerk from Newark, DE

I skimmed over the comments to this movie and was heartened to see that so many people love it like I do. It just doesn't seem to be considered by the mainstream to be in the same league as, say, "Beverly Hills Cop" or "Coming to America" when talking about Eddie Murphy's movies, but the fact is that this is hands down his funniest part ever. And Dan Ackroyd is equally hilarious as the (at first) repulsively elitist Louis Winthorpe III. Add the stellar supporting cast, particularly Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy as the Dukes, Paul Gleason as the slimy Clarence Beeks, Jamie Lee Curtis as Ophelia, your standard hooker with a heart of gold (rarely done as well as here), and Denholm Elliott as Coleman the butler, and you hit a rich vein of comedy gold.

The plot is a classic farce situation. The Duke brothers, who clearly feel they are above everybody else, make a bet, for one dollar, over whether anybody regardless of breeding can, in the right environment, become an upper-crust gentleman. So as an experiment to see which one is right, they work circumstances so that the rich Louis Winthorpe III is turned into a miserly bum, while they have Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy) take his place. He takes over Louis's job, his house, and his standing in the community. Realistic? Well, no, not really, but this is a farce, so it doesn't really have to be. It is, however, hilarious, which is exactly what a farce should be.

If there's a running theme in this movie, it is duplicity and mistaken identity. People are constantly being mistaken for something they are not, or forced into a situation where they become something they are not. We see this happen not only with the two main characters in the basic plot, but also with Billy Ray pretending to be a Vietnam veteran, then a karate master; Louis, who despite all appearances as a wimp, claims to have stood up to Billy Ray during their earliest encounter in the movie, when he actually hands Billy Ray his suitcase, setting him up for an arrest, when he was not actually trying to steal anything; Ophelia, who for a price pretends to know Louis outside the police station, further besmirching his name; all three plus Coleman, who each dresses up as a different hilarious ethnic character to trick Clarence Beeks; and Beeks, who in a subsequent scene is mistaken for an actual gorilla because he's wearing a costume (Al Franken and Tom Davis as the baggage handlers, marveling over how human the "gorilla" appears, are priceless).

Eventually, Billy Ray finds out what is going on, and gets together with Louis to turn the tables on the Dukes. Ophelia (who has fallen for Louis) and Coleman (who feels guilty and used over his part in the whole ruse) help them out. Do they get their revenge? Watch the movie and find out. It will be well worth your while. This is easily the funniest movie either Ackroyd or Murphy have ever done (its only real competition in this regard is "The Blues Brothers") and to think this was originally meant as a vehicle for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor is odd, because it's hard to imagine either of them in the parts done so well by Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. John Landis keeps the pace going at a nice fast speed, and being a native Philadelphian, the locales and opening montage (including a scene of the Rocky statue) are a kick. But of course you'll love this movie even if you're not from Philly.

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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Trading Places (1983)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Yeah. Zac_Critchley
Delete your post Trading Places style CauseILikeToParty
i dont care if its a clasic i hated it davidflavell2001
I kind of felt bad for the Dukes... bbarina
Remake fishermanhossmk
SCARIEST SCENE IN CINEMATIC HISTORY.PERIOD. ebuish
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