Trading Places

Trading Places (1983) is about two wealthy brothers changing the lives of two men over a bet. The Duke brothers run a commodities firm. An argument arises between them: is a person made by character or by circumstance. They bet a dollar on it. They frame their manager Louis Winthorpe out of his job, his house and his engagement, and install Billy Ray Valentine, who has been begging in the street, in his place. When the two of them learn about the bet they join forces. The finale turns on frozen orange juice concentrate futures. The Dukes try to obtain the Department of Agriculture's unreleased crop report; the pair swap it and ruin them. That ending pointed at a real gap in the law, and it was closed years later. In 2010 the Dodd-Frank Act added a provision prohibiting government employees from leaking confidential information for personal gain and prohibiting trading on it. Its name in the industry is the Eddie Murphy Rule, taken directly from this film. The closing scene of a comedy became the nickname of a statute. John Landis directed. Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliott star. One scene uses racist makeup belonging to its period and is indefensible now. It did very well commercially. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: eighties comedy, class satire, and finance. Less good for: some jokes belong to their period and are plainly a problem.