it’s said that you never really know a person until you walk around in his or her shoes…Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird said it best to his young daughter Scout… “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” …to take a serious subject and make it funny…writers Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod wrote Trading Places…I watched Trading Places this evening which I had recorded last week…a bet for $1.00 leads to nature versus nurture…from Wikipedia: “Trading Places is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the film tells the story of an upper-class commodities broker (Aykroyd) and a poor street hustler (Murphy) whose lives cross when they are unwittingly made the subjects of an elaborate bet to test how each man will perform when their life circumstances are swapped.
Harris conceived the outline for Trading Places in the early 1980s after meeting two wealthy brothers who were engaged in an ongoing rivalry with each other. He and his writing partner Weingrod developed the idea as a project to star Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. When they were unable to participate, Landis cast Aykroyd—with whom he had worked previously—and a young but increasingly popular Murphy in his second feature-film role. Landis also cast Curtis against the intent of the studio, Paramount Pictures; she was famous mainly for her roles in horror films, which were looked down upon at the time. Principal photography took place from December 1982 to March 1983, entirely on location in Philadelphia and New York City. Elmer Bernstein scored the film, using Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s opera buffa The Marriage of Figaro as an underlying theme.
Trading Places was considered a box-office success on its release, earning over $90.4 million to become the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States and Canada, and $120.6 million worldwide. It also received generally positive reviews, with critics praising both the central cast and the film’s revival of the screwball comedy genre prevalent in the 1930s and 1940s while criticizing Trading Places for lacking the same moral message of the genre while promoting the accumulation of wealth. It received multiple award nominations including an Academy Award for Bernstein’s score and won two BAFTA awards for Elliott and Curtis. The film also launched or revitalized the careers of its main cast, who each appeared in several other films throughout the 1980s. In particular, Murphy became one of the highest-paid and most sought after comedians in Hollywood.
In the years since its release, the film has been reassessed both positively and negatively. It has been praised as one of the greatest comedy films and Christmas films ever made, but retrospective assessments have criticized its use of racial jokes and language. In 2010, the film was referenced in Congressional testimony concerning the reform of the commodities trading market designed to prevent the insider trading demonstrated in Trading Places. In 1988, Bellamy and Ameche reprised their characters for Murphy’s comedy film Coming to America.”… “As well as the main cast, Trading Places features Robert Curtis-Brown as Todd, Winthorpe’s romantic rival for Penelope; Alfred Drake as the Securities Exchange manager; and Jim Belushi as Harvey, a party-goer on New Year’s Eve. The film has numerous cameos, including singer Bo Diddley as a pawnbroker; Curtis’ sister Kelly as Penelope’s friend Muffy; the Muppets puppeteers Frank Oz and Richard Hunt as, respectively, a police officer and Wilson, the Dukes’ broker on the trading floor; and Aykroyd’s former Saturday Night Live colleagues, Tom Davis and Al Franken, as train baggage handlers.
Other minor roles include Ron Taylor as “Big Black Guy”, American football player J. T. Turner as “Even Bigger Black Guy” who only says “Yeah!”, and Giancarlo Esposito as a cellmate] Trading Places also features the final theatrically released performance of Avon Long who plays the Dukes’ butler Ezra. The gorilla is portrayed by mime Don McLeod.”
Writing and development
In the early 1980s, writer Timothy Harris often played tennis against two wealthy, but frugal brothers who regularly engaged in a competitive rivalry and betting. Following one session, Harris returned home exasperated with the pair’s conflict and concluded that they were “awful” people. The situation gave him the idea of two brothers betting over nature versus nurture in terms of human ability. Harris shared the idea with his writing partner Herschel Weingrod, who liked the concept. Harris also drew inspiration for the story from his own living situation; he lived in a rundown area near Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. He described the area in grim terms as crime-ridden, where everyone either had a gun pointed at them or had been raped.
Harris and Weingrod researched the commodities market for the script. They learned of financial market incidents, including Russian attempts to corner the wheat market and the Hunt brothers’ efforts to corner the silver market on what became known as Silver Thursday. They thought trading orange juice and pork bellies would be funnier because the public would be unaware such mundane items were traded. Harris consulted with people in the commodities business to understand how the film’s finale on the trading floor would work. The pair determined that the commodities market would make for an interesting setting for a film, as long as it was not about the financial market itself. They needed something to draw the audience in. It was decided to set the story in Philadelphia because of its connections to the founding of the United States, the American dream and idealism and the pursuit of happiness. This was tempered by introducing Billy Ray Valentine as a black man begging on the street. The pair knew that the method of Winthorpe’s and Valentine’s financial victory could be confusing, but hoped that audiences would be too invested in the characters’ success to care about the details.
The script was sold to Paramount Pictures under the title Black and White. Then-Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg offered the project to director John Landis. Landis disliked the working title, but favorably compared the script to older screwball comedies of the 1930s by directors like Frank Capra, Leo McCarey, and Preston Sturges, which often satirized social constructs and social classes, reflecting the cultural issues of their time. Landis wanted his film to reflect these concepts in the 1980s; he said the main updates were the addition of swearing and nudity. Landis admitted that it took him a while to understand how Trading Places‘ finale worked.
CASTING
Trading Places was developed with the intent to cast comedy duo Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder as Valentine and Louis Winthorpe III respectively. The pair were in high demand following the success of their comedy film Stir Crazy (1980). When Pryor was severely injured after setting fire to himself while freebasing cocaine, the decision was made to cast someone else. Paramount Pictures suggested Eddie Murphy. The studio was initially unhappy with Murphy’s performance in his first film, the as-then-unreleased action-comedy 48 Hrs. (1982)—a film also conceived as a Pryor project. However, that film was well received by preview test audiences, leading the studio to reverse its opinion. Landis was unaware of Murphy, who had been gaining fame as a performer on Saturday Night Live. After watching Murphy’s audition tapes, Landis was impressed enough to travel to New York City to meet with him. Murphy said that he was paid $350,000 for the role; it was reported that the figure was as high as $1 million.
Landis wanted Dan Aykroyd to serve as Murphy’s co-star. He had worked previously with Aykroyd on the musical comedy film The Blues Brothers (1980); the experience had been positive. Landis said, “he could easily play [Winthorpe] … you tell him what you want, and he delivers. And I thought he’d be wonderful.” Paramount Pictures was less enamored with Aykroyd; executives believed that he performed better as part of a duo, as he had working with John Belushi. They felt that Aykroyd working alone would be akin to Bud Abbott, half of Abbott and Costello, working without Lou Costello and Aykroyd’s recent films had fared poorly at the box office. Aykroyd agreed to take a pay cut for the role.
The studio also objected to the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis. At the time she was seen as a “scream queen“, primarily associated with low-quality B movies. Landis had worked previously with Curtis on the horror documentary Coming Soon, for which she had served as the host. She wanted to move away from horror films as she was conscious that the association would limit her future career prospects. She had turned down a role in the horror film Psycho II (1983) because of this. Her mother, Janet Leigh, had famously starred in Psycho (1960). Curtis had performed recently in the slasher film Halloween II (1981) as a favor to director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill; she was paid $1 million for that role, but received only $70,000 for Trading Places. When asked if she had researched her role as a prostitute, Curtis jokingly remarked: “I’d love to say I went out and turned a couple of tricks on 42nd Street, but I didn’t.” Curtis had long hair when she was cast; costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis suggested cutting her hair shorter for the film.
For the greedy Duke brothers, Ralph Bellamy was the first choice for Randolph. For Mortimer, Landis wanted to cast an actor famous in the 1930s or 1940s who was not associated with playing a villain. His first choice was Ray Milland, but the actor was unable to pass a physical test to qualify for insurance while filming. As the start date for filming loomed, Landis thought of Don Ameche. The casting director claimed that Ameche was dead. Landis was skeptical of this and contacted the Screen Actors Guild in an attempt to locate him. They confirmed that Ameche had no agent, and his royalty payments were being forwarded to his son in Arizona. Landis accepted this as evidence that Ameche was deceased. However, after hearing of Landis’ search, one of the Paramount Studios’ secretaries mentioned that they saw Ameche regularly on San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. Landis called directory assistance to locate a “D. Ameche” in the area and made contact. Ameche had not featured in a film for over a decade; when asked why, he said that no one had offered him film work. The studio did not want to pay Ameche what Milland had been offered; as Ameche was financially independent and in no need of work, he refused to take the part until he received equal pay. Landis claimed that the studio reduced the film’s budget, frustrated at Ameche’s casting after a long absence from film work.
John Gielgud and Ronnie Barker were considered for the role of Winthorpe’s butler, Coleman. Barker refused to act if it involved filming more than 7 miles (11 km) from his home in the United Kingdom. G. Gordon Liddy, a central figure in the Watergate political scandal of the early 1970s, was offered the role of corrupt official Clarence Beeks. Liddy was interested in the offer until he learned that Beeks becomes the romantic partner of a gorilla. Paul Gleason took the role; his character reads a copy of Liddy’s autobiography Will while riding the train. Don McLeod portrayed the gorilla; he had already become popular for his performances as a gorilla in American Tourister commercials, which led to film appearances.”
Trading Places was mostly filmed in Philadelphia…it was good to see our fair city back in 1983…the building the Duke Brothers worked in was the Fidelity Bank Building…it had a branch in Abington where Nancy has a savings account as a kid…it’s now Wells Fargo Bank on the corner of Old York Road and Susquehanna…lots of landmarks shown at the beginning of the film…much like the Jonathan Demme film Philadelphia…lots of scenes of Philadelphia during the opening scenes…
I was in search of matzoh…went to the Giant this afternoon…found matzoh but I had to buy four boxes packed together…called Elissa to see if she would take two boxes..we didn’t buy it…I bought a few things…and when I got to the self-checkout, I didn’t have my wallet…I can’t believe I left it at home…along with my money…so I put everything back…and left…best laid plans…it’s a good thing Elissa didn’t want 2 boxes of matzoh…I came home and finished my laundry…
Art Salazar 